Monday May 10. Jays v Boston at Fenway. Game one. Big series. How many times do we hear this throughout the season, but this one is for following reasons.
Jays are ahead of Boston. Records: Jays 19-14 and Boston 16-16. Jays were also swept by Boston in Toronto, so revenge time. Jays picked up a game on both Tampa and New York yesterday.
Toronto: Lewis, Hill, Lind, Wells, Overbay, Gonzalez, Bautista, Buck, Snider.
Boston: Scutaro, Pedroia, Martinez, Youkilis, Ortiz, Beltre, Hermida, McDonald, Van Every.
Top 1st: Lewis, strikes out looking. Hill, 3-1 and walks him. One on for Lind. Grounds to Youkilis at first Hill to second on the play. Wells, one on two down. Strikes out swinging.
Bottom 1st: Scutaro leading off, walks, Pedroia, doubles off the wall in left. Scutaro holds at third. Martinez two on and no outs. Singles to centre under diving Hill, two runs score and Boston up 2-0 no outs. Scutaro enjoys scoring the first run against his old club. A long night ahead for Morrow. Youkilis, strikes out looking, Youkilis as always arguing, umpire ignores him. One down for Ortiz, shift on right, strikes out. Two down for Beltre, way outside, this time strikes out on 97mph pitch but early damage done. Jays bats need to get going bigtime. 24 pitches.
Top 2nd: Cito has Overbay out there again….. hitting a miserable .181, count full and walks. Gonzalez, returning home. How does he feel right now? Whoa gets hold of first pitch, home run to left, bounces off the top off the wall, or is it ? Umpire not calling it, Cito asking for review, ruling stands, Lyle at third, Gonzalez at second, two in scoring position here. Bautista now, can he bring them both in? Full count, and walks, bases loaded for Buck. 2-0 pressuring Lackey to throw strikes here. Grounds it to third, off the glove of Beltre here comes Overbay and Gonzalez, two runs. 2-2 game. Buck to second, Snider, now with two in scoring position come on Travis. Singles to right, here comes Bautista 3-2 Jays. Lewis now Buck at third and no outs, singles to right, here comes Buck 4-2 Jays. Snider to second, still no outs, Hill, need a home run here Aaron to get crowd going (home), grounds to short throw to second get Lewis but that’s it. Runners at first and third. One down. Lind, line drive up the middle, great catch by Scutaro though. Two down for Wells. 3-1 count, not giving Vernon much to hit here. Count full. Pops it up to second for third out but Jays get four. 49 pitches for Lackey, that’s the way to get into this bullpen.
Bottom 2nd: Beltre leading off, 3-0 count, this will drive Cito crazy if he walks him strike one, strike two, full count, way inside walks him. leadoff guy after Jays hitters come back with four. Hermida, strikes out, four strike outs for Morrow tonight, one down for McDonald, 2-0 count, 3-1 and walks another. Three tonight. Boston will be more patient watching this. Van Every Scutaro. 3-0 danger of walking bases full. 3-1, low and walks him. Bases loaded. All three have walked. Here comes pitching coach Walton, Cito is too hot to tell Morrow what he and every Jays fan thinks of him right now. Pedroia, Ball one. Ball two, 2-1, 3-1, outside and walks him, four walks in a row. 4-3 Jays. Martinez with bases still loaded, he needs a ground ball badly. Way outside, just unable to find the strike zone. 2-0. 2-1. Roenicke warming up in Jays bullpen. 2-2. Grounds to Gonzalez flip to Hill, throw high into crowd oh boy. That was an easy double play ball. Two runs score one down two out error on Hill. Youkilis. 5-4 Boston. Martinez at second. Full count. Walks him. Two on for Ortiz. Cito’s body language not pretty and I don’t blame him. 2-0 count again. 3-0 loading them up again. Ortiz singles into right, another run scores 6-4 Boston, the good news is that it was not a walk. But that’s it for Morrow. Roenicke now pitching. All the Jays momentum from that four run top of the inning is lost. True Hill’s error didn’t help but Morrow didn’t have it from the start of this game walking Scutaro to start the game. Beltre, two on two out. 2-0, this is contagious. 3-0. Ready to load them up yet again. Walks him on four pitches, That eruption you heard was Cito in the dugout. Hermida with bases loaded, 2-0 well may be better to walk him than hit a grand slam ??? grounds to Gonzalez throw to Hill for the third out. What an awful inning. This game has been going an hour and 15 minutes for two innings. Morrow SIX walks in less than two innings.
