It’s never a good day when you lose 321 points on your batting average. An 0-for-3 will do that to you, and the Jays’ rookie catcher looked a lot less Ruthian on Sunday than he did on Opening Night. Still, J.P. Arencibia smacked the ball hard and gave the fans a charge in the ninth inning when his rope headed toward the seats in leftfield at the Dome. With Travis Snider on first and the Jays down 4-2, it appeared off the bat that Arencibia had tied the game, but his bid for a third home run died in the glove of Delmon Young, who tracked down the liner at the wall.
The Jays did push across a run off Twins closer Joe Nathan but Adam Lind (swinging on the first pitch?!) grounded out with the bases loaded, sending Toronto to a 4-3 loss, the team’s first defeat of the season.
Arencibia’s average falls to .429. He did combine with Snider, his good buddy, on a defensive highlight in the fifth inning, blocking Twins leadoff hitter Danny Valencia from the plate. Snider delivered a strike from left that helped Brett Cecil get out of a jam.
The Jays have a day off before hosting the A’s for three games on Tuesday (7 p.m., Sportsnet-1).
MORE DJPATCW*
Day 2: Call him Johnny Bench
Day 1: Opening Day hero
J.P. Arencibia 2011 Season Stats:
Avg.: .429
H: 3
R: 2
AB: 7
HR: 2
RBI: 5
*The Daily J.P. Arencibia to Cooperstown Watch predicts the Miami-born Blue Jay will be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2033, after a 17-plus-year career spent entirely in Toronto, except for a brief stint with his hometown Florida Marlins that goes awry when he realizes the benefit of the American League’s DH rule for guys like him and the value of the Canadian dollar that will be worth twice as much as the greenback by the quarter-century mark. He belts 440 home runs, evoking Toronto’s latitude (44 degrees north) and tops the homer record for a catcher by roughly 50. He also becomes the first Toronto celebrity to have an entire sorority house at U of T named after him for reasons we will leave to your imagination and captures three MVP awards, two World Series rings and the hearts of more than a few aging Justin Bieber fans, and inspires a good number of fantasy geeks that it’s okay to have a crush on a guy.
Adrian Brijbassi 
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