Cito gambles and loses this one. Vernon continues great hitting.

Boston v Toronto. Sunday August 24, 2008. Series finale.

Preview: another must win to keep Boston in sight. These teams have two more series against each other and the games will be big for Boston if they are chasing wild card. On the other hand if Jays can take majority then they also will be in good position. They need to take advantage of yesterday’s drubbin on the red Sox. Another huge crowd two hours before the game but his could also be helped with the giveaway promo to the first 10,000. Very clever marketing as there will be almost 9,000 of those bags being used in Boston and south of the border after this weekend, promoting both Toronto and the Jays along with the fast food provider sponsor.
Roof is closed as storms are forecast but it is very humid under the roof. Should be an excellent pitching match up, at least it is on paper but then who knows with these Jays? They win the hard ones when their fans are about to give them up.

Note for Phukhet Jay, Aaron Hill is out for the season and unsure about continuing although doctors say he could wake up fine one morning just like that.

Lineups:Boston: Ellsbury, Pedroia, Ortiz, Youkilis, Bay, Lowrie, Varitek, Cora, Crisp and Matsuzaka pitching.
Toronto: Inglett, Scutaro, Rios, Wells, Lind, Overbay, Stairs, Barajas, McDonald and Burnett pitching.

The very good: Wells went 6-for-9 with three home runs and six RBIs in the last two games of the series. Overbay also drove in six rbis against Boston during the weekend, hitting his 11th home run on Sunday.
The good: Nine hits and spread out in the lineup. Downs and Ryan, both perhaps could have pitched more, Ryan only pitched nine pitches. Lyle Overbay also drove in six against Boston during the weekend set, hitting his 11th home run on Sunday.
The bad: Jays left five on base and were 1/6 with runners in scoring position. Manager today could not manage the pitchers and subsequently lost this winnable game. One of the knocks against Cito in his last stint as manager was that he could not manage the pitching staff. He was basically a hitting coach and had some great strengths particularly coaching of the younger guys, this has certainly been seen with the progress of Lind. But his handling of the pitching is another matter and may well be the reason this team may not get wild card. Today he should have lifted Burnett after six on pitch count alone. Plus Jays had just tied the game up and had loads of momentum, it was a hot day and Burnett had been out there a long time in some of the innings. And tomorrow is an off day and thus he could use all of his bullpen one hitter at a time if he needed. I maintain that was one of if not THE key decision and turning point of the game against Toronto’s favour. Inglett, Lind and McDonald hitless.

The game: Top 1st: Red Sox first. Ellsbury at bat strikes out. Pedroia at bat, one down grounds to Inglett 2B throw to Overbay, two down. Ortiz at bat strikes out. God start for Burnett.
Bottom 1st: Inglett leadoff today again strikes out. Scutaro at bat singles to LF, one on, one down.. Rios at bat pops up Cora at SS. Wells yesterday’s hero, YES Vernon, hammers this second pitch and home run to LF, Scutaro and Wells score. Just like yesterday Jays taje a two rub lead in the first inning. 2-0 Jays. Lind at bat fly ball out to Bay in LF.

Top 2nd: Youkilis at bat grounds to McDonald throw to Overbay. One down. Bay at bat singles to CF. Lowrie at bat grounds to Inglett throw to McDonald on to Overbay, Double play ball.
Bottom 2nd: Overbay at bat doubles to RF. Stairs at bat lines out to Youkilis. Barajas at bat strikes out. McDonald at bat strikes out. That was awful, Jays had Overbay in scoring position with no outs and could not bring him in.

Top 3rd: Varitek grounds to Inglett on to first baseman Overbay. One down. Cora full count.walks one on one down. Crisp full count walks him Cora moves up to 2B. Ellsbury lines out Inglett. Two down and two on. Pedroia home run to left field on first pitch, Cora scored, Crisp scored. Boston takes the lead with one swing. 3-2 Boston. Ortiz doubles to RF. More trouble for Burnett
Youkilis at bat singles to CF, Ortiz scores easily. 4-2 Boston. Bay singles to LF Youkilis to 2B. Lowrie fly ball out to Wells for third out but that is a huge inning for Boston and not so good for Jays and AJ.
Bottom 3rd: Inglett grounds to Pedroia throw to first baseman Youkilis. Scutaro fly ball out to Crisp in CF. Rios strikes out.

Top 4th:Varitek strikes out.One dow. Cora grounds to Inglett throw to Overbay, two down.Crisp strikes out. Good inning from AJ.
Bottom 4th : Wells strikes out. One down. Lind fly ball out to RF Ellsbury. RElsbuiry makes a greart catch up against the RF bullpen fence but is hurt on the play. He hit his head against the fence and appears to suffer a cut above his sunglasses. This is a long delay and the crowd is getting restless, now booing. Consensus around me at least is that Ellsbury should either leave the game or get back in. He gets back in but that must be a twenty minute delay which is not appreciated by the fans and least of all by the rest of his teammates standing around in the heat. Overbay rested now hammers this one to RF. Number eleven HR for Overbay. 4-3 Boston. Stairs singles to CF. Barajas grounds to Lowrie throw to Pedroia, Stairs out at 2B.

