Jays embarrass themselves with bush league performance and worst game of the season

Game three of four. Rays v Jays. Saturday September 11.

Very tough loss last night, that would make it difficult to get up this morning. However I suggest that Jays had a great deal to be proud of in that game. Down and out in the very first inning by six. Playing a team that is still fighting Yankees for Division title and Jays get off the floor and score eight against Shields one of the best pitchers in the AL. Overall they have played Rays tough this season and far better than last when they were the doormats for Tampa. No longer and they know that they are getting better. Two more to go. Let’s see what they can do.

Lineups: Rays: Upton, Bartlett, Crawford, Longoria, Zobrist, Pena, Rodriguez, Hawpe, Shopppach.
Jays: Lewis, Escobar, Bautista, Wells, Overbay, Hill, Lind, Molina, Snider.
Pitching: Romero v Davis.

Top 1st: Upton leading off, pops up to catcher Jose Molina. One down for Bartlett, strikes out. Two down for Crawford, pops up to Bautista at third to end the inning. Anytie Rays do not score is definitely a good inning in my book.
Bottom 1st: Lewis leading off, strikes out. Escobar one on, singles to left. Two on and nobody out. Bautista, great applause for this guy. It will be interesting to see how his home run quest impacts the crow this weekend. Not here, pops up to Crawford in left. Two down. Wells pops up to Rodriguez at second to end the inning..
Top 2nd: Longoria leading off, singles to centre. Zobrist lines out to right field Lewis. Pena with one down, strikes out. Rodriguez, two down, strikes out.
Bottom 2nd: Overbay leading off pops up to Upton in centre. One down for Hill. Singles to left. Lind 3-0 and ball four, walked on four pitches, Hill to second with only one down.
Molina strikes out. Snider strikes out.

Top 3rd: - Hawpe leading off fly ball to Wells in centre, one down. Shoppach strikes out. Upton strikes out. Very nice Ricky.
Bottom 3rd: Lewis leading off pops up to Crawford in left, one down. Escobar doubles to right. Bautista grounds to Longoria at third throw to Pena at first. Two down for Wells lines out to Crawford. Three up and down.

Top 4th: Bartlett leading off 3-0 and ball four, walks on four pitches. Crawford, oh come on Ricky, hit by a pitch, Bartlett to second. Two on and nobody out. Longoria, strikes out. One down. Zobrist, doubles to right. Here comes Bartlett, here comes Crawford and Rays get their first runs today. 2-0 Rays. Pena full count and ball four, second walk, Romero has lost it here. Romero's wild pitch, Zobrist to third. Rodriguez walks, bases loaded, Pena to second. Hawpe, there she goes, into right seats, grand slam Hawpe and Rays go out 6-0. Romero has been hammered today. 6-0 Rays. Shoppach hit by pitch. No surely not a payback here. Rays ignore it but note for Dunedin probably. Upton strikes out. Two down for Bartlett pops up to Wells. What an inning. Three walks, a hit batter, wild pitch and grand slam to go with the six runs.
Bottom 4th: Jays have a long hill to climb for the second day in a row but I don’t think we will see yesterday’s fight back again here. Overbay leading off, full count, that will do it Lyle, lines this into the seats in centre field. Home run Lyle. 6-1 Rays. Hill pops up to Longoria at third. Lind strikes out. Molina two down lines out to Longoria.

Top 5th: No more Romero, just didn’t have it today. Still has that inconsistency but let’s see how he bounces back next game. Mills now pitching. Crawford leading off strikes out. one down Longoria pops up Escobar. Two down. Zobrist, doubles to left.Pena doubles to centre, here comes Zobrist. 7-1 Rays. Rodriguez strikes out. p of 6th
Bottom 5th: Snider leading off singles to left. It’s a start. Lewis grounds to Pena at first throw to Bartlett back to.Davis, double play ball. Jays get no breaks today. Escobar singles to right. Bautista full count and ball four Escobar to second. Now that double play by Lewis really hurts them. Wells hits infield single to centre, bases loaded, Escobar at third, Bautista at second. That would have been a run. Overbay with bases loaded, great chance here to get back in this, strikes out.

