Jays bullpen gives one away to ruin Tallet's fine effort

Toronto v Tampa. Game two of three. Tuesday June 1st

Lineups:Tampa: Upton, Crawford, Longoria, Pena, Aybar, Zobrist, Kapler, Navarro, Brignac.
Toronto: Lewis, Hill, Lind, Wells, Bautista, Gonzalez, Overbay, Buck, Encarnacion.
Pitching: Tallet v Niemann

Major concern here tonight is Tallet. What does he have? But safety net is the bullpen which has not been used to any extent for at least four games now. As soon as Tallet gets into trouble Cito can bring in someone. Tampa on a mini slump and you don’t want them winning a soft one, not in Toronto.

Top 1st: Upton lines softly to Encarnacion at third, one down for Crawford. Grounds to Hill throw to Overbay for second out. Longoria, 3-1 count. Full, and walks him. Pena. That’s better, bounces it down the line to Overbay to step on first for third out. One inning in the book for Tallet who must be walking on eggs tonight for his own future in the big leagues.
Bottom 1st: Lewis leading off. Oh boy NO question on this one, lines it into right centre seats, just golfs it over Tampa bullpen almost one handed, but obviously some power there. 1-0 Jays. Hill first pitch pops it up to first. Not a good at bat Aaron. Lind, pops it up to Crawford in left. Two down. Wells, fly ball to Crawford in left.

Top 2nd: Aybar leading off. Grounds to third, very nice play by Encarnacion, long throw to get Aybar at first. One down for Zobrist. 3-1 count. Big swing there, full count. Walks him. Kapler, need a ground ball here Brian. Another full count, don’t walk him. Ball four. Two on not good, Navarro. Bunting, Tallet, bobbles it but throw to Overbay, two down but both runners move up. Brignac, 0-2 count. Strikes out looking. Brignac not happy with the call.
Bottom 2nd: Bautista, 3-1 count. Walks him. One on for Gonzalez. Swings at ball outside. Strikes out. Not a good at bat. Overbay, grounds to first play to second, Bautista called safe, Brignac nowhere near the bag, but throw gets Overbay at first. Arguing call and here comes Madden but no change in decision. Buck, with Bautista in scoring position. Grounds to short, throw to first gets Buck.

Top 3rd: Upton, doubles into left. Tallet gave up two walks last inning, Cito is watching him closely. Crawford, pops it up to Gonzalez back-pedalling into shallow left. One down. Longoria, grounds to Hill at second, throw to Overbay, Upton to third, two down. Pena, pops it up to Buck at home plate. Tallet escapes trouble from that lead-off double.
Bottom 3rd: Encarnacion leading off. Pops it up to short Brignac, one down. Lewis doubles to the left wall. One on one down for Hill. Hill not getting the pitches here, swinging at the wrong ones and letting the good ones go. 2-2, full count now. That was ball four, off his bat inside. Evasive swing. Fly ball to Crawford in left, no way for Lewis to move up. Lind with two down. Strikes out swinging over this one. Lewis doing it all tonight so far. Not much help from his colleagues.

Top 4th: Aybar, showing bunt changes his mind, pops it up to Wells in shallow centre. One down. Zobrist, back up the middle. One on for Kapler. Pops it up to Bautista in shallow right, two down. Navarro, singles into left, Zobrist to third. Two on two down. Brignac. Careful here Brian. Brignac pops it up to Encarnacion behind third. Tallet playing with fire but has escaped last two innings. If he could get some more run support it would be easier for him.
Bottom 4th: Wells to lead it off. Fly ball first pitch to Upton left centre. Bautista, pops up to second. Zobrist two pitches two outs. Gonzalez, has to take it. Ball outside. Strikes out swinging seven pitch inning far too easy for Niemann.
Top 5th: Upton, strikes out looking on three pitches. Crawford grounds first pitch to Hill, throw to first for second out. Longoria, grounds to Gonzalez. Throw to Overbay for the third out a seven pitch inning for Tallet. Much much better.

Bottom 5th: Only 48 pitches though for Niemann. Overbay first pitch grounds to second. One down. Buck, that’s better John, great hit here, high fly ball into left, off the restaurant window. 2-0 Jays. Encarnacion, pops it up to Brignac at second base bag. Two down. Lewis 2-2 tonight. Singles into left, 3-3 tonight, he loves Niemann. Hill now, pops it into shallow right. Lewis only to second should have been running on contact with two out. Mental error there. Lind with two on. Lines this one all the way to the wall. Here comes Lewis, here comes Aaron, 4-0 Jays. Triple for Lind. Wells with runner at third, grounds first pitch to third throw to first gets him. Vernon lets Niemann off the hook there.

Top 6th: A cushion now for Tallet but a three up and down here would be good. Pena, count full. Strikes out swinging. One down for Aybar. Grounds rule double into left field seats. One on one down. Janssen and Purcey warming up in bullpen. Zobrist strikes out looking, two down. Here comes Cito. Tallet on his pitch count, did what Cito wanted. Playing the percentages though. Here comes Casey Janssen. Blalock pinch hitting for Kapler, has hit well against Casey with a home run. Strikes out looking this time.
Bottom 6th: Niemann still only 64 pitches, first pitch swinging will do that. Aybar at second Brignac Bautista leading off strikes out swinging. Gonzalez, singles into left. Overbay, with one on, hammers this one off the wall in centre, Bautista holds up at third. Two in scoring position now for Buck. Sac fly to Crawford in left that will do it here comes Gonzalez, 5-0 Jays. Two down. Encarnacion, Overbay could not advance to third on that throw. Pops it up to catcher.

