Tuesday, March 25, 2008

How do you spell embarrrrassssment ?

The story of today's game... embarrassment, full moon and wierd.

Tuesday March 25 Jays v Rays at Knology Park. Rays win 10-0.

This was THE strangest game I have seen in along long time, all 10 runs scored in one inning, 9 before an out. AND 5 yes 5 errors in the inning.

Good news was that Frank Thomas hit three home runs, of course that was in batting practice.

To the game.
Lineups:
Rays: Johnson, Crawford, Pena, Upton, Floyd, Hinske, Gomes, Navarro, Cannizaro and pitching Hammel... I tell you this Rays side will be no pushover in the season.

Jays: 2nd team. Stewart, Overbay, Rios, Thomas, Barajas, Luna, Coats, Mcdonald, Tolisano (remember THAT name) and Halladay pitching.
I think the Jays thought Halladay could wn this one on his own. No Rolen, Scutaro, Eckstein, Hill ( and it showed) no Wells.

Top of 1st. Johnson grounds to 2B, Crawford single to centre, Crawford running as grounder to 1B . BJ Upton strikes out. Nice inning by Halladay.
Bottom of 1st. Stewart single to RF, Overbay grounds to 2B, double play, Rios grounds to 3B.

Top of 2nd. Floyd grounds to 2B nice play, Hinske stries out, Gomes singles to centre, Navarro flies to RF Rios great catch at the wall. Another good inning by Halladay.
Bottom of 2nd. Thomas strikes out, Barajas single to RF, Luna with hit and run on fouls off and then strikes out, Coats passed ball, Barajas to 2B, Coats grounds out to 1B.
Hammel is also pitching very well.

Top of 3rd. Cannizaro single to CF, Johnson lines one to Halladay great catch throws to 1B for double play. Crawford grounds to 2B nice play, throw to 1B. Another great Halladay inning.
Bottom of 3rd. Mcadonald strikes out, Tolisano bounces to 3B nice hustle down line but 2 down, Stewart grounds to 2B. The calm before the storm....

Top of 4th. Pena strikes out for second time. Upton grounds to 2B, Tolisano isgetting loads of work today... Floyd walks, Hinske grounds to 2B. Echo for Halladay nice inning.
Bottom of 4th. Overbay grounds to 1B, Rios flies to CF, Thomas doubles !!!! to RF centre, as the wag behind me says Frank turns the triple into a double, no matter I will take it. Barajas lines to 3B.

Top of the 5th. Chicken Little was right, the roof falls in. The inning was SO strange I am not sure I have captured it all for posterity but here goes.

Gomes HR to LF, 1-0 Rays. Navarro single to LF, Cannizaro at bat, runner going, grounds to 2B, Tolisano fumbles ball, error, 2 runners on, Halladay in trouble for first time in game, Johnson bunts in front of plate, Halladay throws to 3B, runnersafe and also at 1B, ( he is now wishing so hard he had thrown to 1B) bases are loaded still no outs.

Crawford grounds to 2B (Tolisano remember) drops ball, and then throws away into crowd at 1B. Two more errors. Pena doubles to RF two more runs, Rays 5-0 and Halladay is seething, he should have been out of this inning. Still no outs.... crowd in disbelief...

Upton double down LF line run scores, 6-0 Floyd at bat, passed ball, runner to 3B, Floyd grounds to 1B Overbay.... through his legs !!!! another error, and run scores, 7-0. and still only one out.
Hinske double to CF, run scores, 8-0, Gomes singles to CF, throw to 2B, SS error, and as Hinske had already stopped at 3B, continues to home, another error, 9-0. That is it for Halladay who walks to dugout burning the ground with his stare...

New pitcher Connor Falkenburg. Navarro grounds to 2B an out!!! what's that ? runner to 3B, Cannizaro single to RF, runner scores, Johnson grounds to SS, Crawford flies to LF. mercifully inning is over. 10 runs score and 5 errors.

