Plenty of Jays lumber tonight in this blowout, good defense and great pitching.

Tuesday June 23, 2008. Toronto v Cincinnati, first game of series.

Jays really need to continue winning ways from Sunday’s game but Reds are not a team that should be bottom of NL Central division any more than Jays should be in bottom of East.

Lineups: Toronto: Scutaro, Inglett, Rios, Wells, Stairs, Rolen, Overbay, Zaun and Lind. I like this Jays lineup with Lind at number nine !!! Lots of good bats here IF they can come through. Also interesting to see Scutaro taking precedence over Eckstein since Cito has taken over. Will Eckstein be trade bait ?
Cincinnati: Hopper, Dunn, Griffey, Phillips, Votto, Keppinger, Bruce, Janish and Bako.

Pitchers: Burnett 6-7, Arroyo 4-6.
The very good: The whole team tonight. Twenty two hit attack. Scutaro and Rios four hits each. Rolen, Zaun and Rios HR’s. Burnett eight innings. Defense of Scutaro double play with Inglett. Scutaro really playing well enough to stay in there. What happens to Eckstein?
The good: RISP 11-23 good, in comparison to rest of the season.

The game:
Top 1st: Hopper leading off grounds out, Inglett 2B, Dunn grounds out, Inglett. Griffey at bat fly ball to Rios in RF. Burnett 6 pitches. Great inning AJ.
Bottom 1st: Scutaro singles to centre. Inglett 3-0 here and walks on four pitches, Scutaro to 2B.
Rios singles to LF, bases loaded with Scutaro at 3B Inglett at 2B. Wells at bat, your big chance Vernon strikes out. Not good Vernon. Stairs at bat bases still loaded, sacrifice fly to Dunn LF, Scutaro scores 1-0 Jays. Good start. Rolen first pitch gets hold of this one. There it goes home run to CF. Inglett scores, Rios scores and Jays go out here 4-0 Jays. Overbay keep the line moving Lyle doubles to RF. Zaun at bat there it goes another HR in RF. Overbay scores.6-0 Jays. Lind at bat number nine, singles to CF. Lind carrying on from Sunday’s game. Scutaro singles to CF. Lind moves to 2B. Inglett at bat grounds to Keppinger at 3B. Scutaro out at 2B. 33 pitch inning. Ouch big-time for Arroyo.

Top 2nd: Philips singles to RF Votto with one on. Philips going here, stealing and successful. Zaun throw late. Votto walks. Two on. Come on AJ bear down here. Keppinger at bat 3-0 walks him. Bases loaded, NO outs. Bruce at bat. sac fly to CF. Philips scores 6-1. Jays. One down two on at the corners. Janish at bat lines this one up the middle Scutaro diving to his left saves it with one hand that was a Johnny Mc save. Flips it to Inglett throw to 1B. Double play. Highlight reel. That could have been very different story without that play by Scutaro. 28 pitches now.
Bottom 2nd: Arroyo still in there after seven hit first inning. Rios at bat Wowweee line drive here HR to LF bullpen. 7-1 Jays. Wells at bat, Vernon is missing out on the fun here. Singles here to 3B Keppinger throw too late, Vernon can run. Stairs at bat doubles to CF, Vernon is coming in here all the way, just beats tag at the plate. 8-1 Jays. Rolen now with Stairs at 2B and no outs. Wild pitch now gets Stairs to 3B, not Arroyo’s night. Full count for Scott. Doubles to LF, Stairs scores 9-1 Jays. Eleven hits everyone in lineup except Inglett already with a hit !!!! Goodbye Arroyo. Majewski pitching here. Overbay at bat singles to CF. Rolen held at 3B but could have scored here throw way off mark. Zaun at bat no outs two on. 3-0 count. Pops up to catcher one down. Lind singles to LF Rolen scores. 10-1 Jays. Scutaro at bat, already 2-2 Arroyo is sitting in the dugout in shock. What hit me? 52 pitches 11 hits 10 runs. Another single to LF. Bases loaded. Inglett now your chance. Grounds to LB Overbay scores Inglett out at 1B. 11-1 Jays.Two down. Rios now with two in scoring position. Single will score two here Alex. Full count here. Watches third strike. Not good Alex. But Jays have 14 hits here already. This game could be over already. What has happened to these hitters? Not complaining.

Top 3rd: Bako at bat first at bat tonight !!! an hour into the game. Grounds out to Overbay. One down. Hopper now at bat grounds out to Rolen, nice play on low bounce. Throws him out at 1B. Two down. Dunn at bat, great swing fortunately does not connect here. Strikes him out. Good inning by AJ keeping that ball down so far. Five grounds out keeping that pitch count low so far. 37 pitches.
Bottom 3rd: Jays have to relax here now and enjoy this game. Get their hits, relax those bats, no tension at all. Wells grounds out to SS here. Stairs at bat grounds to SS. Two down. Rolen at bat 2-2. Four RBIs already tonight. Strikes out here looking on a low pitch but he is not arguing this time.

