Jays not mentally prepared tonight as they lose 2-1 despite home run from Buck

Game three and series finale. Jays v Rays. Wednesday September 1.

Tough news re Overbay suffering concussion evidently from that collision with Tallet, it had to be Tallet of all players. What more damage can he do? But seriously not funny reminiscent of Hill collision with Eckstein two seasons ago.

Lineups: Jays: Lewis, McDonald, Bautista, Wells, Lind, Buck, Hill, Arencibia, McCoy. Very sad lineup. Sorry Wise is not back in lineup, he added so much last night. NO Snider, No Overbay, No Escobar. Cito who knows what he is doing but this very definitely a second team out there. Not the best way to play against Tampa at home.

Rays: Upton, Jennings, Crawford, Longoria, Pena, Rodriguez, Hawpe, Navarro, Bartlett.
Pitching: Price v Marcum.

Top 1st: Lewis leading off. Grounds first pitch to second throw to first, one down. McDonald, 3-0 count, ball four, see Fred, this is what leadoff should be doing. Bautista one down one on. Whoa just misses that one high into left foul. Close very close. 0-2 count, 2-2 count, oh man, McDonald stealing but Price has him picked off and beats the throw, that was very lucky. Full count, now he goes again and out at third, not good Johnny Mc. Ball four. Wells, two down, why oh why would McDonald even think of that with Bautista at bat? 2-2 count, strike three looking. McDonald brain cramp hurts here. Price is looking really shaky. Pitch count 19. If Lewis had been more patient, and if Johnny Mc had not lost it, this could have been very different inning with higher pitch count. So important to get a good start and especially against Tampa.
Bottom 1st: Upton leading off. 1-2 count, long fly ball to Lewis in left, well hit but not far enough, one down, Jennings, rookie making debut here, grounds to McDonald at third, throw to first for second out. Another speedster like Crawford. Crawford at bat, two down, 0-2 count, strikes out swinging, good start for Marcum Pitch count 11.

Top 2nd: Lind leading off, 0-2 count, strikes out looking on three pitches. Buck, one down, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down for Hill, 2-1 count, lines it to third, great play by Longoria to save a hit there and throw to first for third out. Pitch count 30. Jays hitters may regret that first inning when Price was wild.
Bottom 2nd: Baltimore jumping on Lester in first inning, already four runs. Longoria, lines it right at McCoy for fine catch, one down, Pena, with shift right, this gamble is going to backfire one day. Pulls it to Lind at first, throw to Marcum for second out. Rodriguez, 2-2 count, lines it to the wall in right centre, stand up triple. Hawpe making debut with Tampa, with two down and one on. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging, nice pitch. Pitch count 25.

Top 3rd: Arencibia back in the big show for the last month. Faded after that great first game debut. Has he learned anything? Grounds softly to Longoria at third, throw to first, one down. McCoy, 1-1 count, grounds to Rodriguez at second hustling down the line and safe on the error at first on the throw. Mikey can run. Lewis now with runner at first. 0-2 count, grounds to Longoria at third, thinks of second but throws to first to get Lewis. Two down with McCoy at second, McDonald, needs to redeem himself with the bat now. 1-1 count, pops up to short for third out. Pitch count 41.
Bottom 3rd: Navarro leading off. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging, one down for Bartlett, singles into shallow right. Upton with one on and one down. 0-2 count, strikes him out looking on three pitches. Two down. Jennings, 3-1 count, there goes Bartlett; great throw by Buck gets him at second. Pitch count 39.

Top 4th: Bautista leading off, lines it softly to left but Bartlett dives for this one, to get it, not hit very hard, off the end of the bat, and able to make the catch. One down. Wells, 1-2 count, grounds to Bartlett, throw just gets Vernon at first. Two down, Lind, grounds slowly to Rodriguez at second, throw to first just gets Lind. Pitch count 50.
Bottom 4th: Jennings leading off, full count, strikes out swinging, one down. Crawford pops up first pitch to McCoy in shallow centre, two down. Longoria, grounds to McCoy at short, not a good throw to Lind but gets the out. Pitch count 49.

Top 5th: That first inning looks awfully important right now and McDonald and Lewis contributions. Leading off, Buck, full count, YES John, Goodbye ball, high into left field seats, 1-0 Jays. Hill, pops up to Bartlett at short, one down. Arencibia, 0-2 count, strikes out, overmatched I am afraid. Two down for McCoy. 1-1 count, grounds to first for the third out. Pitch count 66.
Bottom 5th: Marcum has a lead although a very stingy one run. Pena leading off, full count, grounds to McDonald playing at second with the right shift on, flips to first one down. Rodriguez, full count, gets hold of this one, lines it into left field seats. 1-1 game. Hawpe, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging, number six strikeout for Marcum two down for Navarro, 2-2 count, singles up the middle, two out one on for ever dangerous Bartlett. Doubles into right field corner, Navarro holds at third, might have had a chance at scoring but playing safe. Upton. Here comes Cito just to have a chat. 70 pitch count though. Intentional walk to Upton. Jennings with bases loaded. full count. Don’t walk him with Crawford on deck. Jennings nubber in front of the plate, here comes Marcum and flips it to Buck to just get Navarro. That was much too close. Pitch count 82.

