Jays fail to sweep Twins despite many chances.

Jays v Twins. Game three Sunday April 3rd.

Jays going for the sweep but somehow I don’t think Twins will make it that easy. Plus Brett Cecil has one big question mark over him. One of the pluses for Jays is that they have been into the Twins bullpen twice already and that is always good extra pressure on the starter for a third game. No Toronto Manager has gone 3-0 to start a season. Pressure, pressure. Great crowd today they should go over the 100,000 for the weekend series which is great.

Lineups: Twins: Span, Nishioka, Young, Morneau, Cuddyer, Kubel, Valencia, Butera and Tolbert. Nick Blackburn pitching.

Jays: Escobar leading off with Davis still with injured ankle, Rivera, DH today, Bautista, Lind, Hill, Encarnacion at third oh boy. Snider, Arencibia, McCoy in centre for Davis and Cecil pitching.

Top 1st: Span strikes out, Nishioka, strikes out Young, strikes out swinging, Cecil on fire to start with. Strikes out the side.
Bottom 1st: Escobar leading off, didn’t like his taking just one pitch yesterday, he is leadoff and should be seeing a few if only for the guy behind him, much better takes a few here, grounds to third Valencia throw to Cuddyer at first, one down. Rivera, here we go singles to right. Bautista bobble head man today Jose Bautista, singles to Young in left, two on crowd liking this. Lind has his chance here, not like that, grounds to short on to second over to first, double play ball to end that one. Not good start by Lind. Takes crowd out of game as well with that dampener.

Top 2nd: Morneau leading off. Grounds to Hill at second throw to Lind, one down. Cuddyer, Lines hard at Escobar, two down. Kubel, grounds to Hill throw to Lind, one two three, good inning by Cecil.
Bottom 2nd: This game is racing along…. 20 minutes. Hill leading off. Grounds to Tolbert at short, throw to Cuddyer at first, one down. Encarnacion, fly ball to Span in centre, two down. Snider, that’s the way Travis, singles to right. Friday night’s hero, JP Arencibia, nice ovation from the crowd, tough to follow two home run and triple game though, fly ball to Span in centre. Jays are leaving them out there today.

Top 3rd: Valencia leading off, oh dear, gets hold of this one fly ball to left and this one is going out of here over the fence in left. Twins strike early today 1-0 Twins. Butera fly ball to Bautista for first out. Tolbert grounds to Escobar throw to Lind, two down. Top of the line-up Span, walks, one on two down for Nishioka, pops up to Hill to end this but Twins strike first.
Bottom 3rd: McCoy bunts (of course) back to the Blackburn, throw to first for a wasted at bat. I wish he would give this up. McCoy does this every single game, he should know by now that it is no longer any surprise to any team, yesterday he was lucky his bunt pop up to first was not caught. Come on Mike give it up and swing away. Escobar takes a walk. One on one down for Rivera, who singled in the first. Not this time, grounds to second on to short covering second on to Cuddyer at first double play ball. Second time Jays have done that to end innings. I think Farrell has to start sending the runners at first today and stay out of those plays. 40 minutes for the first three innings. What’s the rush? It’s an off day tomorrow.

Top 4th: Young pops up to Hill, Morneau fly ball to McCoy in centre, two down. Cuddyer, here we go again, grounds to Encarnacion throws it away, error to Edwin, one on two down for Kubel. Encarnacion one inning closer to his benching. Come on John you have Nix now who can field. Cuddyer going and great throw to Escobar by Arencibia gets him stealing. Whoa that gets the crowd back in this. Encarnacion off the hook but still needs out. Two errors already this weekend and he didn’t play at third yesterday.
Bottom 4th: Lind, singles to centre, we needed that first time up with runners on Adam. Hill, grounds to third throw to Cuddyer at first to get Aaron but Lind moves into scoring position AND the good news is that Encarnacion cannot hit into a double play! Even better, grounds to Nishioka, throws the ball away here comes Lind running on the play and scores 1-1 game and Encarnacion gets to second on the error. Snider strikes out but Jays have tied this up for Cecil.