Top 3rd: Overbay leading off, Lackey throwing strikes, making it look so easy. Lyle grounds to Scutaro throw to first one down, Gonzalez, strikes out, two down, Bautista. Strikes out, easy inning for Lackey, Jays body language says it all.
Bottom 3rd: McDonald, swinging at ball outside, that will help Jays pitchers, grounds to Hill at second, bobbles this one as well but recovers to throw him out at first, One down. For Van Every. Singles up the middle. One on one down for Scutaro. Oh boy, grounds to Gonzalez throw to Hill at second, ball goes into the outfield. Error on the play and runners at the corners. It seems as if the lousy pitching is having an impact on the team in the field. Hill and Gonzalez now with errors. Pedroia, singles up the middle Van Every scores 7-4 Boston. Martinez, runners at first and second. pops it up to Bautista at third, two down for Youkilis. Full count. Runners will be going. Strikes out. Finally.
Top 4th: Buck leading off, Lackey cruising now, just putting ball in there throwing strikes. Buck singles into centre. Snider for second time. Grounds first pitch to Scutaro on to Pedroia at second on to Youkilis at first double play ball. Lewis with two down. Singles into centre, Hill now really owes this team something after that error in second that caused three runs to score and change this game. Grounds to third throw high at first, pulls Youkilis off the bag and safe. Lind now with two on and two down. Off the end of his bat, ball goes five feet, at home plate, thrown out at first to end the inning. Jays get close but not enough.
Bottom 4th: Rommie Lewis warming up, Ortiz fly ball to left for the out first quick out this evening for the Jays pitching staff. Beltre strikes out looking. Hermida, two down, singles into right, Jays have yet to get three up and down tonight. McDonald strikes out looking.
Top 5th: Wells, first pitch fly ball to shallow right for one down. Overbay, first pitch fly ball to left, two pitches two outs, that says it all tonight. How long can Overbay stay in this lineup? or Cito at least move him down away from Vernon please. Gonzalez. Not this guy, he is not taking first pitch, determined to make a difference returning to Fenway. Singles into left. One on two down for Bautista, way to go Jose, that’s better. This one is over the wall in left this time, home run Jose. Here comes Gonzalez, here comes Bautista 7-6 game. Don’t go away here. Buck, with two down takes strike three but Jays get two back despite losing first two in two pitches.
Bottom 5th: Rommie Lewis pitching. Van Every grounds to Overbay at first for the out. Scutaro, grounds to Gonzalez at short, throw to Overbay at first for the second out. Pedroia, fly ball to Snider in right, three up and down here the first time tonight. Lewis shows them how and throwing strikes.
Top 6th: Lackey still out there in 88 pitches helped by free swinging Jays Snider catching it now, first pitch grounds to Pedroia throw to Youkilis, for the out, Lewis. Two pitches and grounds to short throw to Youkilis for second quick out. Hill now, 0-2. Strikes out looking was that a six pitch inning ??? I feel so sorry for Rommie Lewis, has not sat down yet.
Bottom 6th: Martinez, grounds to Bautista at third, throw to Overbay one down for Youkilis grounds to Bautista at third, throw high for Overbay no error given on the play, it was a difficult play. One down one on for Ortiz. 3-1 count. Full count, strikes out looking. Ortiz does NOT like that call, brave umpire stands his ground. David walks off muttering. Two down. Beltre at bat, 3-1 count. Grounds hard back at Lewis throw to first for third out. A good two innings work, has given his team the chances can they take them though without throwing away these at bats with wild first pitch swinging?