Bottom of 5th. What will the famed Jays bats do ? Fight back of course and start to whittle away at lead... in your dreams with this team.
Trevor Miller pitching for Rays, Luna strikes out, I don't know what the Jays see in this guy. Coats strikes out, Macdonald flies to RF. I think that is an excellent summary of the Jays bats this spring.

Top of 6th. Downs pitching. Pena strikes out, Upton lines to Tolisano, who knokcks ball down and saves double, but incredibly still in the game !!!! can anyone else play 2B? His confidence level must be ruined for life. Floyd pops up to catcher, Guzman pinch htting strikes out, very nice inning by Downs, Jays really needed that one.
Bottom of 6th. Tolisano at bat, the crowd is merciful to the guy, how would YOU like to be in his shoes right now? Glover pitching. Tolisano flies to LF, Stewart strikes out, Overbay single to LF, Rios flies to RF. The bats have come to life.....

Top of 7th. Frasor pitching. Gomes grounds to 3B, Weber walks, Cannizaro lines to Puna who makes nice catch, Johnson single to CF, Rodriguez strikes out.
Bottom of 7th. Wheeler pitching. Attendance announced at 4,130 still half full amazing or just masochistic ?
Thomas (getting more bp) strikes out. Barajas grounds to SS, Luna flies to RF... WOW... and JP believes this team can contend..... by the way JP has already left his seat behind home plate. Has more work to do on Rios' contract.

Top of 8th. Accardo pitching. Difeluce strikes out, Richard strikes out. Riggins grounds to 2B. Nice pitching Jeremy.
Bottom of 8th. Reyes pitching. Coats flies to CF, Johny Mac flies to CF, Klosterman (new 2B for Tolisano who is now on the bus out of town) flies to LF.

Top of 9th. Zach Giles pitching friends.... Guzman grounds to 2B, Padroza hard liner to 2B, great catch, that is Klosterman.. where was he earlier in game? Weber flies to LF. Good inning by Giles.
Bottom of 9th. Troy Percival pitching. Big comeback by Jays with heavy bats at plate. Stewart, Overbay and Rios. Stewart singles to centre and tries for double, is thrown out a mile, what a bonehead play by Stewart. Overbay strikes out, Rios strikes out.

Rays 10 runs (in one inning) 12 hits ad no errors.
Jays 0 runs, 5 hits, and 5 errors... must be a MLB record somewhere.

Hard to analyse this one but obviously Roy did not pitch badly, he had no chance with that many errors. Tolisano is not for the majors.
Bullpen good, once again scoreless innings.

Looks like Hinske might be Rays 3B. Makes sense to Maddon now that Longoria is at AAA. The outfield is set and Hinske is playing well. A way to get his bat into lineup and he did play 3B for Jays.
This Rays team I say it again is a good young team and full of swagger and confidence right now leading the league. I agree with Maddon they can take that into the regular season whereas Jays have nothing to take apart from good pitching.

Jays bats, what more can be said ? I have seen Cito Gaston around camp but he was not visible today, he may be more involved with younger guys and if he is he is doing a very good job, they have been highlight of the spring so far. Lind, Lydon, Coats and Snyder to name a few.
But first team heavies have disappeared. Six home runs this spring and Scutaro and Eckstein with two of them are hardly the heavies.

I also have a suggestion for Frank and that is to dump his iron bar. Swinging that thing before his at bats is not helping him. His timing is shot when he goes to bat, swinging through most of his pitches. Nothing to lose Frank.

Fireworks tomorrow evening, perhaps an opportunity for some hiting of timber by the big guys.

2 comments:

jess said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jess said...

whoops! it seems as though i don't know how to work this "blog" thing.
what i meant to say was that i hope the jays get their act together for the regular season because between this game and the pathetic performances i saw against the yankees and the phillies, the jays won't stand a chance against the big boys in the AL.....