Top 6th: Hawpe leading off pops up flied out to Lewis, one down. Shoppach full count and ball four. Upton, another passed ball, Shoppach to second. Upton another full count, ball four. Mills is no improvement, just as bad as Romero. Bartlett pops up to Lewis in right, Shoppach tags on the throw and gets to third. Crawford, NO, lines it to right, this is more trouble, here comes Shoppach, here comes Upton form first and Crawford has yet another triple, he must love this place. The second triple in three games. 9-1 Rays. I don’t see Jays scoring eight today. Longoria pops it up to Lewis leaving Crawford at third.
Bottom 6th: Hill leading off grounds to Bartlett throw to Pena, one down. Lind pops up to Upton in centre. Two down for Molina, pops up to Upton. Quick inning for Davis.

Top 7th: Zobrist leading off pops up to Lewis. one down. Pena strikes out. Rodriguez fly ball to Snider in left. When did we last have that three up and down? Rays want on the town. Film Festival first weekend in Toronto.
Bottom 7th: Snider leading off pops up to Zobrist, one down. Lewis ball four, walks.
Escobar pops up to Crawford. Two down. Bautista, passed ball, Lewis moves to second. Bautista strikes out. Davis still overpowering these Jays hitters today.

Top 8th: Rommie Lewis now pitching. Hawpe leading off singles to centre. One on for Shoppach, there she goes home run to left, two runs score and 11-1 Rays. Jennings pinch-hitting for Upton. Still nobody out. Jennings doubles to right.Bartkett with yet another runner in scoring position. Lines it to centre and look at this guy run, Jenings scores 12-1 Rays. Bartlett has a triple. Imagine a team with two who get triples in the same inning. Fortunately Jays new GM sees it the same way and will be changing the one-dimensional game that they currently play. Jays get a break here no Crawford,
Joyce pinch-hitting for Crawford. Doesn’t make any difference, grounds to Bautista at third throw to Overbay for the first (yes the first out), run scores 13-1 Rays. Rubbing it in bigtime but with the pitching this bad No Longoria Aybar. 3-0 count, ball four. This woul be hilarious if it were another team, this is just sad, Mills has nothing . Finally Cito has pity on the fans, forget Mills. Purcey now pitching. Wild pitch, well why not. Aybar to second. Zobrist full count, ball four another walk, I have forgotten how many outs there are now. This has to be the most embarrassing performance by Jays pitchers for many a long time. Brignac pinch-hitting for Pena, strikes out. Huge Bronx cheers from the few who are left. Two down, Rodriguez at least he is swinging, the others were just walking pops up to Wells. Mercifully. SEVEN walks today let alone the hit batter and wild pitches. A comedy of errors indeed.
Bottom 8th: All change, reserves now in there. Jennings at centre field. Joyce in at left Aybar at third. Zobrist at first. Brignac at short. Hawpe at right. Oh yes and Wheeler pitching. Wise leading off pinch-hitting for Wells. Vernon needs a rest ? Wise grounds to Rodriguez at second throw to Zobrist. One down for Overbay, fly ball to Jennings in center. McCoy pinch-hitting for Hill. At least he has an excuse with his knee. McCoy lines out to Joyce in left for third out.

Top 9th: All change on Jays bench. Johnny Mc. at short, I would love to see him in place of Escobar the way he is fielding. He would have had that double play yesterday. It looks as if Escobar cannot handle the guy coming at him on those double plays. He had better learn. Hoffpauir in at third. Wise in centre. McCoy in at second. Arencibia catching. Have I missed anyone? Hawpe leading off strikes out. Shoppach strikes out. Jennings pops up to Overbay. Poor Lyle no one on the bench who can give him an inning off.
Bottom 9th: Ekstrom now pitching to finish this team off or put them out of their misery might be more apt. Lind leading off grounds to Rodriguez at second, throw to Zobrist. One down. Arencibia lines to Jennings in centre. to center fielder Jennings.
Snider lines to Jennings in centre. Three up and down very quickly.

Let’s get out of here but they have to come back tomorrow and show some backbone. Make no mistake there will be no freebie tomorrow from the Rays, they need every single win and will be fighting for it. These games are at least showing the fans how far this team still has to go to compete. Romero in particular is not yet a Halladay, it would have been a wakeup call to him today. But the bats also seem to be taking more days off recently.
Nothing good about today at all. Probably their worst performance this year without a doubt.

Bad, where do we start? Has to be Jays pitching and lets name all four of the culprits. Romero, Mills, Lewis and Purcey pitching as if it were the first week of spring training. Awfuu is far too weak for this collective performance.