Jays lose another but one they should have won.

Tuesday June 18,2008. Toronto v Milwaukee.

Toronto needs to recover from last night’s beating. It will not be easy facing Sheets tonight.

Brewers 37-33 had season high with five home runs last night. The most allowed in three seasons by the Jays. Would the Jays could say same one day this season. Brewers are hot right now eight wins in last ten home games and Jays are VERY cold. Brewers are also one of best home run hitting teams in the majors with 88 home runs.
Marcum tonight: 5-3, 2.43 ERA. v Ben Sheets 7-1, 2.72 ERA.

What they said last night.
Braun "It's an extremely difficult game, it's hard to explain, but tonight's one of those nights where the ball kind of slowed down for me and for my teammates as well,"

Wells on the loss: "We're a better team than that. That's the bottom line. No one's making excuses for themselves, we just haven't done what we need to."

Toronto has really shuffled the lineup for tonight, No Rios and Gregg Zaun is back in lineup. Inglett at number two in the order and Wells moves down to five. Stairs batting cleanup.

Tonight’s lineups: Toronto: Wilkerson, Inglett, Rolen, Stairs, Wells, Overbay, Zaun, Eckstein, and Marcum pitching.
Milwaukee: Counsell, Hardy, Braun, Fielder, Hart, Branyan, Cameron, Kendall, and Sheets pitching and hitting.

Result: Milwaukee wins 5-4.

The good: Good first at bat by Zaun. Great HR by Zaun. Fight in the team tonight. Did not give up despite being behind throughout the game. Wells 3-5 although blew it in the ninth. Jays had their chances throughout almost every inning but especially second half of the game. Rolen maybe out of his slump a couple of hits and especially leading off the ninth. I would also give Marcum a gold star again tonight, he kept them in there all night long.

The bad: Still too much panic at bat. Inglett just not ready yet for first team. AND why did Gibbons not pinch hit for Inglett with bases loaded in the eighth? Rios on the bench ? $65 million man. Too late in the ninth. Black mark to Captain Hook in my book at least. Double plays Overbay, Wells and would have been Rios but for Rolen's slide to take out 2B.

The game. Top 1st: Sheets pitching, Wilkerson at bat, strikes out. Inglett at bat one down, strikes out on three pitches. Rolen at bat two down, fly ball out to RF. Ten pitch inning for Sheets. This game may be over very quickly at this rate.
Bottom 1st: Marcum pitching, Counsell at bat full count. Singles to Wilkerson in LF. Hardy at bat strikes out, one down. Braun at bat, strikes out swinging. Fielder at bat, I don’t think he will be getting fast balls tonight from Marcum at least. Pops up to Rolen. Nice inning from Marcum but not as efficient as Sheets in pitches.

Top 2nd: Stairs at bat, first pitch swinging pops up to 2B. Wells now second pitch fly ball to CF two down. Overbay at bat 3-0 count walks on four pitches, one more than both Stairs and Wells combined. Sheets gave him nothing to hit there. Zaun at bat,full count. Walks Zauntwo in a row after using three pitches to get Stairs and Wells. Eckstein now at bat with two on and two down. Grounds out to SS. 25 pitches.
Bottom 2nd: Hart at bat fly ball to Stairs in RF. Branyan at bat there it goes. HR to CF. Brewers off again. 1-0 Brewers. Cameron at bat, strikes out looking. Third strikeout for Marcum but he would love that hit back. Kendall at bat, Marcum hits him on the shoulder on a 0-2 pitch. Sheets at bat pops up to Overbay. 33 pitches.

Top 3rd: Marcum at bat. 3-0 count. At least he doesn’t strike out, fly ball to RF. Wilkerson at bat for second time strikes out for second time. Inglett at bat, hits this one hard to centre LF but out at the track. Three up and down. 39 pitches.
Bottom 3rd: Counsell bunting but foul. Strikes out there after eight pitch inning, fouling off several down the RF line. Hardy at bat, walks him here 51 pitches now. First two have been fouling pitches off and pushing count up. Braun at bat. Lines first pitch out to Eckstein. Fielder at bat be careful here Shaun. Strikes out that was good pitching by Marcum. Fifth strikeout 58 pitch count though.

Top 4th: Rolen first pitch grounds back to Sheets. Stairs now he had better not get out first pitch. Five pitches this time strike out. Two down. Jays are sprinting to get home tonight. Wells at bat full count, hey there‘s a hit for Jays, singles up the middle. First hit tonight. Two down one on. Overbay at bat walked last at bat. Wild pitch here, Vernon moves up to 2B. Full count now. Ball four but wild pitch and Vernon gets to 3B. Two on at the corners now. Zaun now at bat, YES Gregg… doubles down LF line. Vernon scores. Overbay to 3B and Zaun at 2B. 1-1. Finally Jays score in Milwaukee after thirteen futile innings. Good at bat by Zaun. Intentional walk to Eckstein to get to Marcum. Bases loaded. 2-2 count grounds to1B. 77 pitch count for Sheets, that inning was costly.
Bottom 4th: Hart doubles first pitch to CF. Branyan 3-0 count. Pops it up to RF Stairs has the catch. One down. Hart tags and gets to 3B on the throw. Cameron at bat taps in front of plate, Hart scores. 2-1 Brewers. Cameron at 1B. Kendall at bat Cameron stealing 2B. Throw wrong side of bag. Singles to shallow center. Cameron at 3B. Sheets at bat bunts in front, throw to first gets Sheets but Cameron scores. Zaun should have held it longer before throwing. 3-1 Brewers. Counsell pops up to Zaun but damage done.

