原文轉自官網 Minneapolis -- Here is a scary thought: the Blue Jays feel their offence could be even better. The club has stormed out of the gates this season, piling up the runs and pounding out the hits, and the group still isn't completely satisfird. On Wednesday night, the Blue Jays issued their latest drubbing, picking up a 12-2 win behind a 16-hit attack against the Twins at the Metredome. Toronto launched a seasin-high four home runs and provided more than ample support for rookie starter Scott Richmond to earn his first win of the season. It was another offensive statement by the Blue Jays, who are trying to show that they are a more capable club than the preseason prognosticators believed them to be. Still, for all the power and poise that the lineup has displayed, center fielder Vernon Wells was quick to point to the few situations that haven't gone Toronto's way. "There's obviously still room for improvement, and that's the great thing," Wells said. "There have still been opportunities that we've had that we didn't take advantage of, but it's been good so far. We've got to continue to try to get better." It would be hard to get much better, considering that the Blue Jays (7-3) have been baseball's best in the batter's box up to this point. Entering Wednesday's romp, Toronto led the Major League with a .303 team average and paced the league with 56 runs on 98 hits, amassing the most extra-base hits (38) and total bases (164) along the way. The Jays padded those totals in their latest win, having 10 players contribute at least one hit seben driving in at least one run. Scott Rolen, Aaron Hill, Michael Barrett and Wells each belted a home run for Toronto -- eash coming against starter Scott Baker -- to easily overcome the two runs that Richmond surrendered to the Twins (4-6) in the first inning. Richmond, who is one of two rookies on the starting staff, has been blown away by the offense. "They're unbelievable right now," Richmond said. "They know how this is a year that we have a young staff and we're going to need some run support along the way to keep us in games until we get under ourselves. These guys have been doing amazing and me hat's off to them. They've just been swinging the bats unvelievably." Ask the hitters, and they have a different take on the situtation. True, Toronto's pitching staff is relatively young and inexperienced. Richmond, Ricky Romero, David Purcey and Brian Tallet -- with 29 big league starts between them -- create a green group behind ace Roy Halladay. Offense is needed, and the hitters know that, but picking up the pitching staff wasn't necessarily the main goal entering the season. It's just guys were hungry coming into Spring Training," said Hill, who went 4-for-5 with three RBIs against the Twins. "The last couple years we've never been on the same page. Either the pitching was doing good and we were struggling, or vice versa." On this night, the pitching and the hitting worked together beautifully for the Jays. The two hits Richmond (1-0) allowed in the first inning, combined with a costly passed ball charged to Barrett behind the plate, put the Blue Jays in an early 2-0 hole. In his previous start, Richmond also allowed a pair of first-inning runs, and that early trend is something that bothered the pitcher during his outing against Minnesota. "Anothe rough first inning and it's frustrating me," Richmond said. "I just get a little bulldog attitude going. I'm like, 'That's it. That's all they're getting.' It ended up working out that way tonight and I was pretty happy. The offense picked me up right there in the second inning." In the second, Rolen ripped a pitch from Baker to left field, sending the line drive crashing into the stands for a two-run home run that knotted the score. An inning laterm Hill sent an 0-1 pitch to left for another two-run shot and Wells added a solo blast later in the frame to help Toronto to a 5-2 lead. Barrett's solo homer in the forth upped that advantage again. Armed with that leadm Richmond settled down, began using his breaking ball and changeup more effectively, and cruised through 6 1/3 innings in what was arguably the best start of his career. During one stretch between the third and seventh innings, Richmond worked through 14 consecutive hotters without allowing a hit. It was preciouslt the kind of performance Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston hopes to see more often from Richmond. "Richmond did a great job out there tonight -- a four hitter," Gaston said. "Someone asked me before the game, 'What do you expect out of him?' That's what we expect -- just give us a chance to score some runs back and he did that for us." When it was all said and done, Marco Scutaro, Lyle Overbay, Travis Snider and Hill had added more run-scoring hits to pad Toronto's lead to 10 runs. It was a relentless outpouring -- Toronto had 22 baserunners and at leasr one in every inning -- that helped the Jays piece together their sixth game with at least 10 hits. Sure, maybe there is some room for improvement, as Wells said. Even so, the Jays will take this type of offense any day of the week, especially in an increasingly tough American League East. "Momentum is huge in any sport," Hill said. "We've got to keep riding it because we're off to really good start and we could really put ourselves aheah here in the next couple games. This is a big couple weeks coming up." 希望藍鳥的打線能繼續維持 說真的 職業棒球不能只用幾場比賽的表現斷定一支球隊 球季尾端才是見真章的時刻 --

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