Top 4th: Griffey at bat, you know that everyone wants him to hit one in Toronto, that fifth deck in RF, but wait until the ninth please Ken, strikes out. Phillips singles to RF. Votto on now with one on fly ball to Wells in CF. Two down. Keppinger pops up to Inglett. Another good inning AJ. 52 pitches.
Bottom 4th: Overbay at bat. Singles to right centre. 3-3 tonight for Lyle. Zaun at bat lines one hard and high to CF. Hopper just gets it at the wall. One down. Lind 2-2 chops it high to 2B. Overbay moves to 2B, Lind out at 1B. Scutaro now 3-3 !! in only the fourth inning. Fly ball here to RF. Fifteen hits here for Jays. They will take this anyday. They have waited a long time for a game like this one.

Top 5th: Bruce at bat. Another ground out, this one to Inglett. Janish at bat. Hits him in the back, that would hurt. Bako at bat. Strikes out on inside pitch. Two down. Hopper fly ball to Rios first pitch. 63 pitches. Burnett is keeping count down.
Bottom 5th: Inglett the only guy without a hit tonight, there it goes, gets a double here to CF. Hopper dives but cannot get it. Rios now singles hard to CF. 17 hits season high tide. Wells now with two on and no outs. Wilkerson on deck for Stairs. Wells drives this one to Center, and Inglett scores. 12-1 Jays. Here comes Dusty Baker. Another good impact of this hitting machine tonight is that it is good to be getting into Reds bullpen early in this series especially with Halladay tomorrow. Rios at 2B, Wells at 1B. Willkerson for Stairs. Jeremy Affeldt pitching. Full count on Wilkerson. Grounds to SS double play ball. Rios to 3B. Rolen now 2-3 high fly ball to RF.

Top 6th: Boston losing 4-1 to Arizona, Yankees losing 7-3 in Pittsburgh, Orioles scoreless in three at Wrigley. Rays tied at two in six with Marlins. Dunn at bat doubles one here off wall in CF. Griffey at bat, fly ball to LF. Dunn holds at 2B. One down. Phillips at bat grounds out to Rolen. Two down Dunn moves to 3B. Votto first pitch swing grounds out to Overbay.
Bottom 6th: Overbay 3-3 tonight. Walks on four pitches. Zaun at bat full count, walks. Lind at bat with two on and no outs. Grounds to Affeldt, throws to 2B on to 1B, double play. Scutaro 3-4 tonight with Overbay at 3B. Scutaro fourth hit here singles over SS head into left. Overbay scores. 13-1Jays. Nineteen hits for Jays tonight. Inglett again, fly ball to Hopper in CF.

Top 7th: Keppinger grounds out to Scutaro, one down. Bruce at bat singles to Wells in CF. Janish at bat with one on. Strikes out looking. Bako at bat strikes out swinging over this one. 86 pitches. Burnett still going well.
Bottom 7th: Valentin in at 3B for Keppinger. Rios at bat 3-4 tonight, ex-Jay David Weathers pitching. Lines this very hard off Janish glove into RF. Twenty hits. Wells hit by first pitch, two on no outs. Willkerson at bat 3-0 here. Lines it up the middle great play by Janish gets Wells at 2B. Wilkerson safe at 1B and Rios to 3B. Rolen hit on elbow here. Bases loaded. One down for Overbay, 3-3 tonight. Strikes out there. Zaun at bat singles to 1B Weathers can’t handle it error on play but Rios scores. 14-1 Jays. Twenty one hits. Lind at bat, bases still loaded, grounds out to 1B.

Top 8th: Hopper strikes out, sixth tonight for Burnett. Dunn at bat full count, walks. Here’s Griffey. Careful here AJ. Strikes him out, great pitch. Number seven tonight. Phillips at bat, fly ball to Rios in RF. Burnett 111 pitches 4 hits seven strikeouts.
Bottom 8th: Bill Bray pitching top of the order again sixth time. Scutaro fly ball to CF. Inglett singles to RF. Twenty two hits for Jays. Rios at bat strikes out swinging over pitch. Wells first pitch fly ball to RF. Jays want to get out on the town.

Top 9th: Tallet pitching. Votto at bat strikes out looking. Valentin full count, fly ball to Lind in LF. Two down Bruce grounds out to Inglett.
Jays win this one 14-1. The bats came to play and Burnett didn’t disappoint. Long way to go but they had to start somewhere.

Yankees lose to Pittsburgh but everyone else in division winning.