Jays dismal hitting once more and get swept in Cleveland

Final game of the series get away day so apt, Jays cannot wait to get out of here.

The malaise is throughout this team there is not one player in the current lineup who is showing any signs of good form. They are all in a deep slump. Not sure what it will take to get them back. Cito’s second team out there today but I guess why not, the problem is he still has Lind and Hill in the lineup. Cito sitting McDonald and I agree with that, he is not Johnny Mc. anymore, he is a shell of himself since he came back. His heart is not there and his two errors this week show it. If I were Cito which I am not it would be kind to send McDonald to Vegas to play every day and get his sadness out of his system.
A blow out win is the only acceptable result for Jays today. A one run squeaker not good enough and Cleveland sweep is most probable.

Tuesday July 1st Canada Day. Toronto v Cleveland.

Lineups: Toronto: Lewis, Wise, Bautista, Wells, Lind, Hill, Overbay, Molina, Green.
Cleveland: Crowe, Choo, Santana, Hafner, LaPorta, Duncan, Nix, Marte, Donald.
Pitching: Masterson v Marcum.

Top 1st: Lewis. Grounds to short throw to first one down. Well at least the double play is out. Wise now for Gonzalez, why not. Grounds to Marte at third, hustles down the line but too late for the throw. Two down for Bautista. Strikes out. (Another) One of those days. Three up and down. Only 12 pitches for Masterson.
Bottom 1st: Jays have their Canada Day white caps on. Crowe pops up to Green at short, one down. Choo, strikes out swinging. Two down for Santana strikes out, three up and down for Marcum. 10 pitches.

Top 2nd: Wells leading off. (yes he does, but fouls it off). Bounces one to second throw to first for the out. Lind, .203 average. 3-1 count. Off the wall in centre, Lind stops at second. One in scoring position for Hill with one down. Hill, first pitch pop up to centre, two down. Cito this guy is your problem, sit him or send him somewhere to get his stroke back, he literally hasn’t a clue what he is doing anymore, at least until after the All-Star break. Overbay can he bring him in? Full count. Strikes out looking. And that inning summarises the Jays season. Runner in scoring position and no one can bring him in. The big bats silent, two of them since April. 27 pitches for Masterson.
Bottom 2nd: Hafner, grounds to Hill throw to Overbay, one down. LaPorta, strikes out swinging. Two down for Duncan, 3-0 Marcum losing it a little here. That’s better full count. Pops it up, Bautista loses the ball, drops in foul. Par for this team fielding. Ball four now. It must be incredible pressure on Marcum knowing he literally has to be perfect this afternoon to have any chance of getting a win. No room for any error until this team starts to hit and score a bucket full of runs although you know Marcum will take one. Nix, another pop up, this time Molina has it for the out. 28 pitches.

Top 3rd: Molina leading off. That’s the way Jose, doubles in left field corner. Can we hope here? Green no pressure Nick. Showing bunt, finally Cito is listening. Way inside and hits the umpire on his hand that hurts. Bunt is off 2-0 count. Tries another, pitch high, 3-1 count. Swings and misses full count. Grounds to third throw to first and Molina stays glued to second, Don’t worry Nick the eight guys ahead of you have been doing that for four months now. Lewis with runner at second. Lines it right at second two down. Wise, two down. That’s the way, bounces one to second, no throw Wise safe at first and Molina going on contact. Runners at the corners for Bautista. Pops it up to Nix makes nice running catch. Once again Jays cannot bring in a guy from second with three tries. Marcum is weeping in the dugout or is he laughing? Masterson pitch count 40.
Bottom 3rd: Marte leading off. Full count, strikes out looking. Number four for Marcum. One down for Donald, lines it to Lewis in left, two down. Crowe, lines this one to left, Yes Fred, what a great highlight reel catch running flat out dive in left to get this one. Great play. Marcum 39 pitches.

Top 4th: Jays hitters should be inspired by that play. Wells leading off. 2-0 count. Bounces slow roller to short, throw to first for the out. Wells 0-2 today to go with 0-4 last night. Lind, one of the three Jays hits. Not this time, lazy fly ball to left for the out. Hill, .186 average. Strikes out looking. Now Cito is weeping. Lewis really inspired his hitters. 50 pitches for Masterson.
Bottom 4th: Choo, walks him, one on for Santana, dangerous combination this series. Ball gets away throw down but runner safe at second. Now Indians turn to bring in the runner with no outs. Full count. Ball four. Two on nobody out for Hafner. Another wild pitch gets away, both runners move up. Strikes out, very nice Shaun. One down for LaPorta. Two home runs against Jays this series already but he is just looking for a base hit here with two in scoring position. Not this time, this one is out of here home run to left, 3-0 Indians. First hit against Marcum today. Left it up. Duncan one down, Cleveland already has enough runs to win this thing today and sweep the hapless Jays. Good luck in New York. Here goes another back to back home runs same place, and Cleveland 4-0. Nix, strikes out swinging. Two down for Marte. Singles to left. Donald doubles to left, Lewis bobbles it, error on the play here comes Marte, 5-0 Cleveland. Crowe, Oh NO ! Tallet up in the bullpen, Cito living dangerously but he probably doesn’t care anymore now. Lifts it into shallow centre, here comes run number six. Cleveland giving a great lesson to this Toronto team on how to bring in runners. Choo, strikes out swinging. Don’t blame Marcum friends, how would you like to pitch with no run support? Pitching staff has give almost two weeks of great pitching and Jays have gone 2-8. Marcum pitch count 79. That could be it for him today unless his team has any fight.

