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Lawrie as he hits his first career Grand Slam at the Rogers Centre, Wednesday night |
In a night that saw a lot of things like a debut starter, sign stealing allegations and a bench clearing stir up, it looks like Lawrie's successful first series against Baltimore wasn't a fluke after all. Wednesday night, the Rogers Centre erupted as Lawrie was greeted by 20,000 Torontonians on their feet as he hit his first career Grand Slam against the Oakland Athletics. After he hit the 6th inning Grand Slam, the young and tightly wound Canuck ran towards his celebrating teammates and fired his helmet so hard against the floor in celebration that it sent a laughing Edwin Encarnacion ducking at the end of the dugout. Fact is, the kid has always been well-liked by his teammates even throughout spring training, so to see his teammates embrace his success and respond to it like they have is a great sight to see for all Jays fans.
Lawrie's career night overshadowed young Henderson Alvarez's first start as he had a strong game going 5 2/3 innings, throwing 104 pitches. If he had managed to record one more out, Lawrie's Grand Slam would have given his fellow 21 year old teammate his first MLB win. Alvarez is hopeful to take over the injured Vallanueva's spot in the rotation for good, and seems to have the stuff to do so this year. If the guy continues to throw that insane moving fastball like he did Wednesday and effectively mix up speeds, he shouldn't have much of a problem.
With all of this said, the Jays faithful have embraced their fellow Canuck undoubtedly with open arms. Hopefully they just don't forget and disregard arguably the best player in the league who also plays RF for the Jays, my boy Jose. Furthermore, with the likes of Lawrie, Bautista, Rasmus, Lind, Escobar, Romero, Arencibia, Cecil, Morrow and now Alvarez, the Jays should be nothing less than fun to watch for the rest of the season, building a ridiculous expectation for the 2011-2012 season.
By the way, fuck these sign stealing allegations.