Top 5th: Wilkerson grounds out to 1B. Inglett at bat. First pitch fly ball to CF. That was awful at bat Inglett. Rolen at bat 0-13 singles up the middle. Stairs at bat strikes out and leaves Rolen at 1B. 90 pitches and that is why Inglett needed to take a few. Sometimes his head is in the locker room.
Bottom 5th: Marcum pitch count only 75 much less than Sheets but…. He would probably take a few runs instead. Hardy at bat lines out to Eckstein, nice catch David, one down. Braun at bat, grounds to Marcum nice backhand grab and throw to Overbay, two down. Fielder grounds to Inglett. Three up and down. Good inning for Marcum. 86 pitches.

Top 6th: Wells at bat first pitch swing not this time. Tries again and there it goes double to the wall left centre. Overbay at bat, it used to be that announcer would say tying run at the plate, but not with this team. Breaks his bat single to 1B just gets him but Wells moves to 3B. Zaun at bat. 100 pitches for Sheets. Grounds out to SS, Wells scores running on contact, Zaun out at 1B. 3-2 Brewers. Eckstein at bat. Lines one to CF. Four hits each tonight.
Bottom 6th: Will it be Marcum or Camp who was up in bullpen as Marcum was ready to hit last at bat. Marcum out there Hart at bat. Fly ball to Wells in CF. Branyan at bat full count. Strikes out on this one.Two down. Cameron at bat gets hold of this one. HR to LF. 4-2 Brewers. Kendall singes to Wells. Iribarren at bat for Sheets grounds to Overbay. Sevn home runs in two days by Brewers and zero for Jays hitters.

Top 7th: Villanueva pitching now, Scutaro pinch hitting for Marcum singles up the middle. Wilkerson at bat singles to right centre. Scutaro running on the play gets to 3B. Inglett now, think this time Joe. Grounds to right Counsell nice play throw to 1B just manages to get Inglett, Scutaro scores 4-3 Brewers. Wilkerson moves to 2B. Rolen now at bat strikes out. Two down. Stairs at bat. Change of pitcher Brian Shouse now Mench pinch hitting for Stairs. Chops it in front of home plate. Thrown out at 1B. leaving Wilkerson in scoring position. Jays just can’t get over that hump and break out for that big inning.
Bottom 7th: Camp now pitching, Scutaro at 2B. Inglett in LF, Wilkerson in RF. Counsell at bat and top of the order singles to left centre. Hardy not bunting, singles to RF two on no outs. Braun at bat strikes out, one down. Captain Hook out Downs now pitching to Fielder.Strikes out great pitching. One more Scott. Hart at bat. Singles to LF, Counsell scores 5-3 Brewers. Hall at bat for Branyan. Grounds back to Downs.

Top 8th: Don’t blame the pitchers hitters. They have kept you in this one. Look at yourselves in the mirror. Produce… Wells, Overbay, and Zaun. Guillermo Mota now pitching. Wells to start full count here. Singles up the middle off glove of Mota. Overbay at bat, I’ll say it. Tie run at plate. We all have our dreams. Reality strikes grounds it to 1B on to 2B back to 1B double play Lyle. His twelfth of the season. Zaun now at bat first pitch HR to RF corner. Is it ever thus for this team. 5-4 Brewers. Tie run at plate. Eckstein at bat. Doubles to the wall in right centre. Scutaro with tie run at 2B. Need a big inning here. Wild pitch Eckstein moves to 3B. Walks Scutaro. Mota out of game. Salomon Torres pitching. Wilkerson at bat full count. Tension here. Walks bases loaded. Inglett now, think, think. Single will score two Joe. Grounds to 1B. What more can we say?
Bottom 8th: Cameron at bat, Downs still pitching. 3-0 count. Strikes out on full count pitch. Kendall at bat grounds out to Rolen at 3B. Gabe Kapler at bat grounds to Eckstein behind 2B. Beats out throw. Counsell at bat full count. Singles to CF. Kapler was running and gets to 3B. Captain Hook put here comes Frasor. Stay tuned. Frasor pitching with runners on base. Hardy pops it up to Rolen.

Top 9th: Heart of Jays order to show what they have here. One run game, can they blow this one open ? score or fold quietly. Rolen, Mench and Wells. Torres pitching. Scott singles to CF. Perfect start. Now Rios pinch hitting for Mench. Grounds to Counsell SS almost a double play but Rolen takes out Counsell at 2B and throw takes Fielder off base and Alex is safe. Wells now bounces one to 2B steps on bag and throw to 1B gets Vernon. That is a double play.

Jays lose another. This one they could have won several times. Vernon gets three hits but not when it counts in the ninth.