Jays hitters continue their futility and providing no support to rookie Stewart

Jays v Braves. Game two of three.

Is Ricky right?
Lambasting his teammates for lack of offence to support pitching staff. Of course he is, the offence is absolutely awful. Don’t look for any changes today, Manager Farrell (who has to take some flak here) has a terrible line-up out there tonight. He has to move the lineup around. Move Patterson and Hill down or out, and I would also change Escobar as leadoff. But it is clear that Bautista and Lind cannot keep carrying this team. And as we are seeing when they need a break nobody else is stepping up to provide any consistent offence.

Lineups: Jays: Escobar, Patterson, Bautista, Lind, Hill, Molina, Davis, McCoy, Zach Stewart pitching and hitting for the first time.
Braves: Schafer, Heyward, Jones, McCann, Freeman, Uggla, Gonzalez, McLouth and Mike Minor pitching:

Top 1st: Escobar, bunting?, pops up fortunately foul. 0-2 count, 2-2 count, I am not a fan of Escobar, if I had my way I would push him out of leadoff role. Strikes out. Paterson, lines it to the wall in right centre, slips going around second and has to retreat that was a triple. Bautista, Whoa... gets hold of this one to left, but McLouth right up against the wall to make the catch. Very close to going out. If Patterson had not slipped, he would have been at third and that would be an RBI for Jose. McLouth great catch to rob Jose. Good to see Jose connecting though, we have not seen that this week. Lind, that will do it, singles up the middle and here comes Patterson, 1-0 Jays. Hitters hitting tonight. Hill, another to move down my order, a dribbler to second throw to first for the third out.
Bottom 1st: Schafer 3-1 count, ball four. Stewart not as sharp early tonight. Heyward, 2-0 come on Zach, find that strike zone. 3-0, grounds it past diving Hill, Schafer to third on the play. Jones with two on and nobody out. Pops up to shallow centre, Davis Schafer tags and scores easily, would not have done that on Vernon. One down but game is tied up. Heyward stays at first. McCann 2-0 count, Stewart having terrible time out there, 3-0 count, Heyward going, throw gets him, Stewart gets a break finally, two down, full count, McCann to right, two on. Finding the holes in Jays defence all over the field. 24 pitches. Uggla, with two on. Finally a hit to a player, right at Escobar, throw to Hill for third out. Braves Manager would not be happy with only one run there. Send six to the plate and could only score one. That sounds like the Jays hitters. Zach will take it anyway any day.

Top 2nd: Jays offence turn now. We can dream. Molina, strikes out swinging on a ball way up and away out of the zone. Davis (first pitch) liner to right field, two down. Four pitches. McCoy, ah well. Grounds back to Minor throw to first and Jays go pathetically on seven, yes seven pitches. There is NO offence in this line-up after Lind tonight.
Bottom 2nd: Feel sorry for Stewart, what time did he get to regroup? And he also has to think about his leading off next inning. Pops up to Bautista, fortunately Jose calls off Hill as he was circling around out there. One down McLouth, 0-2 count, oh boy, just not his night, a dribbler, ball that barely stays inside third base line but safe at first, Minor, bunting, 0-2 count, strikes out, two down. Schafer, 0-2 count, lines it to Davis in centre, great inning for Zach. Much better. Throwing strikes and getting balls hit to fielders instead of seeing-eye balls into the outfield.

Top 3rd: Now he has to bat. 1-1, that was a nice cut sending it into right field seats but foul. 1-2 count, strikes out looking, now he can get a break I hope. Escobar, 2-0 count, another break lines it to first down the line, past diving Freeman for a double. Patterson. 2-2 count, way outside, full count, grounds to second, throw to first for the second out. Escobar moves to third. Bautista, lines it all the way to centre, but not enough again. Must be so frustrating.
Bottom 3rd: Heyward, pops it up to Escobar behind second base bag. Jones, grounds it past Lind at first. Stewart not getting much help from his defence tonight. That was a playable ball. McCann, no doubt about this one, hammers it over head of Bautista in right, two run home run and Braves are out ahead 3-1. Freeman, ball four. Wild pitch and moves to second, nothing and I repeat nothing going right for Stewart tonight. Grounds to Escobar, throw to third, gets Freeman sliding in, two down. Gonzalez, grounds it past McCoy at third, here comes runner, throw not in time scores 4-1 Braves throw to third to get Gonzalez try for three, crazy play by Gonzalez out by a mile.

