The weekend of baseball in Montreal was a great success. Over 50,000 people at the game today, close to 100,000 over the two games, and they seemed to have a great. I enjoyed the tribute to the 1994 Expos. Baseball really screwed them.
Brandon Morrow looked terrific. He went 5.2 allowed 2 hits, 2 walks with 8 strikeouts. I hope this is the Morrow we see 32 times this season. Aaron Loup, Steve Delabar and Aaron Sanchez continued the shutout, not allowing the Mets a hit over the last 3.1 innings. The Jays struck out 12 Mets in al. Sanchez struck out the side in the 9th and got the win.
We didn't do much on offense. Daisuke Matsuzaka looked pretty good too. 5 innings, 5 hits, 0 walks and 8 strikeouts. There was a lot of strikeouts, it made me wonder if the lighting wasn't great in the Big O.
We didn't score until the 8th inning. Moises Sierra single, and, after a Ryan Goins strikeout and a Jonathan Diaz ground out, Melky Cabrera homered, giving the fans in Montreal a reason to cheer. Other than that, the closest to scoring either team got was in the 3rd inning, Sierra had a leadoff single, two outs later, Cabrera doubled. Sierra was waved home but was thrown out on a perfect relay, Curtis Granderson to Daniel Murphy to Travis d'Arnaud. With two out it was likely worth sending him, it was a close play at the plate.
We only had 7 hits, 2 each for Melky (double and homer), Sierra (both singles and Adam Lind (singles). Dioner Navarro had the other hit.
Maybe the Jays could make an annual trip to Montreal at the end of spring, at least until the MLB returns to Montreal. It was a great way to prepare for the season.
I'll admit, I'm more optimistic about the season than I was at the start of spring. And more optimistic after watching Morrow today.