Jays waste a gem outing by Romero. Gregg also takes the rap,

Game two of three. Cardinals v Jays. Wednesday June 23.

This will be a very tough one for the Jays tonight, Carpenter undoubtedly one of the best in the NL. It will be interesting to see what Romero brings. The major concerns for Jays though are the lack of run production by Jays hitters. Hill, Lind, Wells, and Overbay. When oh when will they get it going again? Cardinalsvhave Holliday and Pujols at numbers two and three in the lineup, interesting to get both power hitters extra at bats.

Lineups: Cardinals: Lopez, Holliday, Pujols, Stavinoha, Freese, Rasmus, Molina, Winn, Ryan.
Blue Jays: Wise, (playing in left tonight and no Lewis), Hill, Lind, Wells, Gonzalez, Bautista, Overbay, Buck, Hoffpauir.

Pitching: Carpenter v Romero.

Top 1st: Lopez grounds to Hill, bobbles the ball and safe at first, error Hill. Not a good start. Holliday grounds to short,Gonzalez knocks it down but unable to get a throw away safe at first Lopez to second. Two on and no outs. Pujols singles to left, bases are loaded with Lopez at third, Holliday at second. Nobody out. Romero needs a lot of luck here to escape this one. Stavinoha grounds to Overbay throwing home to Buck to get the runner, one down but runners move up. Freese strikes out. Two down for Rasmus full count andstrikes out. Excellent pitching by Romero to get out of bases loaded and no outs against this team.
Bottom 1st: Wise grounds to Pujols steps on third for the out. Hill strikes out. Two down. Lind grounds to first for third out. Three up and down.

Top 2nd: Molina full count and walks. One on for Winn, singles to left, Molina to second. Romero repeating the first inning. Ryan grounds to Hill, flip to Gonzalez over to Overbay double play ball.Molina moves to third. Lopez for his second at bat tonight already. Grounds to Hill throw to Overbay for the third out but Romero is playing with fire here. Cardinals are much too good a team to hope to escape each inning like this.
Bottom 2nd: Wells lines it to right for Winn. One down. Gonzalez 3-0 and walks on four pitches. Bautista fly ball to Rasmus in centre. Two down for Overbay strikes out. 34 pitches for Carpenter. A little too easy for him so far.

Top 3rd: Romero needs to step his game up as well if hopes to stay with Carpenter tonight. Holliday leading off lines out to Bautista in right. Pujols singles to centre 2-2. One on, one down, Stavinoha with one on, strikes out. Two down for Freese, grounds hard to Hill, nice play by Aaron flip to second to get third out. 51 pitches for Romero. Those first two innings used a lot of pitches.
Bottom 3rd: Buck leading off. 1-2 count. Grounds to Frees at third, throw to first, one down. Hoffpauir, doubles down right field line, Hoffpauir has some speed. Wise, strikes out swinging on three pitches. Hill, with one on and two down. 2-0 count. 3-0.Ball four and walks him, two on two down for Lind, strikes out swinging.

Top 4th: Rasmus, pops up to Wells in centre, one down, grounds first pitch to Gonzalez, throw to Overbay, two down for Winn, grounds one past diving Gonzalez into left, safe at first. Ryan grounds first pitch to Gonzalez, flip to Hill to get Winn at second. Nice inning for Romero. 60 pitches.
Bottom 4th: Wells leading off. Lines it into left. Gonzalez, oh boy, first pitch grounds to shirt, throw to second on to first double play ball. That was poor at bat by Gonzalez, didn’t give Vernon a chance even when het gets on base! Bautista, fouling them off here. Perhaps he should be hitting behind Vernon. Seems to have much better pitch selection and judgment than Gonzalez. Full count. Ball four. Two down and one on for Overbay. Nice swing Lyle lines it to left Holliday right at the wall to make the catch. Pitch count 67.

Top 5th: Lopez leading off. First pitch bounces one to Hoffpauir, throw to Overbay one down. Holliday same play, grounds to Hoffpauir, throw to Overbay two down. Pujols, 2-2 tonight. Singles up the middle. One on two down. Stavinoha hit and run there goes Pujols, Stavinoha pops it up to Wells in centre for third out. Another nice inning for Romero. 67 pitches.
Bottom 5th: Buck leading off. Very nice grounds slowly to third and beats the throw. One on for Hoffpauir, 0-2 count, strikes out on three pitches. One down one on for Wise. Fly ball to left wall, Holliday makes the catch. Two down for Hill. Grounds to short throw to second to get Buck. 75 pitch count.

