Ty Cobb's been gone a long time..

More later on that one..

Yesterday double header for blogmeister.. Day game Jays Pirates at Knology Park and night game Phillies and Reds at Bright Field.

Jays 4- Pirates 1

Lineups:
Pirates: McCloth, Wilson, Sanchez, Bay, LaRoche, Nady, Paulino, Bautitista, Rivas, pitching Duke.
Jays: Eckstein,Rios, wells, Thomas, Rolen, Hill, Johnson, Barajas,Scutaro amd picthing Burnett.

The good. Burnett picthing and all the bullpen support for five scoreless innings, great fielding and Scutaro in particular, Rios bullet from right to catch LaRoche, Lind, Wells HR, Hill on base three times.
The bad: Nothing on this day...

The game: Top of 1st. Lead off double, bunt to third, Burnett settles with two strikeouts to end inning.
Bottom of 1st. Eckstein double left field line, Rios sacrifices him to 3rd. Wells ground to SS Eck scores. good small ball play. Jays 1-0 Thomas grounds to SS.
Top of 2nd : LaRoche into left field corner and tries to run on Rios... nails him... suicide and his father coaches Jays, LaRoche should have known better. Great throw by Rios.
Burnett goes 3-0 on Polino but strikes him out to end inning. Pitching well.
Bottom of 2nd. Rolen grounds to SS, Hill base hit to centre, caught stealing at second, looked to me like delayed steal he was so late leaving, Reed base hit to centre, Barajas strikes out.
Top of 3rd. two doubles and score is 1-1. Burnett walks next batter two one one out, double play to end inning. Burnett has four hits but is getting out of trouble. Still unable to throw all his pitcehs with that broken nail on his index finger, but pitching well with two pitches.
Bottom of 3rd Scutaro lines off pitchers leg, ouch, but still thrown out at first. Eckstein grounds to SS hustles but cannot beat throw, this guy can run.. Rios grounds to SS three up three down.
Top of 4th Burnett still pitching, two strike outs and a fly ball to Reed in left field. Burnett very good outing considering his finger problem.

Bottom of 4th. Wells HR to left, great hit.... 2-1 Jays. Thomas grounds to 3rd, Rolen flies to shallow right,Hill second single off the top of right wall just missing HR. This guy has made a living of that in last two seasons... Reed flies to right.
Top of 5th. Jason Frasor pitching, immediately the speed of game slows. This guy is SO slow.........
Rivas walks. McCloth single to left, Rivas speeds to 3B, two on two out, Frasor srikes out Wilson to end inning.

Bottom of 5th Barajas pops up to 1st, Scutaro pops up to 2nd, Eckstein pops up to 2B.
Top of 6th Brian Wolfe pitching. Scutaro great throw to get runner at first, Base hit to right followed by double play by Hill tagging runner and throwning out at first. Some great fielding by Jays today.
Bottom of 6th. Rios long fly to CF, Vernon grounds to SS, Frank strikes out... not the best of innings for heart of order..

Top of 7th. Lind and Lyden in for Rios and Wells. Pop up to Hill behind 1st, same play to get the second bat, Wolfe strikes out batter to end inning. Nice innings work. Bullpen is strength of this team.
Bottom of 7th. Luna in for Rolen, strikes out on horrible at bat... no threat to take Scott's job. Hill walks, great afternoon for him on base percentage has soared. Inglett pinch runner and steals second, he has redemeemd himself in blogmeisters eyes from his gaffe last week. Reed hit on full count, two on. Coats replaces Reed at first, might also be replacing him one day period. Barajas hits a bullet to SS great catch and doubles up Ingllet off second, great play.
Top of 8th. Wells pitching. First two at bats Scutaro turns two nice plays at SS, ground ball to Diaz at 3B replacing Luna. Very nice inning by Wells.
Bottom of 8th. Scutaro loop ball over 2nd, Josh Kreuzer hit by pitch, two on, Lind again base hit to right, this guy has been money in the bank this spring, 3-1 Jays. Lyden hopper to first throw at plate Kreuzer out. Watson single to centre, where do they get these minors ? Lind scores 4-1 Jays, Diaz at bat double play.
Top of 9th. Banks pitching for Jays.
Grounds to 2nd, pops up to 2nd and fly ball ot centre, this games is in the books for Jays.

Note on Janssen loss for season. I don't believe that this will hurt the Jays at all. From what I have seen to date, the bullpen has been magnificent and there is a lot of depth to cover this loss.

Now to Ty Cobb above.... the big story here in this area is the Rays and Yankees uproar, following Crawford's charge and breaking arm of Yankees catcher. Yesterday payback by Duncan with high slide into 2B drawing blood from his spikes on Iwamaura. Gomes charges from outfield on Duncan already thrown out of game by 2B umpire.
Duncan says his father had always coached him "to knock ball out of 2B glove" ! (hence the spikes on the thigh ?)
Gomes equally inane comment, "we had always been taught since T-ball !!! to watch our teammate's back" ! (sic) and yes, very sick....
These two meet twice more this Spring and 18 times in regular season.... I guess the good news is that Clemens at least is not pitching for Yankees to provide paybacks. But seriously this Rays team is young, cocky, agressive and very fast on bases. If they start off well they can provide some early upsets.

Night game at Bright Field... Reds all over Phillies 6-1. Home Runs create most of damage.
Lineups for posterity...
Reds: Hopper, Freel, Patterson, Dickerson, Philips, Hatteberg, Keppinger, Hairston Jr., Colina and pitching Arroyo.
Phillies: Rollins Dobbs,Utley, Howard,Burrell, Jenkins, Feliz, Werth (Jayson), Ruiz and pitching Madson.

Great fielding clinic by Rollins at SS. this guy is so good.
Home runs three of them, great starting pitching by both Arroyo and Madson.
So nice to watch a nigh game, this field is magnificent and had crowd of 9,300 sell-out ! This is larger crowd than some teams get in late September.

Note also: Blogmeister gets third ball of the spring, this one courtesy of Phillies pitchers as I watched warmups... thanks guys...