Jays embarass themselves and fail to show up tonight.

Jays v White Sox. Wednesday April 14.

This was one of the worst games that we have had to sit through in a long time. Jays were awful no other word for it. They were flat throughout, no spark of life anywhere, and made no attempt to introduce some life by stealing bases. Ruiz finally did in the fifth and it lead to the only run.
Cito has to find some ways to liven them up on such nights as this and maybe play soem small ball, but don't bank on it..

I don’t want to write the play by play tonight it is far too depressing.

On the White Sox side Quentin did most of the damage with six RBIs including that grand slam off Morrow in the fifth. Morrow was off and struggling from the first inning. His final totals were eight of the fifteen hits and seven of the runs in five innings.

But I felt that the first inning leadoff walk to Bautista was a good omen for tonight. Danks threw over continually and yet Bautista never did attempt to steal. It was that type of night, no energy from the Jays dugout and that influenced the crowd. J
ust fewer than 11,000 tonight but they were given absolutely nothing to cheer about all night. The antics of the mascot Ace created the biggest buzz in our area with everyone waiting to take their photographs with him.

The good news tonight has to be the news that Gregg will be taking up the closer role from Frasor. This was no major surprise to the fans that have sat through Frasor this season blowing two losses before tonight’s game.

I was surprised not to see Jeremy Reed starting tonight in place of Ruiz. Leave Lind at DH and put Jeremy in the outfield. If Hill is returning on the 23rd why not give Reed the opportunities to show what he can do? Travis has to sit although Cito said that it was only because of the lefty, lefty matchup with Denk s tonight.

Another who may be soon sitting is Lyle Overbay, another horrible evening and his average down to .088. Cito surely cannot go much longer with him. The important related issue of course is that Lyle is not protecting Vernon and the pitchers are going around Vernon to get to Overbay with a lot of success. If Vernon doesn’t hit, and Hill is not in the lineup, the offence is very limited in effectiveness.
Rios rubbing it in again tonight with his and stolen base. Once again Morrow made no attempt at all to hold Rios on and surely they knew Buck and Morrow knew that he was a threat to steal
.
Sox four doubles and two home runs (including one grand slam) and four walks it seemed like a constant procession of Sox hitters.
Pierzynski’s foot seemed to be much better after the phantom hit last night. Jays players were very cynical about his acting abilities.

Bautista and Ruiz with the only Jays hits. Ruiz also stole second and showed hustle ion the run scored. Bautista Lind and Wells walked but as above Vernon appeared to be semi-intentional to get to the struggling Lyle and it worked Jays get five guys on base but it didn’t help them much tonight. Bautista is definitely not the hot player we watching in Dunedin, maybe it is because Aaron is not in the lineup.

Whatever the reason the .176 average is well below the .400 plus of the spring.
Valdez was not much better with two hits, three runs and two walks in only one inning. He threw very hard and obviously has good stuff but not much control right now. Accardo was marginally better and only Camp and Janssen had success pitching two scoreless innings.

Jays desperately want to quickly forget this one and hope that they can bounce back on Thursday. Dana Eveland with his debut at Rogers Centre.