Travis leads Jays power to huge win over Orioles

Jays v Orioles in Dunedin, back to back games with the O’s.

One guy who loves them is Travis Snider, his first spring home run yesterday against these Orioles and then two more today in his first two at bats as Jays hammer the Orioles 13-3 with SIX home runs. To add to the thirteen they already had before today. Lots of power in those Jays bats.

Two by Travis, two from John Buck !!! also his first of the spring Aaron added one his first of the spring and finally Lubanski who now has two this spring.
Anchored by only two pitchers today, Romero and Evaland Jays had no problem with the Orioles despite their run in first inning. Vernon managed to pull it back with his rbi into centre field. Just put it into play was enough. He is still getting short shrift from some fans but Vernon was hitting .438 this spring before today and has been hitting very well.

Romero had some trouble with his five innings and Evaland was not as sharp as he has been in his previous three games. But with four innings today he has given up just one run in 12 innings and an ERA of .075. That is fine in my book. I don’t think he is starting rotation but is a great long relief guy to take north.

This will depend on where they put Tallet however. I think Brian is a long relief but he still thinks he can start and yesterday made another good bid for that fifth spot. Cito likes him but I don’t think he has earned it yet. I still don’t like the way he ignores the runner on first. Romero seems very confident out there, hard to believe this is only his second season in the majors. He had trouble today but managed to get out of it without too much damage.

Other good performances overshadowed by the power guys were a nice double to centre by Johnny Mac getting a rare start and in fact he had two hits today. Five for the spring in thirteen at bats. He will like that.

Travis had his share of adventure in left field in the first inning but he made terrific dive to get his glove on one that was hammered to left centre. Great effort. He is really flying right now with confidence, great to see, his average is climbing rapidly to .290.

Despite today being first home run for Aaron he has been hitting .444 and getting on base through eight walks. Team leading on base percentage at .706. With Adam and Vernon behind him he is definitely doing his job bigtime. Another great statistic today with two outs, Wells, Buck, Hill and Lubanski all came through with RBIs. Cito will be very happy with that.

Romero’s ERA goes to .193 but I think he will still be happy with that. Jays were helped today by two throwing errors by the Orioles both by Tejada playing at third. Jays were 3/11 with runners in scoring position today and still score 13.

Interesting observation, Orioles pitcher Uehara replaced Guthrie and faced Travis after he had hit two home runs in first two at bats, threw him three off-speed pitches, Travis struck out. I think more than one scout would write that down. Travis is going to have to make that adjustment as he will not be getting many fast balls in April if he can't hit the off speed stuff. But today Travis will still take the two home runs and 4 RBIs.