This one was very strange game. Jays lose but fight to the end.

Thursday June 19, 2008. Toronto v Milwaukee Series finale.

Brewers going for the sweep and their fourth win in a row. Burnett 6-6. 4.90 ERA v Bush. 2-7. 5.73 ERA

I don’t understand why hitters are treated differently from pitchers. A few years ago Halladay was terrible and was sent down to the minors right to the very bottom to start all over again with technique and it obviously worked. So how come hitters like Rios cannot be sent down to find their stroke? Send him down without the pressure to get his head straight. Rios has an attitude, always has but that’s ok if he performs. We can forgive his lack of hustle going to the wall for catches and not running our ground balls. IF he produces. But right now and in fact since the All-Star break last year Alex Rios has been absent bigtime. It would not hurt him to sit on the bus going to and from the minor league games to get that stroke back. I maintain that there is no incentive for him right now. He has the $65 million contract and gets his paycheque what ever he does. It will never happen.

Lineups: Yet another new one for Jays desperately trying to find a winning combination.
Toronto: Scutaro leadoff, I can go with that although I think Eckstein is the only one in this lineup that can see a few pitches at leadoff. Stairs, Rolen, Wells, Overbay, Rios (way down the order today but lucky to be in the team in my book), Zaun, Eckstein, and Burnett pitching and hitting.
Milwaukee: Counsell. Hardy, Braun, Fielder, Hart, Branyan, Kapler, Kendall and Bush pitching and hitting.

Result: Milwaukee (just) wins this one 8-7.

The good: Nothing much until the eighth. Lyle Overbay though with triple and home run last two at bats, he can take that on to Pittsburgh. AND Joe Inglett grand slam bottom of ninth with two outs, and the six run inning to get go ahead run at the plate. This was all with two outs. That is something very good. Jays did not give up easily, they could have folded.

The bad: Where do we start? The bats completely absent against a 2-7 pitcher for seven innings. Burnett but can’t blame him much without any run support. Rios blunder in the field.

Top 1st: Bush ex-Jay. Scutaro pops up to Fielder. Stairs at bat, fly ball to RF. Rolen fly ball to LF. Three up and down.
Bottom 1st: Counsell at bat Burnett pitching second pitch pop up to Rolen. Hardy at bat grounds to Eckstein at SS. Braun at bat, singles up the middle. Fielder singles to RF. Two on, Hart at bat. Triples to CF. Two runs score. Fielder comes home and Zaun cannot hold throw. 2-0 Brewers. Branyan at bat strikes out. Burnett had good inning just one bad 0-2 pitch to Hart that hung up.

Top 2nd: Jays bats have no choice but to get the lead out now. Wells at bat lines hard to CF. Jays bats have hit Bush hard but right at players so far. Overbay at bat, full count. Dribbler in front of plate, two down. Rios now, what will we see from him today? Pops it up to Counsell. 27 pitch count for Bush.
Bottom 2nd: Kapler at bat fly ball out to Wells in CF. Kendall at bat singles to RF. Bush at bat bunts and Overbay tags out Bush. Kendall to 2B. Counsell at bat full count. Walks Counsell. Hardy at bat doubles to LF. Kendall scores. Counsell moves to 3B and Hardy at 2B on Stairs throw to 3B. 3-0 Brewers. Braun at bat strikes out. 37 pitch count for AJ.

Top 3rd: Zaun at bat. Strikes out. Eckstein at bat grounds to Fielder. Burnett now at bat grounds out to Counsell. 38 pitches for Bush.
Bottom 3rd: Fielder at bat full count. Walks but Fielder definitely lucky on those calls. Hart full count. Walks. Branyan at bat 3-0 count Burnett questioning call full count, pitch there it goes three run homerun to CF. 6-0 Brewers. Kapler grounds to Eckstein one down. Kendall at bat lines out to Scutaro at 2B. Bush now at bat grounds out to Scutaro 65 pitches for AJ.

Top 4th: It would be nice to see some run support for AJ but don’t bank on this hapless lot of hitters. Interesting to see John Mclaren fired by Seattle today, will Gibbons be far behind this week? I don’t agree that Manager should suffer but what more can he do with this lineup? How can he motivate Wells, Rios, Rolen, Overbay etc etc etc. Perhaps play more aggressive ball ? Scutaro fly ball out to LF. Stairs at bat grounds out in front of the plate, two down. Rolen first pitch swing fly ball out to LF. Three up and down again. Bush has no hitter going. BUT that is not a great achievement against this lineup.
Bottom 4th: Burnett top of lineup for third time already. Counsell at bat full count. Strikes out. Hardy at bat pops it up to shallow center. Two down again. Braun at bat. Strikes him out. That was good inning by AJ. It must be so disheartening to pitch behind this group. I don’t blame him for wanting out. Truth be told Gibbons probably does as well. There is just no life at all in this group.

