ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. - ST. PETERSBURG — If Tropicana Field has been a house of horrors for the Blue Jays, then Matt Garza has been the guy in the Frankenstein mask.
For three years, the Jays have been finding nothing but grief under the big top and more often than enough, it’s been Garza on the mound making them look foolish.
Not this time. For a change, the Jays made Garza look like the chump on their way to a 6-5 victory — their sixth road victory in seven games this season — behind lefty callup Brett Cecil.
Cecil, one of the last cuts in spring training, was impressive in his season debut, filling in for injured Brian Tallet. He worked 62/3 strong innings, gave up six hits against the hot-hitting Rays, who came into the game leading the league in runs scored.
“He pitched a great ballgame for us,” said manager Cito Gaston. “To stop that offence over there is a tall order and he brought it home.
“He’s so calm out there. It’s funny how things work out sometimes. Maybe it was for the best when he cut his finger in spring training. It forced him to leave his curve alone and just throw fastballs and changeups. I think he realized how good his changeup could be.”
Unfortunately, the last of his 94 pitches was belted into the left field seats by Gabe Kapler to get the Rays to within two runs.
Tampa got another run back against Jason Frasor in the eighth inning but that’s where the rally stopped, with Kevin Gregg getting the last four outs for his fifth save, despite a two-out double by Carl Crawford in the ninth.
Toronto stepped on Garza for four quick runs in a bat-around first inning.
The first time Garza ever faced the Jays, he was wearing a Minnesota Twins uniform as a rookie in 2006 and the Jays sauteed him for eight hits and seven earned runs in 22/3 innings. But since he was traded to the Rays after the 2007 season, he has tormented Toronto hitters. Going into Friday night’s game, he was 6-2 against the Jays with an 0.92 ERA in 661/3 innings with Tampa.
Coming out of that first inning, Garza’s microscopic ERA as a Ray versus Toronto had more than doubled. He walked two of the first three men he faced, Vernon Wells doubled home a run and Alex Gonzalez singled home two more. Jose Bautista delivered the fourth run with the first of his three
doubles and, by inning’s end, Garza had thrown 41 pitches.
“I’m baffled myself,” said Garza. “Over my history, I’ve had good stuff against these guys. Tonight, they just seemed hungrier than I was.”
There is also a comfort level on this club when Aaron Hill is in the lineup.
The star second baseman, who had been out since the second day of the season with a hamstring injury, went 1-for-4, but hit a sixth-inning home run off reliever Grant Balfour.
“When he’s not in the lineup, it’s kind of messed up,” said Bautista of Hill. “When he’s not there, we’ve got a big hole. Gonzalez did a good job filling in, but it’s not quite the same.”
“It’s only been four or five days out of the routine but it seemed like a couple of months,” Hill said. “It’s nice to be back.”
