Cecil shuts down A's

I was one of the cynics when the Toronto Blue Jays called up Brett Cecil from Triple-A Las Vegas.

But two starts in, Cecil has looked really good.

On Sunday afternoon, the rookie left-hander shut down the Oakland A's to pick up his first big-league win, and the Blue Jays won, 5-0.

Cecil gave up just five hits in his eight scoreless innings. He walked two and struck out six.

Alex Rios homered for the Blue Jays, and had 3 RBIs. Rios' third homer, a solo blast in the third inning, gave the Jays a 1-0 lead, before his sacrifice fly in the fifth upped the advantage to 2-0.

Toronto had a shot to blow the game wide open in the fifth, but Oakland starter Dallas Braden struck out both Vernon Wells and Adam Lind with runners on second and third to end the threat.

Rios added a ninth-inning RBI single to cap off the scoring, giving the Jays a 5-0 edge.

The A's Jason Giambi, who hit two homers the day before, is stuck at 399 career homers. Giambi went 0-for-4 on Sunday.

Braden, who was 3-3 with an impressive 2.50 ERA going in, again didn't receive any run support against the Blue Jays.

This was the second time Braden has suffered a shutout loss to the Blue Jays, and the third time overall. Braden was the losing pitcher in Ricky Romero's 1-0 gem on April 19th at Rogers Centre, and the A's starter also lost 3-0 in Anaheim in his first start of the year.

But the story on Sunday afternoon was definitely Cecil, who helped the Jays win yet another series. Toronto has dropped just one series thus far in 2009, when it dropped three of four in Kansas City at the end of April.

The question now is: when injured pitchers Casey Janssen and Romero come back, what will the Jays do with Cecil?

Send the 22-year-old lefty back to the minors, or keep him in the rotation?

Or do you send Brian Tallet, who has pitched so well in his last two starts, back to the bullpen?

Surely, it's a good 'problem' for the Blue Jays to have.

For now, they are 22-12, tops in the American League. The second-place Boston Red Sox are 1 1/2 games back, pending their outcome against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday night.

Boston and Tampa Bay will play at Fenway Park in the Sunday Night Baseball game.