Top 5th: Miguel Cabrera hitting the Yankees pitcher Hughes around has two home runs already in first two at bats 5-2 Detroit with 4 RBIs for Miguel. Kubel singles to centre on full count pitch. Valencia, walks him, come on Cecil. Still no one out. Butera, bunting a great one, back to Cecil, throw not in time, bases loaded and no one out. Major trouble for Cecil here. Tolbert batting. Singles to Snider in left, here comes Kubel to score, here comes Valencia behind him the throw beats him and out at the plate. Nice throw Travis. One down 2-1 Twins. Span singles to left, bases loaded up again. Cecil not having a good time out there right now. Needs a ground ball. Nishioka singles to left, Butera scores,3-1 Twins. Bases remain loaded. Young pops up to Hill, two down, a break there, just one more Brett . Oh boy bases loaded for Morneau. You don’t want this guy connecting. Full count, you just can’t do this Cecil. Lucky guy, fly ball to Snider to get out of this mess, but Twins have pulled ahead 3-1 and I would say they have Cecil’s number now. 75 pitches.
Bottom 5th: In New York five home runs now as Yankees get two back 5-4 game. Arencibia leading off full count and fly ball to centre. One down for McCoy. That’s better Mikey, singles to short and beats out the throw. One on, now for some speed and a steal here. Escobar grounds to third throw to first to get Yunel but McCoy on the hit and run is at second in scoring position for Rivera pops up to Tolbert.

Top 6th: Does Cecil have anything left for one more inning? No that’s it Farrell has seen more than enough, here comes Casey Janssen to try and hold Twins and give the hitters a chance to get those runs back. Cecil only goes five and 75 pitches. Blackburn on 84 and may be also close to the end. Cuddyer leading off. Singles to centre. One on for Kubel. Singles to Bautista in right, Cudddyer to third on the play. Trouble again. Valencia, strikes out, one down. Butera, fly ball to Bautista, Tolbert ground to Hill throw to Lind and Casey escapes damage.
Bottom 6th: Now for Jays hitters to get to Blackburn, their last chance before the Twins bullpen closes this one down. Yet another home run in Yankee Stadium and for the good guys. Detroit Boesch has a two run shot to get Tigers out ahead 7-4. Bautista leading off. Yes Jose. Bobblehead man does it again blasts this one in to left field seats, home run number two this weekend for Jose. 3-2 game. Lind grounds to first, one down. Hill grounds to Valencia throw to Cuddyer at first two down. Encarnacion ground to third, ohhhh error on the play and Edwin is safe at first, for the second time today on an error, what is it with this guy? All three errors have involved him today. That’s it for Blackburn, Mijares now pitching, Snider with one on and two down. Strikes out.

Top 7th: Jason Frasor now pitching. Span leading off. Grounds to Hill throw to Lind, one down. Nishioka, strikes out, two down. Young with two down. Fly ball to Bautista in right three up and down nine pitch inning for Frasor. I guess we will see Rauch make his debut today as there is an off-day tomorrow.
Bottom 7th: Time for Jays to break this one open here. Yankees have come back yet again with home run game number 7 today !!! Slugfest, who will be standing at the end? Posada’s second home run of the day. Arencibia leading off back here in Toronto. JP walks, that’s ok, one on for McCoy, just move him over Mikey, don’t try to be a hero. Good boy, takes another walk. Now, top of the order, we need some hits here Yunel. That’s it for Mijares too many balls there, Capps now pitching. Escobar bunting nice job, back to Capps over to first to get Yunel but both runners move into scoring position for Rivera, time for a statement here Juan. Not like that grounds back to Capps throw to first for second out, runners have to hold. Not good Juan. Bautista now, can he do it ? just a base hit will do it Jose. Oh no, fly ball to Span in centre, Jays waste great opportunity here. 0-7 with runners in scoring position, that is awful, awful… and fast becoming Jays Achilles heel.

