The Daily J.P. Arencibia to Cooperstown Watch, Day 6: Running and gunning

     J.P. Arencibia rips a shot to leftfield, but he ends up getting thrown out at second as he tries for a double on Wednesday. (We shot it)

J.P. Arencibia rips a shot to leftfield, but he ends up getting thrown out at second as he tries for a double on Wednesday. (We shot it)

Catchers are catchers because they can’t run. If they could run, they would be Craig Biggio and be moved to middle infield or centerfield. J.P. Arencibia is a catcher through and through, so we shouldn’t be surprised when he gets thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double, even though it looked like he had extra bases off the bat.

That’s what happened, though, in the second inning on Wednesday night when Arencibia went for two and was gunned down, quelling the chants of “Cooperstown, Cooperstown,” emanating through SkyDome … Okay, it was only coming from the first two rows of Section 116, but it’s a start, right?

Arencibia was 1-for-3 and also threw out a runner as the Jays won again, beating the A’s 5-3 thanks to a three-run homer from Travis Snider in the fourth inning. Snider’s blast made a winner of Jesse Litsch (1-0) and put the Blue Jays in position for a series sweep. Only 11,684 showed up, according to the official attendance figures (but it looked less than that).

With Jose Bautista still out of the lineup because of the birth of his daughter, the Jays didn’t falter. Marc Rzepczynski pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Litsch and Jon Rauch got the final two outs for his first save.

The Harlem Globetrotters spun some magic in the stands. They never took a shot, which means their shooting percentage is probably still better than the Butler Bulldogs (this one isn’t going to get old for a long time).

Thursday: Trevor Cahill (A’s, 0-0) vs. Ricky Romero (Jays, 1-0), 12:35 p.m., Sportsnet

MORE DJPATCW*
Day 5: OK, Blue Jays
Day 4: No post (off-day)
Day 3: Rope burn
Day 2: Call him Johnny Bench

Day 1: Opening Day hero

J.P. Arencibia 2011 Season Stats:

Avg.: .400
H: 4
R: 2
AB: 10
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 baseball geeks that it’s okay to have a crush on a guy.

Harlem Globetrotters entertain fans at the SkyDome on Wednesday night.

Harlem Globetrotters entertain fans at the SkyDome on Wednesday night. (We shot it)

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