Romero gives this one away in the first as Jays hitters are missing

Game three of three for Rays v Jays, Easter Sunday.

Terrible crowd, but I guess it is family day today and Jays are certainly now a great attraction these days playing the way they have been for the last two weeks.

Line-ups: Rays: Fuld, Damon, Zobrist, Johnson, Upton, Lopez, Rodriguez, Shoppach, Brignac and Shields pitching.

Jays: Patterson, Escobar, Bautista, Lind, Rivera, Arencibia, Snider, McDonald, McCoy and Romero pitching. Not sure I agree with Patterson leading off, this guy does not take many pitches. This is one very light hitting lineup today after Lind besides Snider.

Top 1st: Fuld strikes out swinging, one down. Damon singles to Patterson in centre. Zobrist there it goes, into the left field seats, two run home run, we have seen this scenario before, 2-0 Rays in first inning. Johnson singles to centre. Romero not fooling anyone today so far. Upton, grounds to Johnny Mac at 3B throw to second to get Johnson, throw to Lind, error on Lind as it gets away and Upton to second, comedy of errors so far. Lopez grounds to Johnny Mac for the out, but rays have gone out ahead once again.
Bottom 1st: Patterson, grounds to Johnson at first. Escobar grounds out to short. Bautista, not getting anything to hit here, ball four, poor guy they do not want to pitch to him this season. Lind strikes out swinging.

Top 2nd: Rodriguez doubles to Bautista in right, Shoppach grounds to MacDonald at 3B. Brignac fly ball to Bautista two down. Fuld again second at bat in two innings. Strikes out for the second time. Leadoff double does not hurt Romero this time.
Bottom 2nd: Rivera lines to Brignac at short. Arencibia fly ball to Upton in centre. Snider strikes out looking. Jays go very quietly here.

Top 3rd: Damon grounds to short, throw not in time safe at first. Zobrist bunting foul, that’s better, grounds to Escobar takes it himself to second throw to Lind, double play. Nice play Yunel. Dan Johnson grounds to McCoy, throw to Lind for the out. Finally Romero settling down.
Bottom 3rd: Macdonald leading off. 3-0 count, pops up to 3B, McCoy, grounds to short, throw to first, two quick outs. Patterson 0-2 strikes out swinging on three pitches. Much too much for Jays hitters today.

Top 4th in 35 minutes !!! Rays want to get out of Toronto fast today. Romero on 50 pitches already. Upton, pops up first pitch to Bautista in right, one down for Lopez, full count strikes out, two down. Rodriguez, ball four, Shoppach, Rodriguez takes second, strikes out swinging.
Bottom 4th: Shields still only 32 pitches. Escobar, grounds to short, throw to first one down. Bautista 2-2 count, hammers this one, right at third base man Lopez, lucky guy. Lind with two down pops up to Upton in centre.

Top 5th: Brignac strikes out swinging. Fuld, strikes out swinging, Damon pops up to Patterson in centre, Corey not sure how many outs.
Bottom 5th; Rivera, grounds up the middle safe at first, Arencibia strikes out, unable to move Rivera over, I think they should move Arencibia down to bottom of the order, he is not hitting well at all., Snider, strikes out, McDonald, that’s all they have to do, just lifts it into shallow centre, two on, two down. McCoy, strikes out leaving two on.

Top 6th: 77 pitch count for Ricky. Zobrist, full count, strikes out, Dan Johnson, grounds to McCoy, throw to Lind, two down. Upton, strikes out.
Bottom 6th: Patterson leading off, that’s better lines it into right field double for Corey, Escobar now. Grounds to short, throw to first one down. Not a god at bad by Escobar, has to move the guy over. Bautista, will they walk him? full count. Throwing all kinds of soft stuff at him no fast balls to Jose. Strikes out. Lind, pops up to Upton in centre.

Top 7th: 90 pitch count for Romero. Lopez, full count, strikes out swinging. Number nine for Romero but he would exchange them all for that first inning. Rodriguez, grounds to third, throw to Lind two down. Shoppach, strikes out swinging. Ten today but still second best today.
Bottom 7th: Joe Maddon thinks he has this game in hand making defensive changes. Joyce in right, Kotchman at first and Rodriguez moves to third from second, Zobrist from right to second. Johnson and Lopez out of the game. Rivera grounds down the 3B line fine save by Rodriguez throw to first for the out. Arencibia, grounds to Rodriguez at third, throw to Kotchman at first two down. Snider, singles into centre, wakes the crowd up, they have not had much to cheer about today. McDonald, lines it to Rodriguez at third. Maddon obviously knew what he was doing with all three plays to 3B.

Top 8th: Marc Rzepczynski now pitching. Romero just not good enough today. Brignac, grounds back to Marc, throw almost throws it away but Lind gets it for the out. Fuld strikes out swinging, Damon, 2-3 today. Not this time grounds to Escobar, throw to Lind to end this one.
Bottom 8th: Can Jays get something going here? Six more outs to an Easter Sunday shutout. McCoy and that is why Shields is still in there, first pitch fly ball out to left. Mike you need base runners in this situation and you are number nine for a reason. Only 80 pitches for Shields and you can see why with bonehead outs like that. Patterson pops up to short, two down. Escobar, grounds to second throw to first Shields has this on in the bag and will finish with a complete game at this rate. 86 pitches.

Top 9th: Francisco now pitching, needs the work. Zobrist, singles to Bautista in right. One on for Joyce, 2-2 count, strikes out, Zobrist running but Arencibia horrible throw not in time. Upton, grounds to McDonald at 3B watches Zobrist retreat and throw to Lind for the out. Kotchman, grounds to Lind for third out.
Bottom 9th: Shields to finish this one off. Bautista leading off. Unfortunately Jose cannot score all the runs himself. Plus it means they can pitch around him. Full count, ball four, too bad. Lind, perhaps Adam can earn some money for a change. But I fear Jays attack has left everything to Jose for too long. 0-2 count, pops up to left, awful at bat by Lind. Rivera Oh boy, Bautista picked off at first. Two down. Rivera pops up to the plate. Jays lose this one. 2-0. Just over two hours to play. Jays have a long plan ride to Texas to think about this very poor weekend series.
Texas must be looking forward to a few easy games or perhaps Jays offence can suddenly reappear.

The good: Nothing today, not even Romero as he had already put the Jays in a hole in the first 10 minutes of this game.

The bad: Yes lots of it.. where do we start? Romero was excellent for six innings; problem was the game was already over with one out. Jays hitters are getting lazy, leaving all the offence to Bautista. Jays had their chances but with runners in scoring position this team has huge problem and go 0-4 again today.

Jays now 9-12 and sinking to the bottom of the division, perhaps they need to hit the bottom first before getting wakeup call. A month to forget so far apart from Bautista. Certainly a road trip to Texas is not going to help them here. They need Davis, Hill, and Nix back in there.