Jays power supports Marcum with yet another from Encarnacion

Toronto v Arizona. Series finale Sunday May 23.

Jays really need a win here, and not get swept, at least they have a good chance of getting some decent pitching after the last two miserable starts by Morrow and Eveland. Plus Boston is beating up on the Phillies this afternoon an added incentive to win here and not let them gain anymore
No Wells, Buck or Gonzalez in the lineup today. Not sure what Cito ‘s thinking is here. I would have thought he would want to have the best lineup out there to avoid the sweep, especially with a pitcher hitting. When Johnny Mc. is batting number seven you know you have problems. Putting a ton of pressure on Marcum. Cito may not have noticed here but it is run shortage that is one of the issues in this series. He has taken out two of his best bats and seriously Lind, Hill and Overbay are hardly hot right now. He has a lineup out there with Lewis, Bautista and Encarnacion who are the only ones seriously hitting at this time. Three hitters ??? We will see if he is right. Or has made a huge mistake. It could be another reason why Jays have such a poor inter-league record, Cito is not a strategic manager. Is very much hands off. And perhaps these games needs a different approach. They start handicapped with the pitcher hitting, you don’t need to handicap them further.

Lineups: Toronto: Lewis, Hill, Lind, Bautista, Overbay, Encarnacion, McDonald, Molina, Marcum.
Arizona: Jackson, Abreu, Drew, Upton, LaRoche, Reynolds, Young, Snyder, Buckner.
Pitching: Buckner v Marcum.

Top 1st: Lewis leading off playing centre today. Awful half-hearted swing at this one pops it up to catcher. One down. Hill, how is he today after that ninth inning home run last night? Full count. Pops it up behind second for number two. Lind. Grounds to second throw to pitcher covering for third out, easy inning for Buckner.
Bottom 1st: Jackson leading off. Strikes out swinging. One down for Abreu doubles to the wall right over head of Bautista, one on for Drew, strikes out swinging. Upton with two down. Singles into left, Lind bobbles the ball, no error given but probably should have. 1-0 D-Backs, Sloppy by Lind. Grounds to first throw to Marcum covering to get out of this one. Nothing like last night but not what we wanted to see so early in game.
Top 2nd: Bautista 0-2, full count. Strikes out looking. Overbay, singles to right. Encarnacion. The only hitter on Jays side that has been hitting well in Arizona. Singles into left. Two on one down for Johnny Mc. This is where the hitting ends in this lineup on paper at least. Prove us wrong Johnny Mc. Lines to third quick throw to second but Lyle gets back. Molina, lucky Jays. Grounds up the middle to second, to throw to first not in time. Bases loaded however for Marcum. Has never had a hit. Strikes out on three.

Bottom 2nd: Reynolds strikes out looking, one down for Young. Strikes out. Number four already for Shaun. Snyder, lazy pop up to Encarnacion. Great inning for Marcum BUT where are the bats again today?
Top 3rd: Top of the order for second time. Lewis leading off. Much better at bat, singles into shallow right centre, one on for Hill, grounds up the middle, Abreu kicks it away towards third, Both runners safe. Error on the play. Jays get a break here. Two on for Lind, wouldn’t it be great to see a double steal right here ? totally unexpected ? dream on. Grounds to LaRoche at first, off his glove throw to pitcher by runners move up at least. One down for Bautista, two in scoring position. Nice play just puts his bat on the ball and pushes it back up the middle, here comes Lewis here comes Hill and Jays have a lead for a very long time. 2-1. Jays. Overbay with Bautista at first. Fly ball to right, two down. Bautista holds at first. Encarnacion, grounds to short flip to second for third out but Jays at least give Marcum a lead to work with here. 49 pitches for Buckner. That’s more like it for the Jays, get into their bullpen.

Bottom 3rd: Buckner leading off. Good, he will be one tired guy after that long inning. 2-2. Nice hit here though, great swing and long fly ball to left centre by Lewis at the track. One down. Conor Jackson, grounds to Overbay flip to Marcum covering first for second out. Abreu. Grounds into the hole behind first, great play by Hill to get ball and throw to Overbay in time. Jays getting some defense here today. 46 pitches for Shaun.