Top 8th: Rzepczynski replacing Frasor. Morneau singles to Encarnacion at third. Cuddyer, Casilla pinch running for Morneau, this is important run for Twins. Cuddyer, that’s better, grounds to Hill flip to Escobar throw to Lind, double play ball. Two down for Kubel. No,no, hits him. One on two down. Jason Repko pinch running for Kubel. Shawn Camp now in to get Valencia. No, lines it to Encarnacion at third, oh boy another error on Edwin, Repko to third and Valencia to second on the play. Encarnacion in the middle of everything that goes sour but that is two on the game and now three errors in three games, your clock is ticking Edwin. Butera, strikes out swinging. Jays are using up a lot of their lives today. Time to get it going themselves.
Bottom 8th: Glen Perkins now pitching, Lind leading off. Fly ball to Span in centre, Adam becoming big disappointment early this season, he has to start to show some consistency or move down the ladder. He will be no protection for Bautista the opposition will start pitching around Jose to get to Lind. Hill, grounds to Tolbert throw to Cuddyer, two easy outs here. Encarnacion a lot to make up for today. Strikes out swinging. Awful inning.

Top 9th: Jo Rauch making Toronto debut, nice ovation. Tolbert leading off. Pops up to Encarnacion , one down. Span, Oh dear, this is trouble, that will clear the crowd out, home run to right and Twins go two up 4-2. Nishioka, full count, ball four. One on one down for Young, Rauch not making his case here for closer role very well. That’s better grounds to Escobar takes it himself for one over to Lind double play to end this one but Jays have to get two now.
Bottom 9th: Joe Nathan now to close this one out. Snider, that’s the way Travis, singles to second. One on for Arencibia. Fly ball to Young in left. One down for McCoy, not pinch hitting here John ? That’s the way Mikey doubles to Repko in right, crowd back in this one now, two in scoring position one down for top of the order. Base hit will tie this one up. Two chances for the Jays. Escobar, can he do it ? 2-0 count, Nathan being careful here. This will do one, fly ball to Span in centre, Snider scores, McCoy to third. Rivera now last chance with McCoy at third. 3-1 count, Nathan has to come to him or lose him. Ball four, loses him. This is the matchup Jays want. Big guy now earn your millions Jose. Fly ball is not enough, but they may pitch around him to get to Lind. Nix pinch running for Rivera. 2-2 count after 0-2, Bautista has nerves. Full count. Nix will be running, his run counts, do you pitch to Bautista or rate your chances? Bautista walks to load the bases. Try their luck with Lind. Good guess Lind grounds out. Well Jays had their chances to win this one. Lots of them.

The good: Has to be the bullpen of Janssen, Camp, Rzepcynzski and Frasor to keep Jays in this one.
The not so good: Cecil started well but let it get away from him in the fifth where this game was lost. McCoy and his wasted bunt attempts. Lind, is not providing good support to Bautista. Twice this game. In the first inning with two on he grounds into double play. That set the tone and took crowd out. And in the ninth with game on the line, they walk Bautista to get to Lind who cannot come thorugh with bases loaded and game on the line. Does Adam have a problem here and freeze under pressure? He is the cleanup guy, maybe not for long.
Problem is that this runners in scoring position issue seems to run through the team looking at the stats. Rauch ? well did not get the job done and that is it. That one run was the difference.

The awful: The hitters 0-6 with runners in scoring position. Jays have to solve this and it may be Farrell has to use pinch hitters Nix and even Johnny Mc. They cannot be worse than Lind and Rivera.

The really terrible: Encarnacion with two more errors at third, if he is going to play at all please put him DH John. Preferably get Nix in there.

The trivia. Tigers hold on to beat Yankees 10-7. Red Sox losing for third game in a row. Major inquisition in Red Six Nation tomorrow…. 0-3 is not what they forecast. AND Orioles sweep Rays at Tropicana Field for first time since 2005, this team is one to watch this season.