Yet another beating and missing bats.

Friday April 18,2008
Jays v Detroit. David Purcey major debut.

Jays lose badly 8-4. No bats again, lousy relief pitching, even Johnny Mac error. This is another night to forget. Thomas ??? .166 average.
Purcey is pitching to replace Burnett who pitched 14th inning on Wednesday. Wolfe was placed on disabled list to make room for Purcey. Barajas replaced Overbay tonight, and Johnny Mac was in for Eckstein. Stewart in LF. Thomas remained behind Wells.

Lineups: Detroit. Rodriguez, Polanco, Sheffield, Ordonez, Cabrera, Guillen, Renteria, Thames, Inge and Kenny Rogers pitching.
Toronto: Stewart, Hill, Rios, Wells, Barajas, Scutaro, Zaun, Johnny Mac. And David Purcey first start at major league level. He has been tearing up AAA Syracuse.

Top 1st: Rodriguez double, Polanco walks, Sheffield strikes out, Purcey’s first major league strike out. Ordonez walks, bases loaded. Purcey is one bundle of adrenalin. Cabrera fly ball CF scores Rodriguez. 1-0. Guillen at bat, wild pitch moves both runners into scoring position, Guillen grounds out to 1B. Could have been much worse for Purcey who has thrown a lot of pitches here.
Bottom 1st: Stewart walks on four pitches, Hill pops up to Polanco at 2B, Rios flies out to RF, and Wells flies to right centre. This has been the pattern for last few games. Big bats nowhere to be seen.

Top 2nd: Renteria walks on four pitches, Thames walks, Inge bunts both runners over. Rodriguez strikes out, Polanco walks, bases loaded again for Sheffield. Fourth walk for Purcey in two innings. Sheffield strikes out for second time. Another escape for Purcey, he is really playing with fire and huge pitch count over 50 pitches for first two innings.
Bottom 2nd: Thomas, this time first pitch swing, flies to CF, Barajas playing at 1B tonight, HR to CF. his first home run of 2008 and as a Jay. Scutaro lines out to SS, Zaun grounds to SS. 1-1.

Top 3rd: Ordonez fly ball to Stewart in LF, Cabrera double to CF, Guillen chopper to Scutaro at 3B, gets runner at 1B. Cabrera to 3B. Renteria grounds to SS.
Bottom 3rd: Jonny Mac pops up, Stewart grounds to 3B, Hill fly ball to LF. (first pitch swinging) Who is th Jays hitting coach this season ? At this rate he will be looking for another job. This is awful.

Top 4th: Thames lines to Stewart, Inge grounds to SS, Rodriguez grunds to SS. This is first three up and down inning for Purcey.
Bottom 4th: Rios walks, Wells grounds to SS, double play. Thomas ??? lines hard to 3B. Either Kenny Rogers is the CY Young of the East or the bats are worse than we think.

Top 5th: Polanco walks, four pitches. Sheffield pops up to Hill at 2B, wild pitch moves Polanco to 2B, Ordonez walks, That’s it for Purcey. Captain Hook is out and brings in Frasor. Cabrera grounds into double play. Purcey’s line. 4.1 innings, 1 run, 7 walks, three strike outs.
Bottom 5th: Barajas hit on foot, Scutaro flies to RF. Zaun walks, Johnny Mac lines back to Rogers. Runners at 1/2B. Two down. Stewart triples to the wall in LF, two runs score, Barajas and Zaun (interesting trivia two Jays catchers scoring on same play) 3-1 Toronto. Hill singles to LF, Stewart scores 4-1. Rios ? flies out.

Top 6th: Jays have a lead to work with for a change. Let’s hold it Frasor. Guillen doubles to CF, Renteria griunds out to 2B, one down. Guillen to 3B.Thames singles to LF, Guillen scores, 4-2. Inge at bat, wild pitch. Thames moves to 2B, two in scoring position. This is the guy I would have rather seen go to AAA. Frasor is so inconsistent. Inge strikes out. Prove me wrong Jason please. Rodriguez doubles to LF. Thames scores 4-3. Polanco at bat. Captain Hook takes Frasor out and brings in Accardo. Ground ball to 2B. Threat over but Tigers get one back.
Bottom 6th: The big bats...relax fans. Wells flies out to RF, Thomas of the .172 average exactly the same play to RF, two down. Barajas grounds back to Rogers. Hmmm. Are there any adjectives left to describe this lot ?

