In an occurrence roughly as rare as one of my pickup lines actually working on a woman, Vernon Wells was clutch in the season opener against the Rangers today. Clutch meet Vernon. Vernon meet Clutch. In his very first at bat, the $126 million dollar man blasted a 2 run shot off Scott Feldman, finishing 3 for 4 with 3 runs batted in. Last year it took him a grand total of 7 games to reach that home run and RBI total.The most important aspect of Vernon's fine performance was his clutch (has that word ever been mentioned in the same sentence with Vernon before?) hit during a tense tie ball game in the 8th inning. After falling behind by two strikes and facing a bases loaded situation with 1 out, it seemed a certainty Wells would strike out, pop out, ground into a double play, or any combination of a play resulting in him strolling back to the dugout. Yet he came through, driving in the go ahead run with a sharply hit base rap. Those are the kinds of hits he'll be judged on all year. Not the 2 run blasts he might rack up in the first inning, but the important run scoring plays late in contests.
I've said a few times to colleagues of mine, tongue firmly planted in cheek, that the biggest reason why Vernon Wells will do so well this year is because the Jays are expected to be out of contention by the end of May. As history has depicted to us several times, he starts to show up just in time for when the club is playing out the string in late summer baseball. However this year I believe it'll be different, as I wrote about last week. The main reason being because Wellsy is healthy heading into a campaign for the first time in years. Today's showing is an early indication of what might be in store for Vernon and the Jays offense this season. If Wells turns out to fall flat on his face, feel free to reference this post of mine. It's entirely possible. After all, Wells and Clutch just met today.
