Watching the Jays play the Sox is an arduous affair, given the four hours out of your day that you need to carve out for such an endeavour, plus the psychic energy that it takes to keep yourself from wanting to punch things hard and repeatedly (like Dustin Pedroia's little prickish rat-face).And yet, given the general malaise in these parts, last night's walkoff win was a sweet little pastry to cap off what was a ridiculously punishing, up and down and back and forth affair.
(For god's sake: Look at this win probability chart!)
The sweetest part was obviously the would-be game winning homer and the eventual actual game winning sac fly by rookie David Cooper. Cooper hasn't totally looked comfortable, and came into last night's game with a .111/.194/.148 slash line, and his couple of games at first haven't been bad, but he has had some hesitation in making plays.
But that swing! It has a certain relaxed elegance to it, not unlike that of Lyle Overbay's. (And you can decide for yourself whether if that constitutes praise or faint praise.) His inaugural round-tripper against Boston's behemoth reliever Daniel Bard wasn't so much a mighty hack as it was a confident parry of the bat.
Not to devolve into pollyannaish "Book of Awesome"-style aphorism, but sometimes, as a fan who is pushing back on the jadedness and the cynicism, it's nice to see something new happen.
(And we'll complete shroud over the fact that Cooper entered the game as a replacement for an injured Yunel Escobar, and that he may well get a lot more at bats in the coming weeks if the Jays somehow figure that a one-man bench comprised exclusively of José Molina might not be enough to get them through the next week.)
Yes, now that you mention it, Cooper's swings looks a little Overbay-esque (hopefully more so the 05/06 Overbay and not the 09/10 Overbay).
ReplyDeleteThe way the starters are rolling over the last little while I think that even a one man bench might be too much. Has anyone ever had 16 pitchers on the active roster at the same time?
ReplyDeleteThey could put another pitcher at first base too.
ReplyDeleteHoly Thesaurus Batman!
ReplyDeleteWasn't Cooper's comp actually a healthy Lyle Overbay? A guy who had good on base skills, not much HR power but lots of doubles.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think I'd heard that before. Funny thing is just how uncanny the resemblance is on the follow through of their swings.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see a Rajaj Davis Vernon Wells ticker board.
ReplyDeleteIt's fun watch'n Jose and these young kids battle and win. If they keep getting pitching- they'll keep winning!
ReplyDeleteI agree that both asses have a similar gait walking back to the dugout.
ReplyDeleteSimilar assness spreads faster than 3 years of marriage ever had.