Jays win a close one with excellent pitching.

Toronto v Oakland series finale.

Lineups: Oakland: Sweeney, Cabrera, Giambi, Holliday, Cust, Chavez, Suzuki, Ellis, Powell and Braden pitching.
Toronto: Scutaro, Hill, Rios (still in there), Wells, Rolen, Millar, Overbay, Chavez, Snider and Romero pitching. This lineup has five of the first six with .300 plus averages. The one exception of course is Rios at .204 almost 100 points lower than the rest of the first five. You don’t realize how bad this guy is until you see the stats. Not many managers would persevere but Cito can be very stubborn at times.

Interesting sight as Romero is warming up first inning, Holliday in front of us is timing Romero with his swing. He is number four in the lineup! That's impressive preparation.

The good: Romero definitely. Overbay for the winning run and bullpen of Downs and Ryan for closing this one down. Not too many hits today only five per team. Great play by Wells, Hill and Chavez in 3rd to save run.
The bad: Rios on the field and at bat.

Top 1st: Sweeney pops up to Scutaro. Cabrera grounds to Scutaro on to Overbay. Crowd all over Giambi, he looks half the size he used to. Giambi lines out to Rios in right and Alex drops the ball. An easy catch. Don’t tell me his (lack of) hitting is not affecting his fielding. Giambi safe on the error. Holliday with one on strikes out but that is an additional six pitches for Romero. Hope that doesn’t hurt later.
Bottom 1st: Scutaro strikes out. Hill flied out to left fielder Holliday. Rios off the glove of Cabrera. Scorer very generous to Alex giving him a hit here, that was an error from here. But hard to see Alex’s average dip below .200 with his next at bat. Wells grounds back to pitcher Braden throw to Powell at first.

Top 2nd: Cust lines to Scutaro. Chavez strikes out. Suzuki strikes out.
Bottom 2nd: Millar walks on four pitches. Rolen pops up Ellis at second base. Braden wild pitch, and Millar moves to second. Overbay singles to centre, Millar in to score and Jay go ahead 1-0.
Chavez up from Vegas AAA for Barrett who could be out for several weeks pops up to Braden.Snider strikes out.

Top 3rd: Ellis singles to centre. Powell fly ball to Wells. Sweeney doubles to centre, Ellis to third and coming home but out on the relay from Hill to Chavez, nice play all round. Cabrera fly ball to Snider. That hurts now, if Ellis had held at third he would have scored on that fly ball.
Bottom 3rd: Scutaro lines it at Cabrera, there’s an error given this time and Scutaro safe. Hill singles to right, Scutaro to second. Rios with two on and no outs but don’t bet on a sacrifice here. Alex fly ball to Sweeney. Wells fly ball to Holliday. Millar fly ball to Sweeney. Leaving the two hitters on base. If Alex could have sacrificed them over, at least one run would have scored from the three sacrifice flies. Little things at the time but let’s hope it doesn’t matter in the ninth.

Top 4th: Boos again must be Giambi, grounds to Rolen throw to Overbay. One down. Holliday strikes out. Cust strikes out. Romero continues to impress although pitch count getting high.
Bottom 4th: Rolen singles to right. Overbay strikes out. Chavez grounds to Ellis to Cabrera to Powell, double play ball. Romero not getting much run support today.

Top 5th: Chavez grounds to Scutaro to Overbay for the out.. Suzuki infield single to second. Ellis fly ball to Rios. He catches it this time and gets the sarcastic cheers. Powell full count and walks Suzuki to second. Two on two down for Sweeney, fly ball to Wells.
Bottom 5th:.Snider fly ball to Sweeney. Scutaro grounds to Cabrera on to Powell. Two down. Hill fly ball to Sweeney.

Top 6th: Cabrera fly ball to right fielder Rios. Giambi grounded out, shortstop Scutaro to first baseman Overbay. Holliday singles to centre. Cust strikes out.
Both pitchers are quick pitching. This game is humming along.
Bottom 6th: Rios pops up to Ellis.at second base. Wells walks. Millar grounds to Chavez on to Ellis and Powell, double play. That was a very quick inning.

Top 7th: Chavez grounds to Hill on to Overbay one down for Suzuki. Walks. Ellis grounds to Hill on to Scutaro and Overbay. Jays have their own double play.. Romero over the 100 pitches.
Bottom 7th: Rolen fly ball to Sweeney. Overbay fly ball out to Holliday. Chavez singles to right, Snider strikes out.

Crowd has been enjoiyng watching Yanklees losing again but now the video and sight of AJ Burnett giving up th two home runs is received with great applause... Aj donlt expect a great rceeption in May.

Top 8th: Downs now pitching. Powell strikes out. Everyone gets pizza Jays have seven strikeouts today.Sweeney strikes out.Cabrera grounds to Rolen on to Overbay.
Bottom 8th: Scutaro fly ball to left fielder Holliday. Hill walks on four pitches. Springer pitching. Rios flies out to Cust. Wells strikes out.

Top 9th: BJ Ryan now pitching. Everyone very nervous in the seats around me at least. One hit can tie this one up. Giambi leading off and with usual fan greetings grounds to Scutaro throw to Overbay. Holliday singles to Rios. Cust strikes out. BJ is throwing high percentage of strikes and location so far great. Chavez grounds back to BJ soft throw to Overbay for final out and Jays have won another. Great pitching in this one from both starters but Romero deserved this one and so good to see BJ finish it off.

Day off tomorrow and then back again with Texas and Halladay pitching.