Top 4th: McDonald, hanging tough here, Full count, ball four. Buckner a little wild here. Molina, another wild pitch gets away, Johnny Mc. going slides headfirst safe at second. 202 count. Making Buckner work here, grounds to third, looks Johnny Mc back and throw to LaRoche at first for first out this ining. Marcum with runner at second. HEY Shaun, doubles down the third base line into left corner. Nice hit… His teammates will enjoy this one. 3-1 Jays. Lewis with still only one out and runner at second. grounds to second throw to LaRoche for the out, Marcum moves you to third. Hill grounds to third, throw to first for the out. Marcum now has to get out there. Not good for Marcum no break here.
Bottom 4th: Drew leading off doubles to left, Upton with runner at second, strikes out. LaRoche, 2-2, doesn’t like that call, strikes out swinging, no question on that, two down Reynolds, 2-2. Full count. Walks him. First walk today for Marcum. Young with two on. Singles into left, runner scores 3-2 Jays. Snyder with two on. Full count, in danger of loading them up. Feel sorry for Shaun he must be exhausted out there, he has not sat down for almost twenty minutes, there he gets him swinging. Strikeout number seven. Strikes out the side. And now he can get a break if his team mates cooperate. No first pitch swinging please.

Top 5th: Lind leading off, singles to centre, Bautista with one on, there you go Jose, down on one knee and hammers this one to left here comes here comes Jose 5-2 Jays. Overbay singles to right. Pitching coach Stottlemyre out there Todd’s brother. Encarnacion, with one on. I don’t believe it, another home run for Edwin and this one is huge. High into left field off second deck facing. 7-2 Jays. Five home runs for Encarnacion this series. WOW. McDonald. still no outs. Johnny Mc. doubles to left to the wall that must be it for Buckner. Stalling out there. Valdez warming up., Now here comes Manager Hinch. See you later. One of the good things about this is that Marcum is now getting much needed rest between innings he was bushed out there. Cesar Valdez pitching. Molina with Johnny Mc. at second and no outs. Doubles to left off the glove of Jackson here comes McDonald, 8-2 Jays. Throw to second gets Molina but Abreu is injured on the play at second, looks like his wrist. Out of the game. Marcum out there. Full count. Strikes out looking and I don’t blame him he does not want to be out there with the score as it is. His job is to pitch. Lewis not helping Shaun at all here, grounds first pitch to LaRoche for the third out. Lewis does not seem to have much a baseball strategy, surely he should have taken as many as possible to let Shaun recover there.

Bottom 5th: Whole new game here now at 8-2. Jays turn to rub it in now. Marcum on 75 pitches. Valdez, grounds ball back to Marcum throw to Overbay for the out. Jackson, with one down. Count full, doubles it over head of Lind, Singles through Hill, what happened there? Run scores. Hill should have had that one. 8-3 game. Drew, fly ball to Lind in left. Two down for Upton. Full count. Strikes out but Shaun is wiped out here 103 pitches already. Cito will need his bullpen today. Not sure whether Marcum will last beyond six today. Downs and Gregg have not had any work for a few days. That is eighth and ninth.

Top 6th: Jays need to put this one way out of reach now. Add on five more if only for Marcum. Hill this is the guy who has not helped at all today with bat or glove and is the only starter today without a hit. Time to step up Aaron, still hitless but walks, I guess that helps. Lind, that will do Adam doubles into the right field bounces over the fence which ribs Aaron of a run, but two in scoring position will help. Bautista, no outs. Pops it up to short, ooops, not this time Jose. One down. Overbay .217 average ? 2-3 today helps that. Chance to be a hero here Lyle Not like that grounds to short, looks the runners back. And throw to Laroche at first for out number two. Encarnacion, not getting a chance here they are walking him intentionally, OK Cito pinch hitter here, get Vernon off that bench. Johnny Mc. instead. Two down bases loaded, when was your last grand slam John. He does actually have one but a base hit will be fine here. There we go. Lines it to left, here comes Hill, here comes Lind, here comes Encarnacion. No Johnny MC trying to three and hung out to dry caught between bases. That was poor base running Johnny Mc. however you will take the three RBIs and so will we. 11-3 Jays.
Bottom 6th: That's it for Shaun, Camp now pitching. LaRoche grounds to short McDonald throw to Overbay at first, one down. Reynolds doubles to centre. Young strikes out. Snyder pops up to Hill at second.

