Wednesday April 23 2008, Jays v Rays in Orlando at Champions Field.
Rays win 5-3.
The good: Jays can’t fall any lower than bottom of the division where they are tonight. Matt Stairs 3 rbis two Home Runs. Halladay for six of eight innings tonight.
The good news, Rolen may join the team after this series and had two hits in Dunedin rehab game.
The bad: Bats once again, twice again and forever. Diaz should not even be in the lineup with an approach like that. No Rios, No Overbay, No Scutaro… what is Gibbons doing to this team?
The ugly. The bats many times over.
Lineups: Jays: Eckstein, Stewart, Hill, Wells, Stairs, Barajas, Zaun, Diaz and Inglett will give fright to any minor league opposition. Halladay pitching tonight but he can’t do it on his own. It usually needs runs to win a game.
Rays: Iwamura, Crawford, Upton, Pena, Longoria, Hinske, Gomes, Navarro and Bartlett. An excellent lineup and we have said this since day 1 of Spring training, Joe Maddon has this team ready to compete and they are deservedly routing the Jays. This is the team that did a double steal first inning of the first game of spring training. Aggressive,talented, young and fearless, I say no more.
The game: Top 1st: Eckstein walks on four pitches. Stewart grounds to 3B. . Take a look at Reed Johnson’s average with the Cubs? Ouch JP… Cubs are smoking and so is Reed. Eckstein moves to 2B. Hill bones one to SS. Eckstein moves to 3B. Wells ???? strikes out.
Bottom 1st: Halladay pitching Iwamura grounds to SS, Crawford grounds to Hill, Upton strikes out.
Top 2nd: Stairs HR to RF. 1-0 (Hello Frank wherever you are. ) Barajas playing tonight for Overbay, breaks bat in pop up to SS, Zaun grounds out to 2B, Diaz DH for tonight, first pitch swinging grounds to 2B. Where do they get these guys from ? Adam hurry up please… Jays 1-0.
Bottom 2nd: Pena single to CF, Longoria grounds to 3B, double play. Hinske with five ??? home runs already this season in RF, hello Alex ??? how are you feeling? Probably not as sick as JP watching his $100 million in action. Hinske fly ball to Stairs.
Top 3rd: Inglett walks, Eckstein bunts Inglett to 2B, Stewart walks, did you know that Jays are number 1 in walks this season to date ? Hill grounds out, Wells grounds to SS. Leaves two on. What do they have to do to bring one in?
Bottom 3rd: Gomes infield single, Navarro grounds out to Eckstein double play, second in two innings by Jays. Something is going right for them at least. Bartlett grounds to 3B. Halladay cruising, so far.
Top 4th: Stairs hammers one deep to LF, almost Matt. Barajas fly ball to CF, Zaun walks, Hammel’s fourth so far this game. Diaz again first pitch swinging and worse still after the walk to Zaun, lines out to CF. I can’t wait until Lind arrives.
Bottom 4th: Iwamura single to CF, Crawford grounds to 1B Barajas steps on 1st to get Crawford rather than lead runner at 2nd. Good decision, he doesn’t want Crawford running around out there, Halladay throws one behind Upton, definitely not intentional. Great catch by Zaun to save a base. Upton fly ball to CF, Iwamura to 3B. Zaun has saved a run by that earlier play, Pena strikes out.
Top 5th: Inglett single to LF. Joe is making the most of his at bats until Rolen returns, both with glove and the bat. Inglett stealing on first pitch, throw not in time. Stewart at bat, Inglett goes again and gets into 3B, two steals back to back. I think Gibbons realizes he has to score runs without hits … Novel. Stewart pops up to 3B, Hill grounds to Longoria at 3B. These guys can’t buy a run.
Bottom 5th: Longoria grounds to 3Bbobblsball but still throws out runner, Hinske pops up to 3B, Gomes grounds to SS. Quick short one for Halladay only five pitches… If only he could bat as well.
After five innings, Hammel 79 pitches and four walks, Halladay 53 pitches.
Top 6th: Wells singles to LF, Stairs HR to RF, his second of the game and he also hammered the ball in last at bat. Two runs score Jays up 3-0. Looking better ? Barajas grounds to SS, Zaun grounds to 1B, Diaz grounds to 1B. Ah well….. for a moment there it looked good.
Bottom 6th: Halladay now with 3-0 lead. Navarro lead off dribbler to 3B safe at 1B, Bartlett singles to RF, Navarro at 3B. Iwamura strikes out, one down two on. Crawford singles to CF, one run scores, 3- 1. Upton walks, bases loaded. Pena strikes out, two down. Longoria singles to RF, two runs score, this game is tied 3-3 and Halladay has given up three run lead just like that. Déjà vu all over again. Hinske at bat, single to RF run scores 4-3 Rays. Arnsberg out to visit Roy, calm down Roy the big bats will save you. Lots of time still. Gomes pops up to Hill. Halladay 34 pitch inning.Ouch.
Top 7th: Hammel is gone with lead. Wheeler pitching. Inglett fly ball to LF, Eckstein singles to LF, Stewart grounds to 3B, double play ball…. What wag mentioned Reed Johnson?
Bottom 7th: Navarro grounds to 2B, Bartlett pops to Hill, Iwamura grounds to 3B. Halladay recovers this inning but is it already too late? With the way the bats are hitting or rather not hitting this game is probably over.
Top 8th: Hill grounds to 3B, Wells singles to CF, second hit for Vernon tonight but still no power. Stairs again, has been hammering the cover off the ball tonight. Average back to .340. Another long fly ball to the wall in LF. Barajas grounds to SS. Now all they have to do is beat Percival in the 9th.
Bottom 8th: Halladay determined to finish this one his third complete game in last three. Crawford lead off triple to CF wall, Upton sac fly to CF wall, run scores 5-3 Rays. Pena grounds to 1B, Longoria grounds to Hill at 2B. That’s it Roy for tonight at least.
Top 9th: Percival closing second night in a row. Zaun lines out to RF but a gutsy at bat, takes nine pitches to get him, Diaz strikes out, this was one great night for this guy, surely Manager Gibbons there was someone on the bench to pinch hit for the poor guy. Where was Scutaro or Overbay even Johnny Mac ? Inglett last chance, fly ball to LF.
This game is over. Rays deserve this one, they outplayed Jays with their bats and pitching (again) and will be going for an easy sweep tomorrow unless someone clones Matt Stairs.
Horrible. As the Queen once said…. This year is annus horribulus or words to that effect. Something has to be done.
Or is the party line to stand firm, stiff upper lip until Rolen and Lind arrive ? Two below 500 now…. And everyone to overtake to get to the top. This type of play will not sell many tickets for Mr Rogers. No hustle, no swagger, no confidence, no hits, the world is flat in Jays land.
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1 comment:
sigh. the jays have been breaking my heart lately. i agree with everythingyou said dad. except apparently overbay and rios were out because they are sick. rios has the flu and overbay has a sore ankle. i had to turn off the game again because it was so painful to watch.
my one positive comment: way to go stairs!! seems like he is a solid replacement for thomas. at least someone was doing their job tonight.
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