Winners and Losers from Jays' vs Red Sox Series

The Toronto Blue Jays wrapped up their first home series in 2012, beating the Boston Red Sox by a final score of 3-1 to take the series two games to one. This improved Toronto’s record to 4-2 on the year, while the Sox fell to 1-5.  

Next up for the Blue Jays is the Baltimore Orioles, whom they will host in a three-game series following an off-day on Thursday. The team has a couple of things it needs to work on during that off-day; however, this article will look at the winners and losers from this past series.  

Winner: Ricky Romero

All three pitchers that started for the Jays in this series were great. Henderson Alvarez allowed only one run over six innings, while Kyle Drabek pitched five and a third and also only allowed one run.

Both men had great outings, but the big win for Toronto comes from the performance of ace Ricky Romero.

Coming off of an average (at best) outing on Opening Day against the Cleveland Indians, Romero proved that he is about the future. He came just two outs away from a complete game, giving up three hits and one run to pick up his first win of the season.

Loser: Boston Red Sox

Generally, “loser” is a pretty negative term, but in this case for Blue Jays fans it is a positive.

Starting off with the more obvious choice, the Boston Red Sox have lost two series in a row to start the year, notching only one win in six games.

It is still very early in the year, but as a Blue Jays fan, seeing Boston at the bottom of the division again to start 2012 puts a smile on my face. The Sox are still a dangerous team, and picking up two out of three is a huge plus for Toronto early on.

Winner: Colby Rasmus and the Defense

When the Jays traded John McDonald last year, it seemed like there was nothing to really get excited about defensively. Fast forward six games into the 2012 season and it seems like they have the best defense in the league.

From J.P. Arencibia and Jeff Mathis throwing out runners to Yunel Escobar and Kelly Johnson making plays up the middle, there is no shortage of great defensive play.

Colby Rasmus seems to be the centerpiece of it all. Despite struggling with the bat, he has turned it up defensively and has already made a couple of highlight-reel catches.

If they can keep it up, this will give the pitchers a ton more confidence and it will win a few games for them.

Loser: Adam Lind

Despite making a couple of nice plays over at first base, Lind is not doing what he is in Toronto to do: hit. Toronto has one of the best, if not the best hitters in baseball in the three spot, but the team has lacked a cleanup batter for a couple of years.

Lind had the day off on Wednesday, but played on both Monday and Tuesday, going a combined 2-for-8 with a double and an RBI. He has yet to hit a home run and has only two RBI in five games.

If there is one guy that will get the bats going, let’s hope it is Adam Lind.

Winner: Sergio Santos

You could easily argue that Sergio Santos deserves to be one of the “losers” from this past series. He struggled in the home opener, allowing three runs in the ninth inning and costing the Jays the first game of the series.

This was the second blown save of the year for Santos and with the way the bullpen was last year, these results likely angered a lot of people and made a few nervous.

I give Santos props to how he handled the whole situation. After being booed off of the field on Monday, he came back in on Wednesday in a tough situation to pick up his first save of the year.  

Loser: Ben Francisco

Toronto picked up outfielder Ben Francisco this past offseason and his first appearance of the season came as a pinch-hitter against the Cleveland Indians. Wednesday afternoon marked his first start as a Blue Jay and it did not go as well as planned.

He did not have it easy as the Jays faced Jon Lester, but going 0-for-3 in your debut certainly won’t put you in the “winners” column. Francisco is now 0-for-4 as a Blue Jay.