Jays v Tigers. Monday March 22, 2010
This one was over before end of the first inning as sloppy fielding by infield do not help Tallet today. A pop up at first could have been had by Overbay who totally misjudged whether it would fall in or not. Followed by an uncharacteristic bobble by Bautista at third and Jays were on their way to an 8-2 beating by a strong Tigers side. Inge home run in the top of the first was three run blast with one out but if Lyle had made the catch it would have been two out and one on. These little things come back to haunt.
Later on two more Emaus error at second and a total mis-communication between short and third when a throw from left came back in with no one covering third base which of course lead to yet another run. The Jays pitchers were ready to call it quits today and along with some strange (although consistent) calls by home plate umpire made it a rough day all round. Janssen and the forgotten man Jeremy Accardo both had good scoreless innings.
Janssen in particular looked extremely good from my seat. Jeremy brought his ERA down from that 9.00 before the game to 6.00 and gives Cito something to think about in that logjam for closer. However I think decision for now at least has already been made to go with Frasor.
Tallet takes the rap for this one but in truth it was his infield that let him down five innings work with five earned runs but three of those were in the first.
Along with last season’s bugbear poor situational hitting Jays pitchers had no chance today. Jays runners in scoring position? You really don’t want to read this. 2-14 ouch, ouch.
Wells, Snider and Jeremy Reed all ground into double plays.
Cito and his staff have a lot of work to do in next two weeks to sharpen this team up. They are obviously becoming too accustomed to the long ball with people on base to get out of trouble.
They had their base runners today, ten hits, but not much use as Tigers were very sharp on fielding and also turn three double plays to end inning rallies. Jays leave 22 !!! on base today, awful. The Jays runs came from a two run blast by Randy Ruiz, (his third of spring and another two hit game) to actually get the Jays back in this one in the third and make it close but then the Tigers pulled away each inning. Doubles by Overbay, Buck and Bautista but that was it today, never when it counted.
Gathright trying so hard to make the team had one good at bat in the eighth and then stole third but Jays could not bring him in.
Another one trying hard to go north in two weeks, Travis Snider. Travis two hits today plus a stolen base, his first of the spring and looked fine at the plate and in the outfield in right.
Today one to forget but obviously Jays need more work. Speaking of which I have often criticized Cito for not seemingly being in the game. Today he was not only with the team BEFORE the anthems but also between innings came out to speak with different team members in front of the dugout giving advice and also smiling ??? This was definitely out of character. Not quite sure what that means but a good sign to offset that aloofness that the players revolted over last season.
On the other side, one of my favourite managers, Detroit’s Jim Leyland. During batting practice he moves away from behind the cage towards first base but stops to pick up a ball and give it to a little boy sitting shyly watching,a Jays fan, who looked about four years old. Nice touch Jim. Then he continues on to first and has a few words discussing some point with the two first basemen and then continues around the bases into centre field where I could see him demonstrating which way to turn on a fly ball to the outfield in order to get maximum power on the throw.
He went through this several times before continuing back to the batting cage. Jim, are you looking for a job at the end of this season? I am sure Cito does his stuff as well, but Leyland, like Maddon and Manuel always seem to be IN the game. Today Cito was as well.
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