Top 6th: Freese leading off 0-2 count. Count full. Strikes out. Rasmus, flare into shallow centre. One down one on for Molina grounds first pitch to Gonzalez, flip to hill throw to Overbay, double play ball. Very nice play as Hill had Rasmus sliding into him as he made the throw. 75 pitches for Romero.
Bottom 6th: That play should get Jays hitters going here. Lind leading off .208 average. When oh when is Adam going to get it going? Pops this one up to Pujols. One down for Wells. grounds hard to Ryan at short, good play and throw to first to get Vernon. Gonzalez, please not first pitch. Takes it and ball two. High pop up to centre for third out. 85 pitches.

Top 7th: Winn leading off. 2-0 count. Grounds to Hoffpauir, throw to Overbay one down. Ryan, full count, come on Ricky this is number nine guy. Grounds to Gonzalez throw to Overbay, two down for Lopez. Hits him. The sleeve of his shirt. Holliday with one on. 2-0 count. Grounds to Gonzalez, flip to Hill for third out. 92 pitch count. May not get one more inning in.
Bottom 7th: Bautista leading off, we need a big one here Jose. 0-2 count. 2-2, ball three. Ball four. Nice at bat by Jose. Overbay, pops up to Winn in shallow right. Jose has to hold. Buck with one down and one on. Same play fly ball to Winn in right, two down for Hoffpauir. Perhaps he can do something here. Pops it up to Lopez in shallow right for 101 pitches for Carpenter.

Top 8th: Pujols leading off. 3-3 tonight. Doubles into left corner, 4-4. Stavinoha, bunting? Trying but pitch high and ball one. Grounds to Romero, Pujols in run-down one down but Stavinoha to second on the play. Freese with Camp and Downs ready in bullpen. 3-1 count. Full count. Strikes out swinging. Two down. Rasmus, pops up to Wise in left and leaves runner at second. Very nice pitching Ricky. That is probably it for him. 107 pitches. Now if Jays can get one here is should be Gregg and with the bottom three of the order (pinch hitters excepted of course).
Bottom 8th: Top of the Jays order. Carpenter still out there. Wise leading off. 2-2 count and strikes out. Hill, 0-2 count. Strikes out swinging. Lind, last chance to show us something. 0-3 tonight. Pops up into shallow centre. Three up and down.

Top 9th: Gregg is out anyway. Molina, pops up to Overbay as he splits his bat. One down. Winn, 0-2 count. Singles into left. One on one down for Ryan. Lines first pitch to Bautista in right, two down. Lopez. 2-1 count. Strike two, same pitch but not biting, full count. Runner going as Lopez singles up the middle. Here’s trouble now for Gregg. Holliday with two on and two down. 2-1 count. Ball three. You don’t want to load them up with Pujols waiting. Count full. Singles to left. Here comes the Winn and the run. 1-0 Cardinals. Pujols with two on 4-4, high and inside, nasty. Fly ball to Bautista for the out but may be too late for the Jays tonight.
Bottom 9th: Ryan Franklin pitching to save this one. Wells, goes the other way just foul. 2-2 count. Bounces one up the middle and off the glove of Ryan into centre. One on for Gonzalez, oh not again, grounds to third on to second on to first double play ball. Cito HAS to move this guy away from Vernon he is not protecting him at all. Great defense but his bat does not justify number five position. Two down for Bautista, 2-1 count. Ball three. Strike two, full count. Ball four, great at bat by Bautista. Overbay, hitless tonight, good time to get one. Lines it right at Pujols.

Jays hitters (and Gregg of course) ruin a great performance by Romero tonight. Carpenter far too much for Jays hitters tonight. And it does not get easier tomorrow with Wainright already a ten game winner.

The excellent: Romero and that is it.
The bad: Gonzalez hitting into two double plays tonight and the most important one with Vernon on in the ninth. Gregg did not get it done. Jays had only four hits and Vernon’s two hits were wiped out by Gonzalez double plays. Vernon was the only hitter in the top 7 !!! to even get a hit tonight.
Cardinals had eleven hits but the top three had seven of them and there’s one major difference between these two teams.