Top 5th: Ellsbury fly ball out to Wells.One down for Pedroia. Full count and walks. Ortiz fly ball out to Lind. Youkilis grounds to Scutaro throw to Overbay for third out.
Bottom 5th: McDonald strikes out. Inglett strikes out.Scutaro grounds to pitcher Matsuzaka to shortstop Cora to first baseman Youkilis.

Top 6th: Bay strikes out. Lowrie strikes out. Varitek singles to center. Cora lines out to second baseman Inglett.
Bottom 6th Rios singles to LF. Wells does it again here, doubles to CF, Rios scores and games is tied. 4-4. No outs. Lind grounds to Pedroia throw to Youkilis to get Lind, Wells moves to 3B. Overbay strikes out. Two down. Stairs intentionally walked here to get to Barajas. Barajas doubles to left, Wells scored, and Jays go ahead 5-4 Stairs to third. Stairs is coming home but out at the plate, Bay to Lowrie to catcher Varitek. Stairs appeared safe on the play.

Top 7th: Burnett still pitching Crisp at bat, gets hold of second pitch and this one has gone. homered to right RF. This is only his second HR of the season. 5-5. This really hurts the momentum had swung back to Jays, the crowd was in the game and there were just nine more outs. Why is Burnett out there to start the inning? he is over 100 pitches, he had the lead, turn it over to bullpen, there is a day off tomorrow Cito, so take four or five guys to get the last nine outs. You can feel the enthusiasm go out of the crowd. Jays are not out of it, but that run hurts.
Ellsbury grounds to Scutaro throw to Overbay for first out. Pedroia grounds to Scutaro to first baseman Overbay. Ortiz strikes out. But damage is done.
Bottom 7th:Masterson pitching. McDonald lines out to Pedroia. Inglett fly ball out to Ellsbury. Scutaro with two down singles to left. Rios with one on, fly ball out to Crisp in CF.

Top 8th: Downs pitching. An inning too late, but Cito gives his pitchers time to get out of their own mess. Youkilis pops out to Inglett. Bay grounds to Downs throw to Overbay. Two down. Lowrie grounds to Inglett throw to Overbay for third out.
Bottom 8th: Wells grounds to Lowrie throw to Youkilis for the out. Okajima now pitching with one down. Lind fly bal out to Bay. Overbay strikes out.

Top 9th: Varitek singles to CF. Cora bunts to Scutaro on to shortstop McDonald, Varitek out. Crisp grounds to McDonald throw to Inglett, Cora out at 2B. Ellsbury strikes out. One last chance for Jays hitters but it should not be like this, Jays have only themselves to blame,
Bottom 9th: Francon goes to bullpen as soon as Stairs is announced, Bautista now pinch-hitting for Stairs. Papelbon pitching. Bautista grounds throw to Cora to Youkilis. Barajas grounds to Lowrie to first baseman Youkilis. McDonald grounds to Cora to Youkilis at 1B. This game is going to extra innings.

Top 10th: Bautista in as designated hitter. Ryan pitching. Pedroia grounds to Scutaro to first baseman Overbay. Ortiz pops out to second baseman Inglett. Third out: Youkilis grounds to Scutaro throw to first baseman Overbay.
Bottom 10: Inglett grounds out to Youkilis, one down. Scutaro fly ball out to Ellsbury today because Rios fly ball out to Bay. Jays go very meekly but not helped by Inglett’s poor swing on first pitch.

Top 11th: League pitching. Bay flied out to Rios. Lowrie homered to RF 6-5 Boston.
Varitek strikes out. Cora grounds to Inglett throw to Overbay for the third out. But damage is done.
Bottom 11th: Delcarmen pitching. Wells full count walks Lind grounds to Youkilis to shortstop Cora, Wells out at 2B but takes out Cora no chance for double play.
Overbay fly ball out to Crisp. Two down for Bristol. Bautista strikes out.

They said: Francona on Lowrie: "He continues to impact the game and we'll take it. We need it. He's stepped in and been a valuable member of our ball club."
Francona on the win: "It was a great win. We need all the wins we can get because we're in a real battle right now."

Bay on the win: "It was a big win because the Blue Jays have been playing great and they are one of the teams trying to catch us,"
Francona on Wells HR: "The minute you make a mistake, Vernon Wells hits it 400 feet,"
Burnett on the loss: "The bottom line is that this loss is my fault. We needed this one and I didn't come through."