Jays power outage continues despite good Cecil outing

Jays v Boston. Series finale. Wednesday April 28.

Second team or is it third tonight? Lefty pitching. I thought both Lind and Overbay destroyed that myth earlier this week. Four changes from last night. Cito doesn’t really worry about being swept here by Boston, it is all about developing the talent. No Lind ? No Snider ? One of the reasons for empty seats Cito. September is different but this is April we want to see the first team bust their butts. How come we don’t see Boston second team? Probably because they want to win this thing, sweep Jays and move on after Yankees. Ah well. Cito sees it differently as always.

Red Sox: Scutaro, Pedroia, Martinez, Youkilis, Drew, Varitek, Beltre, Hall.
Jays: McCoy, Hill, Bautista, Wells, Overbay, Gonzalez, Ruiz, Molina, McDonald.

Cecil v Lester.

Top 1st: Scutaro singles to left. Pedroia grounds to Gonzalez throw to Hill to get Scutaro at second. Pedroia to first. Martinez grounds to Gonzalez on to Hill on to Overbay, Double play ball..15 pitches for Cecil.
Bottom 1st: McCoy, not Lewis tonight. Full count. and walks. Hill having a rough time right now. Will McCoy steal? Yes there he goes, thrown out at second. One down. Hill strikes out. Two down for Bautista. Strikes out looking. 15 pitches for Lester.

Top 2nd: Youkilis fly ball to Bautista on right. One down. Drew, full count and strikes out two down. Varitek, walks, Beltre, two down and one on. 3-1 count. Come on Brett. There we go full count, pops it up to Bautista in right to end the inning.
Bottom 2nd: Wells, there we go Vernon, doubles into left centre, Overbay, come on Lyle bring him in here. Not quite but moves him over as he grounds to first and flip to Lester for the first out. Gonzalez with Vernon at third, full count and strikes out. Come on Alex a bunt would have scoreed Vernon. Ruiz, you have waited for this chance. 3-0 and does not take. Full count. Strikes out. Guy at third with only one down and could not score. This is why Jays are where they are in the table. Unable to bring runners in from scoring position and probably why Cito has kept Ruiz on the bench. Lester 37 pitches.

Top 3rd: Hall, leading off doubles off the fence in right, Over Bautista head that kept on carrying but was catchable. McDonald, bunting,foul. Perfect grounds to Gonzalez, looks runner back to second throw to Overbay at first for the out. One down for Scutaro. Runner going and steals as Molina drops the ball. Perfect pops it up to Johnny Mc at third, two down. Pedroia, lines one to Wells running in from centre for the third out, Nice pitching Brett. 51 pitches though.
Bottom 3rd: Molina, grounds to Scutaro throw to Youkilis at first one down for Johnny Mc. Grounds to Beltre at third throw to Youkilis at first two down for Mike McCoy. Strikes out.50 pitches for Lester. Jays need to push that up bigtime with a few hits.

Top 4th: Martinez fly ball to Vernon in centre, one down. Youkilis strikes out. Two down for Drew. 3-0 count. Full count. Fly ball to McCoy in left for third out. 65 pitches.
Bottom 4th: Hill, average .172 not good. Fly ball to centre, one down. Bautista, lines out to shallow centre, two down for Vernon left out there on third last at bat. Average is 60 points higher than the next hitter, the only one over .300. It is too bad that he has not had any run support this month, he has done more than his share. Full count, strikes out this time. 69 pitch count for Lester.

Top 5th: Varitek, pops it up to Overbay at first, one down. Beltre, strikes out, only the third for Cecil tonight, two down. Hall, 0-2 count. Full count, come on Brett. Hall hanging tough fouling them off not this time pops it up to McDonald for third out but that was along at bat. 82 pitches. I think he will need bullpen tonight.
Bottom 5th: Overbay leading off. Come on Lyle that was the pitch. 1-2. Still not 1--% on pitch selection. Grounds to second throw to first for the out. Gonzalez strikes out, horrible swing. Ruiz, two down. grounds first pitch to short throw to first and Jays go meek and mild with some awful at bats, all three of them. Lester is happy though as it means he will go longer. 79 pitch count.

