Jays v Oakland A's.Game three.
Great atmosphere here today with the many thousands of students. I counted 84 groups listed on the Jumbotron. Noise noise noise… and enthusiasm… great to hear. I can also see quite a few suits taking long lunch and overall a very good crowd for 12.30 on a Thursday. Let’s hope the baseball will be as good.
Lineups: Oakland: Crisp, Barton, Jackson, Willingham, Kouzmanoff, Matsui, Suzuki, LaRoche, Pennington and Cahill pitching.
Jays: Davis, Nix, Lind, Hill, Rivera, Encarnacion, Snider, Arencibia, McDonald and Romero pitching.
This game had superb pitching from both starters. Romero was excellent but Cahill was even better. Ricky had three walks and Cahill nothing but strikeouts. Eight innings and seven strikeouts with only one run. Romero 7.1 innings and only five strikeouts but three walks.
Jays definitely missed Bautsita and Escobar today, this team is weaker without them in the lineup. Plus Rivera and Encarnacion at six and seven puts a huge hole in this lineup. Even so Jays could have won this thing without too much trouble.
Pitching duel for seven innings with Jays going ahead in the bottom of the sixth 1-0.
In the eighth. Romero’s major error when he threw to first to get Pennington instead of third to get LaRoche. He had plenty of time to get LaRoche and also inexplicably looks to third before turning and throwing to first. What was that all about? Even Arencibia was shouting third. Because when Frasor comes in and strikes out Crisp the next hitter, the wild pitch enables LaRoche to come in and score, at worst he would have gone to third. And more importantly Crisp could steal second but not third. Barton strikes out and that was two down. Even though Jackson singles to left they may not have risked Crisp being thrown out at the plate by Snider. Worse case scenario was just one run which ties the game.
The very good: Yes Romero for seven and then whatever happened? Hill definitely hot hot…. His hits and also his stolen base despite the motive to escape the double play behind him. One superb defensive play. Ditto Travis Snider with throw from left to get runner easily at third.
The good: Nix playing third (that is good in itself) but to add single and a stolen base emphasises the lack of production from that other guy. Lind single, Arenciba double in the sixth inning and Nix single to bring him in. The crowd on paper around 20,000 but double that in noise value. The only problem was that the Jays for the second year on School Day did not give them much to get excited about and took out that advantage.
The not so good: Romero in the 8th. Should have thrown to third to get LaRoche, had loads of time and his decision left everyone in my area wondering out loud what he was doing…. To leave a guy on third with one out is far, far worse than a guy on first with one out. It changed the whole game literally. Don’t blame Frasor for this one. AND today Johnny Mc. gets the goat award, his bunting attempt and striking out was not his style. Why oh why was he bunting on strike two ?
Only four hits for the Jays today, I think they missed Bautista and Escobar (understatement).
The awful: Rivera and Encarnacion. Rivera .059 batting average has now just one hit in 20 at bats, time to pull the plug on the experiment John. Plus his poor range in right was highlighted on the double to the corner. The only good thing today about the other guy (Encarnacion) is that his usual ground out did not lead to a double play as Hill had already stolen second, perhaps that is the answer, take a pitch to allow the runner to get to second before doing his usual groundout. In fact that might even move the runner over to third if he could find a way to go to right. Fortunately always a sunny side to the dark cloud, and Nix is providing it. Single and a stolen base and a couple of good plays at third make us realise that all is not lost if Edwin has to sit or perhaps Alex can trade him to Boston.
Jays miss golden opportunity this week to sweep BOTH series and head out west 6-0. Yes 4-2 is very good and we will have to be satisfied.
The good footnotes: Boston lose numero six in a row…. First time since 1945.. this is worse than the crisis at the White House tonight and will probably get more coverage in the Boston media than the government shutdown.
This team was predicted to be THE best Boston team ever, and at $180 million payroll is definitely underperforming and that is an understatement. Now those last six losses in Florida take on greater perspective. Were they the early signs of meltdown? Ah well always the next series right at fenway… ooops looks like the Yankees are coming to town….. stay tuned. Meantime the Rays lose another to White Sox and are also 6-0 but without the earth shattering impact as many had predicted thus.
Not so good footnotes: Dotel being activated is bad enough but for Casey Janssen ??? That is one horrible twist of fate for Casey and Jays fans unless Dotel has suddenly discovered the elixir of youth in his rehab since the spring because he was one awful looking pitcher then. Very tough on Janssen who has done everything and more that he had been asked to do and is much too good to be in Vegas and goes down there with an .000 ERA. Sure he has options, but it still leaves a lousy taste in the mouth.
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