There seemed to be an air of satisfaction in the Toronto Blue Jays' locker-room Thursday afternoon despite a tough 2-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics.
The Jays' offence was solid over the 4-2 homestand and the pitching was reliable throughout both three-game series. Trevor Cahill (1-0) proved to be too strong in the finale as the Oakland starter allowed just three hits and one earned run over eight innings.
Toronto skipper manager John Farrell said he was still quite satisfied with his team's performance over the first week of the season.
"We'll take four out of six every time we toe it up," Farrell said. "Our guys showed some resiliency through this homestand. They showed they've got the ability to compete when we're not at 100 per cent.
"We're looking forward to the day that we've got everybody back that we envisioned in the off-season when (GM) Alex (Anthopoulos) put this team together."
The Blue Jays did not have slugger Jose Bautista (personal) for the Oakland series and shortstop Yunel Escobar missed Thursday's game with a mild concussion. Bautista is expected to return when Toronto kicks off a 10-game road trip Friday against the Los Angeles Angels. Escobar, who was injured while sliding into third base Wednesday night, is day to day and will make the trip.
Connor Jackson knocked in the winning run Thursday with a single off Jason Frasor (1-1) in the eighth inning. Frasor had relieved Ricky Romero, who pitched 7 1/3 innings of four-hit ball, allowing one earned run and striking out five.
"We've pitched very well as a whole," Farrell said. "You look back at the six games here and we've been in every game. We've held leads -- today was the exception to that -- but it is just a week into the season. We've gotten off to a decent start."
Cahill struck out seven and allowed one earned run as the Athletics improved to 2-4. He said he enjoyed the battle with Romero.
"I could tell from the get-go that he was going to have a good game and he did," Cahill said. "His stuff was nasty. I felt like I sat down and got right back up. I think you get into a rhythm."
Brian Fuentes pitched the ninth inning for his first save.
"We saw two of the better pitchers in the American League going at it today," Farrell said. "Classic pitchers duel. We felt all along as the game progressed it was going to come down to one push from either offence to be the difference today. We tried to snuff out theirs in the eighth inning but unfortunately it didn't work out today."
With the Jays up 1-0, Romero was pulled early in the frame after Andy LaRoche laced a double off the centre-field wall and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Cliff Pennington. Frasor came on but threw a wild pitch to Coco Crisp, allowing the tying run to score. Crisp struck out swinging but ran to first on the play and promptly stole second.
Frasor struck out Daric Barton before Jackson knocked in Crisp -- who also stole third base without a throw -- with a single just beyond the outstretched arm of third baseman Jayson Nix.
"What I'm really disappointed in is letting Coco Crisp steal second and third," Frasor said. "It was a frustrating outing."
Frasor was pulled after hitting Josh Willingham with a pitch and Shawn Camp came in to get the final out.
After a rather pedestrian first five innings, the game picked up in the sixth. Barton hit a one-out double and advanced to third base on a Jackson groundout. Romero got out of the jam by striking out Willingham.
Toronto scored its lone run in the bottom half of the frame. Catcher J.P. Arencibia hit a double to left field, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a single from Nix, who later stole second base. He was left stranded when Jackson made a fine diving catch on an Adam Lind liner to right field.
Oakland put runners on again in the ninth. Left-fielder Travis Snider helped snuff the rally by throwing out pinch-runner Ryan Sweeney at third base. Casey Janssen got Pennington on a foul fly for the third out. Fuentes gave up a single to Lind before getting Aaron Hill to fly out to end it.
"At the end of the day, you've got to step back and take the positives," Arencibia said. "It's another series that we won and we'll just hope to get better every time."
The Athletics had seven hits on the day and neither team committed an error. A total of 19,528 fans were on hand for the matinee, which took two hours 32 minutes to play.
Notes: Toronto opened the season by winning two out of three over Minnesota. After the game, the Blue Jays activated Octavio Dotel from the 15-day disabled list and optioned fellow right-hander Janssen to triple-A Las Vegas. The Athletics will continue their nine-game road trip with stops in Minnesota and Chicago. They will return to Rogers Centre for a three-game series Aug. 9-11. Toronto's bullpen entered play Thursday with a major-league best earned-run average of 1.00. Rookie right-hander Kyle Drabek is expected to get the start Friday against the Angels. Drabek won his first big-league start last Saturday against the Twins, allowing just one hit over seven innings.