Top 7th: Rivera now pitching. Molina leading off. Singles to right. No pinch runner here. Camp second major league at bat, what’s with these pitchers, another base hit. Clean single into left. Here comes the ball for trophy case. Two on no outs for Lewis. Singles up the middle, bases loaded. No outs. For Hill, hitless even the two pitchers have a hit Aaron. Don’t be shamed today. Even a fly ball out will do. No he can’t even do that pops it up to shallow centre. Bases still loaded for Adam Lind. 2-4 today. That’s better Adam fly ball to centre, here comes Molina, 12-3 Jays. Bautista, with two on and two down. 2-4 also. Fly ball to centre for the out. But oh dear Aaron.
Bottom 7th: Reed in left for Lind. Crowd has left for early dinner only Jays fans left now. Parra pinch hitting singles into right. Jackson with one on. Lines to McDonald at short throw to second d for the out, one down. Ojeda who came in for injured Abreu. Grounds to short throw to second on to Overbay for double play.

Top 8th: 17 hits for Jays today. Gutierrez now pitching. Ryal now at third. Overbay leading off. High fly ball to left one down for Encarnacion. Pitching to him this time, sort of. Pulls a ball way outside down to third ! throw to first for the out. He could have let it go. Two down for McDonald. ruined his last at bat with that poor base running. First pitch fly ball to centre for third out.
Bottom 8th: McCoy now replaces Hill, Maybe a sign of tomorrow but I doubt it with Cito’s philosophy. Right about Downs here he is. Drew leading off, first pitch fly ball to Lewis in centre. D-Backs have had enough. Upton same play. Two down. LaRoche singles into left. Reynolds, strikes out swinging on three pitches.

Top 9th: Last shots for the Jays before they head to the LA Angels for tomorrow. Strange stadium, it looks like Rogers Centre with all the Jays fans there. Strange also that majority of D-Back fans do not seem to wear their colours. Carlos Rosa pitching. Molina 3-4 today. High fly ball to centre he thought that was at least a double. McCoy. Has been huge disappointment, after this great spring, has just not made it in the first team, strikes out looking here. Two down for Lewis. He can’t complain today about his at bats. 2-5 already. And his sixth at bat. Casey Janssen warming up in on deck circle. You can do him a favour here Fred. I guess he does in one respect, strikes out.
Bottom 9th: Must be Janssen? No Gregg out there we were right earlier but Cito had no one left on the bench. Young leading off, Ooops first pitch fly ball to left and this one is into the seats, Home run 12-4 Jays. Snyder, 3-0 Gregg rattled here ? Walks him. One on, Parra 3-1 come on Kevin all over the place here. Walks another. Just relax Kevin. Hester pinch hitting, no where near, 3-1 bullpen get working. Full count. Shaking off all the signs. That’s better grounds to short flip to second on to Overbay double play ball. Two down for runner to third. Ojeda, fly ball to Bautista in right. Jays win big and break that mini slump.

The very good: Marcum obviously. Only five innings today but he had to battle with hitting and his double meant that he had to stay out there a little longer than he would have liked and the next inning pushed his pitch count way too high to take a sixth inning. Both Marcum and Camp getting first ML hits, that is important as they enter next inter-league games knowing that at least two of the pitchers can hit ! What can we say about Encarnacion ? Yet another home run and two more RBIs. Bautista two hits and four RBIs. Jose Molina getting on base three times.

The good: Johnny Mc. would have put him higher but for that base-running error.

The bad: Hill at rock bottom right now. When two pitchers can get base hits then he is really in trouble. Cito has decision to make, Does he sit him, send him to Vegas to relax and get whatever is missing right now ? or does he keep him out there? Cito will keep playing him, remember Rios ? last year, Wells last year, Overbay this year ? Everyone wants Aaron to come through this but it is so painful to watch every day.