Top 7th: Please give Lewis time to take a break here. Lackey at least out of there and after 49 pitch two innings he was let off the hook by wild Jays hitters. Okajima now pitching Lind, here we go again first pitch grounds back to the mound throw to Youkilis for anther easy out. What is with this team? Wells, the worst if them all grounds first pitch to third, throw to first two pitches two outs and here comes Overbay. Takes on but it was way outside so he had no choice there. Grounds weakly to Scutaro throw to Youkilis, an awful inning by the big Jays bats. Okajima has rarely had such an easy inning six pitches.
Bottom 7th: Hermida fly ball to Wells in centre, at least Vernon can still use his glove. One down for Beltre trying a bunt but Lewis very alert has it and quick throw to first, two pitches two outs, Van Every strikes out, six pitch inning for young Rommie Lewis, very nice three innings. He deserves a win if his team could get their heads back in the game.
Top 8th: Gonzalez, leading off. Bard now pitching. Getting them to Papelbon. Gonzalez slaps it to Pedroia at second, throw to Youkilis for first out. Bautista, 3-1, count full and walks him. One on one down for Buck. Pops it up to shallow right, Van Every great catch into first row of fans. Snider now Travis take it easy here, no crazy swinging at first pitch. 1-0. 1-2 count, grounds to third bang bang play at first but beats Travis for third out.
Bottom 8th: Casey Janssen getting another chance. Scutaro leading off. Full count but I agree that one was close Casey. Singles into left past a diving Gonzalez. Pedroia, bunting ? no. Not much need with Papelbon waiting to finish this one off. Fly ball to right Snider has it one down. Martinez with Scutaro at first. 3-0 count. Come on Casey… there’s a strike. VERY nice Alex, Martinez lines it hard at short, great catch, that was a double all the way if it had got past Gonzalez there, two down Scutaro retreats to first. Youkilis, full count. Fouling them off here grounds to Bautista no mistake this time with throw to Overbay at first for third out.
Top 9th: Final at bats for Jays and top of the order but apart from two hit Lewis again, numbers two to five in the order Hill, Lind, Wells and Overbay are ALL hitless tonight which is pretty bad when you think about that. Not least they have to face Papelbon 21/21 saves against the Jays. I think that might be called dominating a team I don’t think there will be any last inning dramatics tonight based on their previous at bats tonight. Here we go Lewis leading off. Strikes out on three pitches. Hill who might have done better to take tonight off with his error leading to three runs and a hitless night. Full count here. Grounds to Scutaro, throw to first and Jays down to their last at bat Lind. 0-4 tonight grounds weakly to Scutaro throw to first and Jays lose this one bigtime. The score flatters them tonight.
The good: Definitely young Rommie Lewis my man of the game, held Boston scoreless for three innings. Bautista home run to get Jays back in this one at the start. Gonzalez also with his double off the top of the wall just missing going out in his first at bat returning to Fenway.
The bad: Where do we start tonight, the top of the order from numbers two to five, hitless, clueless and wild. Hill, Lind, Wells and Overbay hitless between them. Dramatically illustrated in the second inning scoring four to come back and having no outs with two on base, Hill, Lind and Wells could not bring them in. That was the game right there. If any one of them could have had a hit. All three owe their team mates for the rest of this series. Not only that they had Lackey on the ropes another run or two there may seen him leave the game.
Hill terrible with his glove as well as bat tonight, awful throwing error which really decided the game in the end with the three runs scoring as a result. Morrow ??? seems to be like Tallet, has one good game and another bad, SIX walks and didn’t get out of the second inning. Never looked as if he was on his game tonight despite the strikeouts. 35 balls and 32 strikes for five outs four of which were strikeouts !!! tells it all. Wild and out of control.
Overbay now at .172. If Cito is showcasing him for his contract year, he is not doing him any favours with an average like that, this could be Lyle’s last season period.
Jays pitchers threw 180 pitches for eight innings, Boston threw 128 for nine. However the Jays hitters swinging and making outs on first pitches helped Boston pitchers.
Jays still ahead of Boston but lose the important first game of the series and the momentum from Chicago series, back to the wall now to win next two. Unless their big bats can get going here this will be yet another sweep for Boston now 4-0 on the season against the Jays.
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