Top 7th: Accardo still pitching. Sheffield doubles to LF, Ordonez similar play to LF, scores Sheffield 4-4. Jays had a three run lead in this game once upon a time. Cabrera flies out to shallow RF, Ordonez stays put at 2B, Guillen grounds single right through Johnny Mac’s glove and legs, error on SuperMac. Ordonez scores 5-4. Captain Hook gets Accardo. Downs now pitching. Renteria HR to RF, two runs score. Ordnez and Renteria. This game is way out of hand 7-4. Still only one out. Thames fly ball to Stewart in LF, Inge strikes out. Tigers are taking pity on a totally demoralized side.
Bottom 7th: Scutaro strikes out.. Zaun pops to SS, Johnny Mac walks, that’s it for Rogers. Leyladn for some reason is worried Jays bats might start a rally. Lopez pitching. Stewart grounds to 3B, Sutaro is out at 2B.

Top 8th: Downs still in there. Rodriguez grounds to 2B, Polanco grounds to SS, Sheffield strikes out fore third time this game. Good inning for Downs.
Bottom 8th: Denny Bautista now pitching. Big bats coming up.. chance for comeback inning. Hill, flies to CF, Rios (first pitch swing, why not, nothing else is working for this lot tonight) flies to RF, Wells walks on four pitches, no Vernon, they are pitching around you to get to the feared DH. Now at .169… Thomas strikes out although at least on ten pitch count. Bottom line… three outs. As long as Gibbons puts Frank behind Vernon, hey are going to pitch around Wells to get to him. He has to move down the order and get some protection in for Vernon. Stairs would be ideal but anyone but Frank until he gets his whatever is missing back.

Top 9th: Tallet pitching. Fifth pitcher of the night, (the starters have all gone to ground quick). Ordonez grounds out, Cabrera doubles to LF, Guillen at bat, Cabrera steals 3B, why ??? Obviously Leyland has not seen Jays hitters and needs another run. Guillen fouls off two pitches on same leg, ouch bigtime. Lines catch to Johnny Mac. Renteria singles to LF, scores Cabrera 8-4. Thames flies to RF.
Bottom 9th: Todd Jones in. Barajas fly ball to CF, one down. Overbay pinch hitting for Scutaro ? walks, Zaun walks, Inglett pinch hitting for Johnny Mac, fly ball to shallow CF, Stewart grounds to 3B. Game over thankfully for those remaining.

Jays are in batting morass. Detroit gave them a lesson on how to bring in runners on base. The big bats are not producing and Gibbons has to make changes starting with the DH. Either move him down the order or sit him. Detroit is too good a team to wait around for the current bats to come to life. This Jays team should be consistently scoring 6-8 runs a game.
Another problem now is the stress on the bullpen if the bats are not scoring. Halladay is realistically the only one who can pitch complete games, the others will be straining to offset and I believe this will affect their effectiveness. Instead of pitching within themselves believing that runs will come from this "hitting lineup " , they will be trying to limit runs scored and this will backfire. On top of wednesday's 14 inning fiasco the pitchers are constantly overworked by a Manager who believes in playing the percentages even if it means bringing in a pitcher to face one bat. A pitcher does not come into a game and throw one pitch, they are warming up before. The frequency they are called upon means additional stress on arms and risk of injury. Add this stress together and I believe there is a real chance of meltdown in the bullpen. Accardo's confidence is zero right now. Tallet is starting to strain and lose his early season effectiveness.

Other games tonight. Boston over Texas 11-3. And Yankees lose to Baltimore 8-2. There is too much parity this year in the East for Jays to let a batting slump go too far but this season is looking very similar to 2007.