Top 5th: The hitters now have to respond, let’s see if they want on that bus or whether they have any fight in them. Overbay, taps it to short, throw to first for the out. Molina, strikes out swinging. Green, grounds to second throw to first and that is it friends, three up and down in four minutes. Jays are a fighting. Eleven pitch inning. 61 pitches.
Bottom 5th: Here comes Tallet, good luck. Santana leading off. 3-0 and walks on four pitches, what did you expect Cito? Hafner strikes out. LaPorta grounds to third, safe at first on error by Bautista, what more can go wrong for this team? Santana to second. Duncan walks to load the bases. It is Tallet pitching. Santana at third, LaPorta at second. Nix bases loaded one down, grounds to Bautista throw to Overbay, double play ball to rescue Tallet here.

Top 6th: Lewis leading off. 2-2 count. Ball three, grounds to first steps on the bag, one down. Wise, grounds to first, nice diving save by LaPorta robs Wise of a single there, Bautista, lines it to left for third out Jays should be in New York by 3.00pm today at this rate. Heads will be a rolling tonight or maybe before the team leaves Cleveland. Encarnacion should be recalled, is playing very well in Vegas. That’s for a start. Someone to replace Hill and Lind but Cito will never do that. Eleven pitch inning. 72 pitch count.
Bottom 6th: Marte, leading off, fly ball to Wells one down. Donald, swinging away here, Cleveland also wanting to get an early night on the town. Singles to left centre. One on one down. Criwe, singles into left past diving Green. Two on one down for Choo, strikes out swinging, two down for Hafner. Grounds to second throw to first for third out. Hafner taking pity on the hapless Jays here.

Top 7th: Last nine outs. Masterson is 2-7 on the season…. What is wrong with this team? Wells leading off. 0-7 in the last two games and he wants our vote for All-Star game, sorry Vernon ? You have to earn mine. 0-2 count. Strikes out swinging. One down for Lind. Casey Janssen warming up. High fly ball to right two down. Hill, another 0fer. Pops it up into shallow centre, gets on board just. He will take it the way he is playing but don’t expect him to steal or even try.But he could try at least to distract Masterson. Two down for Overbay. 2-0 count. Full count. Hill will be running. Single into right. Hill running gets to third on the play. Molina with two on but two down. Now how about a suicide squeeze here Cito? No grounds to second throw to first. 89 pitches.
Bottom 7th: Janssen now pitching. Hafner leading off. Full count. Strikes out swinging. LaPorta, strikes out swinging, totally fooled by Janssen at that at bat, one swing was ridiculous turning him around 180. Duncan, hit by this pitch. One on for Nix, 1-2 count. Pops it up to Green very nice running catch.

Top 8th: Jays down to their last six at bats. One run for each. Green leading off. Materson finishing this one. Pops it up to third, one down. Lewis, pops it to third, two down. Wise, grounds to short, throw to first. 99 pitches, he will be out to finish it off.
Bottom 8th: One good thing about losing away is that Jays bullpen gets four more innings of rest not pitching in the ninth. They will get lots of work in New York. Janssen still out there, should be finishing this one off just barely two hours Marte leading off grounds back to Janssen throw to first one down. Nix, grounds to Green at shirt, good throw to first to just get him, two down. Crowe, grounds to third, Bautista makes nice play to get to it but the bobble costs him on the throw not in time. Choo with one on. Grounds to Green throw to second for the out. This nightmare is over. At least they don’t have to see any more Cleveland hitters.

Top 9th: Jays need six runs to tie. Strange game with all the runs in one inning but one would have been enough today as Jays fight the embarrassment of the shutout here. Bautista leading off. Doubles to the wall in centre, now they show some fight? Wells, can he bring him in. 0-3 today. High fly ball to the left wall, one down. Bautista has to stick. Lind, whoa… grounds to short, going to third but Bautista sliding beats the tag and Lind also safe at first. Hill, singles to left and yes friends the Jays score a RUN. Bringing in a player in scoring position for the first time today. 6-1 Cleveland. Two on one down for Overbay, singles to right, bases loaded. Not sure why they held Lind at third there little over-cautious or is it perhaps unused to seeing runners at third. That’s it for Masterson could not finish the job here. No shutout for him today. Jays have eight hits and one run. Four hits in this inning. Herrmann now pitching. Molina with bases loaded. Fouling them off here. Grounds to short, on to second over to first yes friends another game ending double play ball. Should Cito have pinch hit for Molina? Get some speed out there?

On to New York, tomorrow Burnett v Cecil.

The good: Nothing today for this Jays team. Marcum started well but could not finish it, had one lousy inning. Bullpen helped preserve it at 6-0 but not sure that was good pitching or Indians cruising. I have a feeling the latter.

The bad/very bad. Everyone in the lineup. I don’t take the ninth as any good sign. Yes they woke up in the ninth but four games too late in my opinion. This was probably the most embarrassing series for them this season. Losing four, getting swept by a team that was more than 20 below .500 and looking so awful the whole series.
Yankees must be salivating for this series.