Jays v Angels. Game three.
Rough night for Jays but have only themselves to blame. The Davidson decision in the 13th looked reasonable to me and I put the Jays over-reaction down to exhaustion of everyone, but the game was not decided on that play even if it were the wrong one. Jays had the game for taking many, many times over and with a bullpen that had eight scoreless innings (??) easy to see where the blame lies.
Today they have to show that they really are a better team and it starts with hitting with runners in position. And of course both teams are hoping for a long outing by the starters today and much needed relief for the bullpens.
Lineups: Jays: Davis, Escobar, Bautista, Lind, Hill, Rivera, Snider, Nix, Molina and Reyes pitching. Finally Encarnacion out of the line up. Last night might be the very last time we see him in the line up. No such luck, official reason for Encarnacion is that he has injury from last night’s game, whatever the reason it was good to see Nix out there.
Angels: Bourjos, Kendrick, Abreu, Hunter, Wells, Callaspo, Trumbo, Wilson, Wood and Weaver pitching.
Angels get to Reyes early in the first inning for a run with walk to Kendrick and singles to Abreu and Hunter. Reyes had to throw 30 pitches to get through the inning, not exactly what the team was looking for to eat up the innings. But he settled down and that was it until the fourth with the two run triple by Bourjos.
However that was hardly the fault of Reyes as Davis had just dropped the fly ball from Trumbo in centre to put the two on base. If Rajai had made the catch, end of inning. The triple to right centre split Davis and Bautista and obviously was the major cause of the 3-1 loss. Reyes settled and did his job by going 7.1 and 118 pitches before the bullpen of Richmond and Purcey took over for the last outs. Jays now 5-4 on the season. Weaver went with 125 pitches in 8 innings almost identical to Reyes which is really surprising. The major difference of course was the 15 strikeouts by Weaver which pushed up his pitch count.
Jays did get close in the 8th with two on with back to back walks and one down for Bautista, but Jose struck out on a full count pitch and Takahashi in relief for Weaver gets Lind.
But Jays will be glad to move north to Seattle and undoubtedly a few Jays supporters traveling south from Vancouver.
Jays with runners in scoring position looks better but they only get four hits today. The only extra base hit was double from Molina, it was that kind of day.
Singles from Escobar who had the only RBI, Snider and Johnny Mac who came in for Davis who left the game tweaking his earlier ankle injury.
Bautista was picked off by Weaver. Escobar also had two walks to get on base three times today which is a positive that he is back with little apparent symptoms of the consussion. Johnny Mac. and Bautista had the other walks. And that was the total offence for Jays today.
Turned one double play. Davis was given the error on the dropped ball from Trumbo in the fourth.
Reyes goes seven innings for 118 pitches six hits six strikeouts and all three runs by the fourth. Purcey and Richmond combine for 1 shutout inning. But I am sure that John Farrell and the team were relieved that the bullpen could get a day’s rest before Romero starts the Seattle series. Reyes may have been left out there to suck it up for a few more pitches but overall I thought he settled down and pitched well. Unfortunately there was no supporting offence today.
Jays get to Weaver in the sixth and score their only run but left two out there. Weaver walked four but struck out 15 in his 7.2 innings. But watching the Jays today that was one tired group.
They should take comfort though from the statistic that all their losses to date have been two or less runs. They have been in all of them and that should be good news for management.
Baltimore also lost today as did the hapless Rays now 1-8 on the season.
Newbies: Mike McDade tearing it up in New Hampshire, going 4-4 yesterday and 8-16 this season.
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