Top 4th: Jays need some offence and also need to help Stewart out here on the defence, awful catcher and the infield. When was the last time this offence scored more than one run in an inning??? It seems like weeks. Lind, one who has sunk out of sight this week. That’s better singles up the middle. One on for Hill, his bat has been missing all season. Takes a ball right down the middle? and another, strikes out looking, didn’t take his bat off his shoulder. He is just lost out there. Molina, hammers this one to the left field wall but with Jays luck tonight off the wall and Lind was waiting and can only get to third. Takes some risks you guys, where oh where is that aggressive play of April May? Davis with two in scoring position. 0-2 count, swings at a ball half way to first, pathetic. Two down. McCoy intentional walk to load the bases for Stewart. I don’t think Zach will do a Hudson here but it would be something if he did. 0-2 count, strikes out swinging, he had more swings than Hill and Davis had. That was one disgusting show.
Bottom 4th: McLouth, 0-2 count, strikes out, one down for Minor, doubles to right. Yes you read right, Minor the pitcher. Schafer, the only advantage is to keep Minor standing out there as long as possible, singles to left centre, two on for Heyward, Minor at third. Singles back up the middle, Minor scores 5-1 Braves. Jones with two on, grounds to first, Jones out no chance for double play, ball rolling too slow, and this is the luck Stewart has had all night long. Two in scoring position for McCann, intentional walk to load them up for Freeman. Here comes the Manager and that is it for Stewart but I don’t see this as a lousy outing, he didn’t pitch well but he had NO help at all from Hill, Lind and Molina with their fielding. Ground balls were dribblers, base hits were seeing eyes. Plus of course he had the usual terrible offence that did not help him one iota tonight. If he had five or six run support it would now be as much pressure on him. Rzepczysnki now pitching. Freeman, 0-2 count, strikes out swinging on three pitches. Braves leave the bases loaded, Manager will not like that, that is the second time they have not come through. Not complaining tonight.

Top 5th: New game. Escobar, full count, grounds to second, throw to first for the out. Patterson, strikes out swinging chasing ball in the sky. Bautista, two down. Throw way inside, Minor a little erratic here or just pushing Jose off the plate, another long fly ball out, third one tonight for Jose. He is hitting them, just not his usual blasts.
Bottom 5th: Uggla leading off, grounds to Hill, throw to Lind, one down. Gonzalez, 0-2 count, 2-2 two pitches way outside by Rzepczynski. Grounds weakly to Rzepczynski, throw to Lind for the out. McLouth, lines to Patterson in left to end this one.
Top 6th: Lind leading off, 2-2 tonight, but not so good with his glove. Lines this one to right, but as with Jose these are all falling short of going out. Hill, Nothing tonight with bat or glove, grounds weakly and I mean very weakly to first, for the out. Two down for Molina, strikes out.

Bottom 6th: Minor leading off. Not even trying to bunt here, Rzepczynski shows him some real heat blowing him away on three pitches. Schafer. Bunting first pitch to McCoy now that is speed, Mike pounces on it, calls Rzepczynski off and throw to Lind, Schafer is only halfway to the bag. Surprise. Heyward, bounces to Escobar, throw to Lind, easy three up and down for Jays. Now if they could only hit ?
Top 7th: Davis, grounds to third, throw beats him at first, one down for McCoy. High fly ball to centre, two down. Encarnacion pinch hitting for Rzepczynski, fly ball to right. Oh dear Edwin. But you are not alone tonight, your team-mates are just as bad if not worse.
Bottom 7th: Frasor now pitching. Rzepczynski did a good job. Jones leading off. 2-2 takes strike three looking, froze him. Blew it past him. Chipper’s reflexes fading with age. McCann, 0-2 pop up to Davis, two down. Freeman, 0-2 count, takes strike three looking, nice pitching Jason.

Top 8th: Top of Jays order, if they can’t get something this inning they do need help. Escobar leading off. That’s it for Minor, they are not risking him another inning or complete game here. O’Flaherty now pitching. 2-2 count, grounds to short, throw to first one down for Patterson. No, Rivera is pinch hitting. Farrell’s patience running out for Patterson. 3-1 count, grounds to Gonzalez, throw to first for second out. Bautista who hit Minor very hard all three times with no luck. Pulls it to third, throw to first for the out. Not Jose’s night or week for that matter.
Bottom 8th: Dotel now pitching. Rivera stays in game in left. Uggla full count, pops up to Davis in shallow centre, almost misjudged that one. Wind must have taken it. Gonzalez, 0-2 count, singles to Rivera in left, just fair of the line. McLouth, pops it up to Escobar, two down. Look who is here, ex-Jay Eric Hinske pinch hitting. And still hitting them out with eight home runs already. 3-0 count, full count, strikes out swinging this time.

Top 9th; Final chance for Jays hitters. Let’s see if they even try. Hustle and heart, not much of that on this team recently. Jonny Venters pitching. Lind, 2-2 count, grounds to first throw to Venters for first out. Hill, his usual first pitch bounces back to Venters throw to first, Hill does not even bother to run at speed. There is no way Jays can bring him back next season and he is playing as if he knows it. It will be interesting to see if Farrell sits him tomorrow. He has Johnny Mac and Nix on the bench and both, yes both can provide more hustle than Hill right now. Molina last chance. Grounds back up the middle, throw to first for the final out and end this agony.
Jays hitters are definitely at rock bottom, they cannot blame Stewart for that. And worse still when they did get runners on base, they could not execute to bring the runners in.

Good: Hard to find tonight but that play by McCoy on the bunt, great anticipation and speed and excution for the out. Patterson double that could have been three. Lind two hits, Jose hit three hard and to the wall and track. And tonight the bullpen shutting Braves down after the 5th. and so doing keeping the Jays in the game but alas no hitting.

The not so good: Seeing eye hits, under the gloves of Lind and Hill, passed ball under the glove of Molina. Hill diving all over the place to no avail. No offence in support of Stewart, Lind poor base running, no aggressive on base play tonight. Poor hitting with runners in scoring position.
All of these on their own are not significant but add them all together and you get the picture of a very poor average team tonight and also at this moment, and add up to another very poor outing by Jays in support of Stewart tonight.