Top 6th: McDonald doubles to centre wall, One on for Scutaro, bunting? Tries. Ball one. Fakes but Scutaro lines into right centre. Scutaro seems to have been at that first base most of the series. Runners at the corners no outs, Cecil in big trouble here, Problem is that poor Cecil has no run support as last night with Marcum. He has no room at all for error and that must put additional pressure on these young pitchers. Very different pitching with a three run lead. Pedroia, that will do it fly ball to centre, run scores 1-0 Boston and one down , How to bring in a guy from third, Jays consistently unable to do that. Martinez. Brett you need a ground ball here. Pop up to shallow left for McCoy running in, two down. Youkilis two down one on. Lines it over Hill, for a double into centre right. Two on two down for Drew. Roenicke up in bullpen, good no joy for Frasor, still on Cito’s hit list? Drew lines out to Gonzalez. Cecil escapes further damage. But his night is over at 100 pitches. He has kept them in this game but is not going to win without a lot more support.
Bottom 6th: Molina grounds Scutaro at short, throw to first Youkilis at first. McDonald strikes out. McCoy full count and walks. Hill strikes out.

Top 7th: Janssen now pitching. Varitek pops up to Gonzalez at short. One down for Beltre doubles to right. Hermida pinch-hitting for Hall. Hermida grounds to McDonald throw to Overbay, Beltre to third. McDonald singles to left, Beltre scores 2-0 Boston. Scutaro with two down grounds to McDonald at third throw to Hill at second, McDonald out.
Bottom 7th: Jays now running out of bats and closer to Papelbon closing it down. This lack of runs is very troubling, the offence has totally disappeared in the last two games even allowing for with the second team players tonight. One run in 17 innings will not win many games. Hermida in at left field. Bautista leading off strikes out. Wells fouls out to Youkilis at first.
Overbay with two down strikes out. Number eleven for Lester tonight. Lester 119 pitches.

Top 8th: Roenicke now pitching. Pedroia strikes out. Martinez strikes out. Youkilis fly ball to Bautista in right. Three up and down very nice pitching.
Bottom 8th: Bard pitching. Gonzalez leading off doubles to centre. Lind pinch-hitting for Ruiz. Strikes out. Lewis pinch-hitting for Molina. Strikes out. Snider pinch-hitting for McDonald.
Gonzalez takes third, defensive indifference, as with Jays offensive indifference tonight and last night. Snider strikes out. Perhaps Cito knew something benching these three for the game ?

Top 9th: Bautista in at third base. Lind in as designated hitter. Lewis in as right fielder. Buck now catching and pitching Rommie Lewis making debut. Drew grounds to Hill at second throw to Overbay at first. Varitek grounds back to Lewis to make the second out. Beltre singles to centre. Lowell pinch-hitting for Hermida, strikes out. Boston in a hurry to get to the airport and take these three wins home with them
Bottom 9th: Van Every in left field. Papelbon pitching to the top of the Jays order. Do they have any fight ? McCoy fly ball to Drew in right. Hill strikes out. What is wrong with Aaron? Jays down to their last hope Bautista, no fly ball to Van Every in left.

Jays crumble for the second night in a row and lose all three to Boston at home. Deeper and deeper into the hole.

The good: Cecil a good one run performance for six innings. Lewis and Roenicke two scoreless innings.

The bad: Jays waste great pitching performance by Cecil. Hill strikes out three times and average down to .156, has a real problem. Once again no small ball, no steals until the eighth.

The very bad: 0-6 with runners in scoring position, how bad is that?

Tomorrow Oakland is in town but right now Jays need complete overhaul with their hitting or they will be looking forward to the road trip next week.
Pitching has been very good in the last two games but with no run support.