The Toronto Blue Jays continued their home stand on Friday as the struggling Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim came into town for a three game set.

The Angels used impressive pitching performances from Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders & Ervin Santana respectively to cool off a hot hitting Blue Jays squad winning by scores of 7-5 on Friday, 6-3 on Saturday & 3-1 on Sunday.

Weaver (7IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 8K) outpitched Jays starter Shaun Marcum (7IP, 7H, 4R, 4ER, 1BB, 6K) stifling the Jays as he normally does. The Jays have never hit Weaver well as he used his hard throwing side arm motion to fool Jays hitters on the day.

Offensively, the Jays had another fantastic day from Vernon Wells, who was three for four with a home run. Adam Lind also added a home run of his own in a two for four performance and Randy Ruiz also added a dinger, his first of the season.

However, the excellent performance by Weaver combined with the small ball antics of the Angels (three stolen bases on the day) and a solid inning of work from closer Fernando Rodney were enough to keep the Jays from a come from behind victory in a 7-5 defeat.

On Saturday the Angels outstanding starting pitching continued when Angels manager Mike Scioscia handed the ball to Joe Saunders for the start.

The struggling Saunders, who had lost his last two starts to the Minnesota Twins & Oakland Athletics, allowing nine runs over eleven innings, pitched an effective eight innings of work, allowing two runs, zero earned, on five hits, walking one and striking out two.

The two runs off of Saunders came courtesy of two Brandon Wood errors in the bottom of the third inning.

Blue Jays starter Brian Tallet was less than impressive for his third consecutive start allowing four earned runs on five hits, walking one and striking out three. Tallet’s earned run average after Saturday’s performance is an atrocious 6.11.

The Jays managed seven hits in the game, but none seemed to come at a crucial enough time as the Angels used the Saunders performance combined with Kevin Jepsen & Fernando Rodney to close out the game in a 6-3 victory. Rodney earned his second consecutive save of the series.

Howie Kendrick was big on the day for the Angels smacking a home run in the top of the first and going three for five on the day with three runs batted in, two scored and a stolen base.

On Sunday, pitching was the story yet again as Angels starter Ervin Santana battled Jays pitcher Ricky Romero. Both starters were exceptional on the day with Santana (9IP, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 6K) overtaking Romero (8IP, 5H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 6K) in a battle of young arms.

Romero allowed one measly run in the top of the sixth inning when Hideki Matsui doubled in Erick Aybar.

Jays reliever Scott Downs would allow two runs in the top of the ninth (one earned) giving the Angels the insurance they would need as Adam Lind would try and make it interesting with a solo home run to right in the bottom half of the inning. Santana would recover and pitch a complete game for the Angels victory and sweep of the Jays.

Aside from the Lind home run the Jays did not have much from an offensive standpoint, with Santana only allowing four hits.

Newly acquired outfielder Fred Lewis received his first start in a Blue Jays uniform playing left field hitting a double and flashing his speed stealing third base in the bottom of the third.

With the three losses the Jays record dropped to 7-6 as they fell out of first place in the American League East being passed by both the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays in the standings.

The Jays hope to recover as the Kansas City Royals come to town for a three game series.

Struggling Blue Jays right hander Brandon Morrow (0-1, 12.00ERA) will get the ball tonight to square off against the Royals Brian Bannister. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:07pm EST.

For those readers who are interested the Jays attendance numbers for the weekend were terrible yet again with Friday’s attendance at 14,779, Saturday’s attendance at 17,187 & Sunday’s attendance at 14,246. Wretched numbers in my opinion for a weekend series against the popular Angels.

**UPDATE** According to MLB.com’s Bill Ladson the Toronto Blue Jays are interested in acquiring pitcher Jason Bergmann from the Washington Nationals. Bergmann was recently designated for assignment by the Nationals and with former director of Nationals scouting and Blue Jays front office member Dana Brown being very familiar witrh Bergmann the move could come soon. The Nationals have a ten day window as of last Thursday to make a move.

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