Part 2. Jays v Reds. Sunday March 15, 2009

Sunday March 15, 2009. Jays win 5-4 in extra innings.

Lineups: Reds: Hopper, Dickerson, Votto, Phillips, Bruce, Encarion, Nic, Gonzalez, Hanigan and Cueto pitching.
Jays: Inglett, Adams, Bautista, Millar, Rolen, Lane, Snider, Barrett, Emaus, and Brad Mills pitching. Inglett was playing at SS and Adams in LF, neither of them had very good game and almost lost the game as a result of their poor defence.
Mills went four innings with five hits and five walks. But only two runs.
Frasor had two hits and two runs in one inning. Hayhurst an excellent inning one hit but three strikeouts, continues his 0.0 ERA. Camp, League, Carlson and Martin kept Reds off scoresheet and gave Jays chance to get back in this one. Carlson looked very, very good and as if he were continuing on from last season.
Jays leave twelve on base and that hurt them especially in early innings.
Lane HR is his fourth of the spring and Thigpen’s winning walkoff HR his second.
Jays now have same amount of HRs as last spring and that is without both Wells and Rios and remember Jays also had big bopper Frank last spring.
Jays thirteen hits. Bautista three for three today, obviously the WBC games helped his bat. Ruiz, Campbell and Thigpen all had two hits each. Bautista and Snider both had doubles.

The earlier cut announced re Brett Cecil also included Mike Maroth, Brian Dopirak, Adam Loewen, and Ken Takahashi. I think we will see some of those pitchers again before the end of this season.
The group moving north still remains unclear. In the outfield, Lind, Snider and Lane are in with Rios and Wells. And if Cito gives DH to one them what does Kevin Millar do? More likely scenario will be Snider going to AAA if only to give him daily at bats which he will never get in Toronto. Of course that assumes that Vernon will be healthy. We have yet to see him at bat although he was taking fly balls last week and batting practice. This was the week that front office said he would be back. But if he is still risky then Cito still has four good outfielders.

Pitching is still uncertain, more so with Cecil now cut. Are they going to stretch Casey Janssen out to be starter ? They are very rich now with relief pitching and may not need Casey to relieve. Halladay, Litsch, ? ? ?. Mills did not help his chances today. What happens to Scott Richmond ?
Purcey is still around but so is Ricky Romero who has not had a good spring. Clement is in my book but so was Cecil… Halladay, Litsch, Janssen, Clement and Purcey ???? This week will be very interesting.

Catching becomes clearer each game, Barrett has not starred although he did throw one out today, his all-round defence is not as good as Chavez. Thigpen of course has his bat as shown today but this is only his third hit, two of which have been HRs. They have plenty of chances to showcase whilst Barajas is playing at WBC.