Top 7th: Navarro leading off, singles to centre. Brignac, doubles to the wall in right centre here comes Navarro, 5-1 Jays. Here comes Cito. That’s it for Casey, Frasor to take over. Upton strikes out. Crawford, singles to centre, Brignac scores 5-2 Jays. Ball gets away and Crawford to second. Longoria grounds to Gonzalez, throw to Overbay two down. Pena singles to short, Crawford scores 5-3 Jays. Aybar singles to centre, Pena to third. That’s it for Frasor tonight, Camp now pitching Zobrist, fly ball to Lewis for third out. But Tampa gets three, don’t rule them out of this one yet.


Bottom 7th: Lewis 3-3 pops it to Longoria at third. Hill singles to left, that’s it for Niemann. Choate now pitching. Lind strikes out. Rodriguez in at second. Wells, that’s it for Choate, Balfour in to face Wells. Vernon doubles to centre, Upton throw to Rodriguez, throwing to the plate, Hill out a mile, tagged out at the plate. Not a good decision by someone.

Top 8th: Camp still pitching. Rodriguez leading off, fly ball to Bautista in right, one down. Navarro, grounds to Hill, throw to Overbay for second out. Oh no here comes Cito again, his gambles have not worked so far tonight. I wish he would not mess around with the pitchers. Camp had settled in and needed one out. Downs with two down. Brignac, Strikes out but that will be the only hitter Downs faces.
Bottom 8th: Jays really need to add on one here. Bautista leading off, 2-2 count. Full count, low and walks. Gonzalez, runner at first, pops it to Upton in shallow centre. One down for Overbay. Singles to right. Bautista to second. Buck, with two on, grounds to Longoria at third, throw to first for the out but both runners move up for Encarnacion. We have not seen him one out for a while. How about it Edwin? 2-0 count. 3-1 count. Gets under it pops it up to Upton for third out. Here comes Gregg.

Top 9th: Top of order for Tampa. Upton leading off, full count. Strikes out, one down for Crawford. 3-0 don’t put him on Kevin, not this guy. Ball four. Not good, now he has to worry about stealing second. Longoria. There he goes first pitch, throw not good, Crawford now in scoring position. He may take third as well. No, throw to second to get him but ball gets away from Hill. Why oh why? Crawford to third. One down. 3-1 count now. Full count. Inside and walks him. Two on for Pena. 1-2 count. Yes I like it, Pena asks for time, ignored and strikes out. Madden arguing and thrown out, call was far too late Gregg was in his windup. Two down. Jaso pinch hitting, with two out two on, 3-1 count. Full, everyone on their feet now, walks him to load bases. Zobrist, now tie run at second in scoring position. 2-0 count, come on Kevin. Bullpen working. Rommie Lewis. 3-1. Walks in a run. 5-4 Jays. Bases still loaded. Rodriguez, that ball was way high. Catcher and coach out there. Settle down Kevin. Oh boy doubles to centre, ball gets away from Vernon three runs score. 7-5 Tampa. Ball gets away from Buck, Rodriguez goes to third. 3-0 count. Walks him on four. Here comes Cito. Sorry Cito but you take some heat here for that eighth inning, playing the percentages sometimes back fires and it did tonight, not only that I don’t think Gregg will be able to pitch tomorrow night with all those pitches tonight. Gregg arguing with umpire is thrown out. Rommie Lewis now with two on. Brignac, 2-2 count.Full count, Navarro takes second without a throw. Strikes him out.

Bottom 9th: Jays hitters have to rescue Gregg for a change. Top of the order. Lewis leading off, need base runners Fred. Soriano closing. 14/14 saves. Grounds to short, throw to first off the glove, Fred moves up to second. Hill now. Hit. Base hit is fine. Don’t worry about home run swing. Pops it up to shallow right, one down. Lind now can he bring him in? 1-2 count. Strikes out. Vernon last chance here. Hammers this to left just misses going out, Lewis scores 7-6 with Vernon at second. Bautista lines his hard to left but right at Crawford. Tough one to lose tonight after leading 5-0. That one was given away.

The very good: Tallet, a good six inning outing. Lewis 4-5 night. Also Vernon good clutch hitting with two doubles in the seventh and ninth.

The bad: Some lousy decisions tonight, pitching decisions in the eighth which are at Cito’s feet. Hill trying to score in the seventh and out a mile. That would have been two on in scoring position and two down, a run there would have made the ninth very different. Gregg yes but would not have had to stay in there as long if Downs had not already pitched. Camp should have stayed in for that extra out. Downs take the ninth or be in relief for Gregg if it fell apart. 20/20 vision but that is what Managers are paid for. Cito gambled and lost tonight. Frasor also gets a black mark tonight.

But onward we go, this was one I didn’t have down for a win anyway with Tallet pitching Marcum tomorrow at least should give Jays a chance