Top 6th: Lewis leading off 2-2 count, Fred fouling them off here. Strikes out but it took nine pitches, we needed that to start the game Fred. McDonald, 1-2 count, grounds to Longoria, throw to first, two down. Bautista doubles opposite field hit to right centre, Wells two down one in scoring position. The usual Vernon, pops up first pitch to shallow right. Almost as if this team wants to lose this one. But not good hitting whatever they call it. Pitch count 85 gives Price at least one more inning.
Bottom 6th: Snider now in left for Lewis. Crawford leading off. Probably last inning for Marcum. He has not pitched very well tonight, too many deep and full counts. Full count, ball four. Now the bullpen working, Camp. WHOA!!!! Crawford running, throw by Buck from the knees gets him. great throw to get Crawford. Visit to mound with Cito and trainer, but says he is ok. Looks like his neck. Longoria, 0-2 count, grounds back to Marcum throw to Lind, two down. Pena, two down, another full count, strikes out to end this one. Pitch count 101.

Top 7th: Lind leading off, hitless tonight, but so are five of his teammates tonight. 1-1 count, grounds to Pena at first, one down for Buck, lines first pitch to centre, but Upton has it, two down for Hill, grounds first pitch to Pena at first for the out. Two first pitch outs, says it all tonight for this Jays lineup, not in this game at all tonight. Five pitch inning and Price gets another inning. Pitch count 90.
Bottom 7th: Meantime Marcum is out of the game. Seven strikeouts but six innings for 1-1 pitches not good enough. Camp now pitching, Rodriguez 2-1 count, singles into centre. Hawpe, there goes Rodriguez, throw not good and safe at second, 1-2 count, Downs now warming up in bullpen. Strikes out swinging, one down. Navarro, 2-2 count, grounds to Hill, throw to Lind to get him, two down and Rodriguez to third on the play. Bartlett, 1-2 count. Grounds to McDonald at third, throw to Lind to end this inning.

Top 8th: Arencibia leading off, has not looked at ease at all tonight. Finding it a lot harder than Vegas. 2-2 count, doesn’t even move his bat strike three looking, totally overmatched. One down, for McCoy, 0-2 count, I don’t think these kids are ready Cito. Grounds to Bartlett, throw high away at first. McCoy safe on the error. Snider now. 2-1 count, Benoit working in Rays bullpen. Very late call, 2-2. Strikes out swinging. McDonald, pops up to shallow right for the out.
Bottom 8th: Upton leading off, Camp still out there. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. Does not like it, first base umpire says yes. One down for Zobrist, pinch hitting for Jennings, full count, ball four. Cito out there. Downs pitching. Crawford with one on and one down. This could be the game. Crawford singles into left. Two on. Longoria, 3-1 count. Singles to Snider in left, here comes Zobrist, 2-1 Rays. Prophetic. Still two on and one down, Rays are not finished here. Pena, Downs throws to second into centre field, that was very poor plain dumb play by Downs. That is a percentage play that hardly ever works, how many have we seen thrown out by the pitcher at second? and yet how many times do we see the pitcher throw it away? Now the double play is out. Both runners in scoring position. Awful. 2-0 count. Grounds to Hill, throw to Lind for second out. Rodriguez, will they pitch to him? No intentional walk to load the bases. Baldelli on deck, no now he sits down it is Hawpe hitting, Maddon trying to psyche out Cito. Downs still has to get this guy out. 1-2 count. Whoa strikes out swinging. Downs escapes big-time here after his error. However Jays are still behind in this game.

Top 9th: Zobrist in right. Soriano pitching 39/41 saves. Bautista leading off. Two big swings 1-2 count. Jose fouling them off here. Grounds to Longoria at third, throw to Pena at first, one down. Wells, 0-2 count, there we go Vernon, lines it to the wall in centre left and Vernon going to third on the throw. Now one down and Vernon at third, can they bring him in here? Lind 2-2 count, strikes out swinging. Cito might have to start thinking of pinch hitting for Lind in the 9th. Jays down to their last out. Buck, 2-2 count. Gets hold of it high fly ball to Crawford at the track in left for third out, that is what we needed Lind to do. Tying run left at third.

Post-game: Jays lose game and series once again with the Rays. This the seventh one run game out of fifteen games between these two teams this season. Interestingly only the second one the Jays have lost. They have three more games left this season, next weekend in Toronto. Time for revenge and maybe knock Rays out of first place again. Series totals to date Jays have won seven and lost eight. Three to go. But importantly Rays are no longer dominating the Jays they used to in previous seasons.

This one was lost in the very first inning with Lewis leadoff. Price was definitely shaky that first inning and Lewis should have been taking pitches not going after the first pitch out. He is the leadoff hitter. This was compounded by very poor base running by McDonald trying to steal third with Bautista at the plate ??? Where was his head? Ditto for Downs with that attempted pickoff throw to second in the 8th. Looks like the mental toughness is lacking right now with this team.
Beyond Bautista, Buck home run and Wells final at bat triple, this was pretty weak lineup out there tonight. Arencibia clearly not ready for the majors, McCoy trying hard but not an Escobar. First pitch swinging and outs. Compare to Rays and the deep counts to Marcum.

Jays now go into New York for big series starting Thursday, Tampa wishing them well as obviously if Jays do well it helps them. My concern, beyond Cito putting out a competitive lineup, is the weather and impending Earl storm due Friday in New York that could wipe out the game at night and face double header on Sunday.