Jays lose a heartbreaker

Opening Day. April 5-2010. Jays v Rangers in Arlington.
Marcum v Scott Feldman.

Here we go when it all start to count for real.

Top 1st: Bautista pops up to third base Michael Young. Hill grounds out to Andrus at short, throw to first base Davis. Two down for Lind, singles to right. Vernon, there she goes, home run to left classic Vernon pull hit. Jays go out 2-0. Overbay grounds to second error on the play by Blanco and Lyle safe as safe at first. Buck with two on and two down pops up to Blanco no mistake this time and inning ends but Jays take lead..
Bottom 1st: Borbon strikes out. Young lines out to Wells in centre. Hamilton strikes out. Quick three up and down for Shawn.

Top 2nd: Encarnacion fly ball to Borbon in centre. Alex Gonzalez pops up to Davis at first. Snider fouls out to catcher Saltalamacchia.
Bottom 2nd: Guerrero hit by pitch. He is so awkward at the plate hard to avoid him sometimes but Shawn trying to keep it inside. Cruz lines out to Snider in left. Davis grounds to Overbay on to Gonzalez back to first for Marcum double play ball.

Top 3rd: Bautista lines out to left field Hamilton. Hill grounds back off Feldman to second base Blanco on to first base Davis. Two down for Lind singled his first time up, whoa Adam home run to right and Jays are up 3-0. Lind 2-2. Vernon singles to centre. Also second hit today. Overbay lines out to right field Cruz leaving Vernon out there but Jays had added another.
Bottom 3rd: Saltalamacchia fly ball to Vernon in centre. Blanco fly ball to right field .Bautista. Two down. Andrus strikes out.

Top 4th: Buck strikes out. Encarnacion fouls out to Andrus at short. Gonzalez fly ball to centre field Borbon.
Bottom 4th. Borbon strikes out. Young grounds to third but safe at first on throwing error by Encarnacion. This guy has been making far too many errors in the last two weeks. I hope we don’t have to see this all year. One on one down. Hamilton fly ball to Wells. Two down for Guerrero, pops up to short Gonzalez for third out, no damage done on the error.

Top 5th: Snider strikes out. Bautista fly ball to centre field Borbon. Two down. Hill pops up to short Andrus.
Bottom 5th. Cruz grounds to third Encarnacion throw to first base Overbay. Davis fly ball to centre Wells. Saltalamacchia fly ball to right field Bautista. Another three up and down for Marcum rolling along here. Only 58 pitches after five. That is real economy Shawn. Cito must be happy camper.

Top 6th Lind singles to right. This guy really paying his contract. Funny in the spring it was the two leadoff Bautista and Hill, today the big bats Lind and Wells do the damage. All five hits so far. Vernon, not this time fouls out to Davis. Overbay grounds to Blanco on to Andrus back to Davis double play ball. Feldman now at 89 pitches.
Bottom 6th: Rangers sixth. Blanco strikes out. Andrus strikes out. Number six for Marcum. Borbon fouls out to left fielder Snider. Marcum nine pitches.
Top 7th: Buck grounds to Blanco at second throw to Davis at first for the out. Encarnacion strikes out. Gonzalez lines out to Andrus at short to end the inning. That’s 100 pitches for Feldman.

Bottom 7th: Young fly ball out to Vernon. Hamilton full count and walks first Ranger since first inning to reach base. Guerrero, there goes the no hitter, singles to right, Hamilton to second. Cruz gets hold of this one and just like that this game is tied 3-3. Home run to centre. Heartbreaker for Marcum. How often does that happen? A no hitter broken up and leads to runs. Cito will be criticized for leaving him no for another. He has Downs, Gregg and Frasor out there. Davis grounds to third Encarnacion throw to Overbay. Two down. Saltalamacchia grounds to Hill throw to Overbay for third out but this one has changed bigtime, momentum with the Rangers now and the crowd is really back into the game.

Top 8th: Feliz pitching. Snider strikes out. Bautista walks on four pitches. Hill doubles to left, Bautista to third. Two on one out. Lind intentional walk. Vernon, can he do it again? There he goes singles hard to left Bautista in to score and Jays retake the lead 4-3. That’s the way to do it. Hill to third and Lind on to second. Bases loaded with one out for Overbay. Lefty lefty matchup Oliver now pitching. No pinch hitter Cito ??? Playing the percentages I guess. Lyle strikes out. Didn’t work that time. Buck fly ball to left Hamilton.
Bottom 8th Downs pitching. Garko pinch-hitting for Blanco, grounds to short Gonzalez throw to first base Overbay for the first out. Andrus lines out to third base Encarnacion. Borbon grounds back hard to Downs throw to Overbay to finish off the eighth.

Top 9th: Arias in at second. Frank Francisco pitching. Encarnacion fly ball to Borbon in centre. Gonzalez singles to left. One on one down. Snider at bat. There goes Gonzalez steals second as Travis strikes out. Bautista with insurance run at second strikes out.
Bottom 9th: Frasor pitching. Young doubles to centre not a great start Jason. Hamilton strikes out. Does not like that call stands there arguing and is still muttering as he walks back to dugout. Here comes the guy who started it all in the seventh Guerrero, does it again as he singles to centre and, Young moves up to third. Fly ball will tie this one up. Cruz who had the home run in the seventh, does it again doubles to very shallow right long run for Bautista, Young scores 4-4 and no way will he get Vladdy all the way to third. Still only one out. Murphy pinch-running for Guerrero at third. Davis gets intentional walk. Saltalamacchia singles to centre, Murphy scores Rangers win this one 5-4 with huge comeback. Vernon playing in to save single would have had that playing back although run would have scored anyway.

Heartbreaker when Marcum was so good for six innings. Jays move on to game two on Wednesday. To my mind with question mark at closer. Cito should have a short leash on Frasor before letting the more experienced Gregg have a shot.

The excellent: Lind and Wells combining on six hits and four RBIs. That is what this team has to have all season long from those two. Marcum with seven innings and three runs but through six a no-hitter. Jays need this if they are going to have any success this year. Downs doing his job three up and down.
The bad: Closer Frasor not getting it done and Jason you will have to think about that 54.00 ERA tonight. Jays 1/4 with runners in scoring position, Texas 4/5 and therein lies the major difference between these two teams today friends.
Jays outhit Rangers 8-6 but still lose.

Halladay ??? of course wins opening day 11-1 supported by big bats only seven innings ??? and 88 pitches? he will find it a little different in Philly this season, no need to pitch 20 complete games here Roy.. Grand slam by Polanco who had six RBIs today. And footnote how about batting average of .250 for Roy? Yes he had a hit and an RBI !!!