Top 5th: Wells first pitch grounds to SS. Overbay at bat no Jays hitter on base yet today. This is NOT Cy Young pitching. Fly ball out to LF. Rios grounds to Branyan at 3B. Bush perfect game so far on 57 pitches.
Bottom 5th: Fielder first pitch doubles this down to RF wall. Under the padding, Rios calls double but no way, Fielder keeps on going, inside the park Home run ? Rios just stands there. Now he goes to get it out just as umpire running out there. Alex really messes this one up. Should either have dug it out right away and thrown that one in Alex then question or wait until umpire gets out there. 7-0 Brewers. Hart strikes out. Branyan full count. Walks. Kapler at bat grounds to Rolen gets Branyan at 2B. Two down. Kendall at bat doubles over head of Wells playing shallow here today in CF. Run scores 8-0. Bush at bat. Grounds it back to Burnett. 100 pitches. I wonder what his comment to Rios will be? That was probably the most knuckleheaded play that Alex has done this season.

Top 6th: Zaun at bat, full count and walks and there goes perfect game. Bush is coming of back to back losses. He is an average pitcher. That shows you how bad Jays are right now. Eckstein at bat grounds to 1B and get Zaun at 2B. Eckstein at 1B. Inglett pinch hitting for Burnett grounds to SS but cannot get Inglett at 1B. Two down. Scutaro at bat, will Inglett steal? No, first pitch ground out by Scutaro to 1B. Bush keeps no-hitter going. I guess the story line will be Rios hitting grand slam in the ninth or something to end the no hitter.
Bottom 6th: Tallet pitching now. Counsell walks. Great start here. Hardy at bat grounds to Rolen, double play ball. Two down. Braun at bat walks on four pitches. Second walk this season. Brewers have five players with ten or more home runs. Fielder fly ball out to Wells.

Top 7th: Bush still on no hitter Facing heart of Jays order here, whatever that means. Stairs, Rolen and Wells. Stairs at bat fly ball to Kapler in CF. Rolen at bat hard shot to CF, gets it on the track. Wells now waves at one way outside, pops it up to 3B. Three up and down, Bush still on a no hitter. He is 2-7 ! on the season, Jays are really hitting rock bottom here today. Something has to happen en route to Pittsburgh. Will JP pull the plug on the Manager? Someone has to pay. This pathetic, listless play cannot continue.
Bottom 7th: Hart singles to shallow right over Scutaro’s head. Branyan at bat fly ball to Wells, not playing shallow this time. Kapler strikes out. Kendall singles through legs of Rolen, error to Rolen. Hart at 3B. Two on for Bush at bat strikes out.

Top 8th: Can Bush continue no hitter? Overbay, Rios and Zaun. Overbay at bat. 87 pitches. Triples to LF. There goes the no hitter. Ironic that it would be Overbay as Bush was traded from Toronto for Overbay. Here comes the goat today, Rios. Has a chance to get first run today. Singles to LF, Overbay scores, there goes the shutout. 8-1 Brewers. Alex has the RBI. Zaun pops up for first out. Eckstein at bat hits Eckstein. Two on one down. Inglett at bat. Need a home run here Joe. 100 pitches for Bush. Grounds out to Fielder. Runners move up to 2B and 3B. Wilkerson pinch hitting, Brad we need a big one here. It has been done before. Strikes out. 105 pitches for Bush.
Bottom 8th: BJ Ryan now getting inning of work Counsell fly ball to Stairs. Hardy at bat, grounds out to Scutaro. Dillon at bat, pinch hitting for Braun grounds to Inglett. Good three up and down for BJ. 15 pitches.

Top 9th: Tim Dillard pitching. Top of lineup to show what they can do here. Stairs singles to RF. Rolen now would like to end on good note. Grounds out to Counsell, Stairs moves to 2B. Wells grounds to 3B. Two down. Overbay at bat YES, YES There she goes. Home run by Lyle to CF. 8-3 Brewers to add to his triple last at bat. Rios now can he add to this? Decks him with this one, puts him on his back, OK Alex payback here. That’s ok, singles to RF. Zaun at bat 3-0 count here. Walks him. Two on two outs and that’s it for Dillard. David Riske now pitching. Jays have shown some spine here in the last two innings at least. Eckstein at bat 3-0 count here. Walks to load bases. Interesting scenario here. Brewers fans getting nervous here. Inglett at bat, just a base hit Joe. Full count. Runners going. YES, YES, YES, YES GRAND SLAM HERE for Joe into right centre WOWEEEEEEEE. 8-7 Brewers. Riske cannot believe this. Torres now in to SAVE this game…. SIX runs with two outs here this inning. Torres pitching Barajas pinch hitting. Infield single up the middle Barajas beats out throw. Pinch runner now Johnny Mc. Stairs at bat if he gets hold of one here, strikes out.

Well Jays make this one very interesting at the end but just not enough.However they can take some hope on the road to Pittsburgh.