Carlos Villanueva Outdueled By Arroyo; Blue Jays Drop Finale To Reds

The Blue Jays engaged in a old-fashioned pitcher’s duel with Carlos Villanueva going up against Bronson Arroyo of the Reds this afternoon, and as it’s often the case with games like this, the results came down to the most minute of errors. Both Villanueva and Arroyo made just one major mistake on the mound today; it just so happens that Villanueva’s error was in a slightly worse spot, costing the Jays a chance at the sweep in a 1-2 loss. It might sound like I’m faulting Villanueva there, but I’m not; as he’s done the last couple of starts now, he’s done just about as well as you could ask of a starter, needing just 89 pitches to go through 7 strong innings, scattering 7 hits and allowing a couple of runs while striking out a trio of Reds batters. Both runs came off one bad pitch to Miguel Cairo in the 7th, whose long home run with Joey Votto on base gave the Reds and Bronson Arroyo all they needed to win today’s game. Villanueva’...