.
Phillies v Jays. Game two of three.
Today Halladay v Villanueva, good luck Jays. Without Escobar after being hit on the hand yesterday this team has a huge uphill battle. Phillies outplayed them in every category yesterday and they leave no room at all for the sloppy type of play we have been seeing from such as Patterson, Rivera, and the weak hitting of everyone below number four in the line-up. You can’t expect to compete with Phillies with four hitters and no closer. But perhaps fans are expecting too much from this team, maybe they have been overachieving earlier in the season. If they have no errors, no wild pitches, dropped balls, and get great hitting with runners in scoring position then and only then will this team have a chance today or any day.
Line-ups: Phillies: An All-Star line-up compared to the Jays today. Rollins, Polanco, Utley, Howard, Victorino, Ibanez, Brown, Gload, Ruiz and Villanueva pitching. and Halladay pitching.
Jays: Hill leading off, that shows how bad this line-up is today. I would put Davis back in there at least he has played leadoff for many more games than Hill. Thames, Bautista, Lind and that is the line-up facing Halladay today unless and a big unless some of the others can play as if they belonged in the majors. Encarnacion, Arencibia, Patterson ??? who should be nowhere near the outfield, playing in left today. Davis and McDonald with Villanueva pitching.
Top1st: Rollins, 3-1 count, ball four, great start. Polanco, there goes Rollins, poor throw by Arencibia not in time. 3-1 count, ball four, this is not the way to beat the Phillies. Utley with two on and nobody out. Strikes out swinging, one down for Howard. Another 3-1 count, strike two, full count. Singles to right, here comes Rollins, 1-0 Phillies. Victorino, fly ball to Davis in centre, runners hold, two down. Ibanez, another ! passed ball to Arencibia, runners move up. 3-0 count, 23 pitches. Lines it to Thames in right to end this, could have been much worse but one run may be all that Halladay needs today.
Bottom 1st: Good standing ovation for Halladay. Now he will pitch a perfect game. Far Side scene, waiting to pitch whilst the ovation is going on. Hill leading off. Crowd continues to applaud the strikes ??? Fly ball to right, one down. Thames, singles into centre, no sentiment from Thames. Bautista now, 3-1 even Halladay is giving Bautista respect. Full count, Strikes out, Bautista furious, thought it was low and he is right, but Hallladay gets the respect from the umpire, close calls will go his way all game so jays had better get used to it, two down for Lind. Pitching him inside every pitch. 3-1 count. Ball four, walk to Lind, semi intentional. Easier for Halladay to get Encarnacion. Two down two on. 2-0 count, 2-2, strikes out, ball outside but could not hold up. Halladay 21 pitch count, he will not like that.
Top 2nd: Brown leading off. Full count, strikes out swinging, one down for Gload. Grounds to Hill, throw to Lind, two down. Ruiz, grounds to Bautista, throw to Lind, much, much better inning for Villanueva and that will definitely help his pitch count.
Bottom 2nd: Arencibia, grounds to Rollins at short, throw to first, one down. Patterson, first pitch, give me a break, grounds to second, two down. Three pitches but two lousy at bats. Davis, has to take the first pitch strike. 2-2 count, grounds to third, throw to Gload but Davis took six pitches and for that he did well. As for Patterson and Arencibia, I don’t think they will ever change. But Patterson has to at the top of the list for Jays to get rid of this season.
Top 3rd: Rollins, pops up to Hill, one down for Polanco, 1-2 count, another pop-up but Hill cannot get to it. Grounds to Johnny Mac throw to Lind, two down. Utley, grounds to Hill, throw to Lind to end this one. Another good inning from Villanueva.
Bottom 3rd: McDonald leading off grounds to second, throw to Gload at first, one down. Hill, fly ball to centre, two down, Thames grounds back to Halladay.
Top 4th: Howard, shift right on, grounds to Hill, one down. Victorino, 2-2 count, lines it back at Villanueva, deflects it to Hill, throw for second down. Ibanez, first pitch fly ball to Davis in centre to end the inning, great nine pitch inning for Villanueva.
Bottom 4th: Bautista, ball, outside, two balls outside, ball three outside but Bautista swung at it. 3-1 count, WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW there she goes high off the windows of the restaurant, home run number 26 for Bautista and his second in two days off Phillies pitching, 1-1 game. Ironically if José had not swung at that third pitch he would have been walked. Lind singles into centre, Encarnacion with two on, yes you guessed grounds to short, throw to second, on to first double play. You can always rely on Edwin to ruin a rally, never much changes. Second on the list to go after Patterson. Arencibia, 2-2 count, close on this one high fly ball to centre, stays in but he had a great swing.
Top 5th: Brown, 2-2 count, lines to Thames in right. Gload singles to Davis in centre. Ruiz, 2-2 count, singles to left, Gload to third. Two on one down for Rollins. 2-1 count. Saved here as he lines it to centre but bounces over the fence, ground rule double. Here comes Gload, 2-1 Phillies. Runners have to hold at third and second. Polanco, perfect pops first pitch up to McDonald at short, two down. Utley intentional walk to load them up for Howard, good luck, he can blow this one open here. This could backfire big-time for Farrell. 1-2 count, inside did he swing? Appeal to third base umpire, he say yes ! interesting. Very close if he did, but it all counts and Villanueva gets out the mess and Farrell is a wonder boy for now at least. That was some gamble.
Bottom 5th: Patterson, time he did something, that will do bounces it high and Utley throw gets away, it hits Patterson, ricochets into left, Patterson safe and going around to third. Davis now strikes out swinging, one down for McDonald. That’s the way singles into left, here comes Patterson, 2-2 game. Hill with Johnny Mac at first. Grounds to third, throw to first gets Hill but McDonald to second for Thames. Need to get on base here Eric. Pitching him inside 0-2. 2-2 count, perfect loops it into shallow centre, here comes McDonald 3-2 Jays game. Bautista grounds to short, throw to second to get Thames.
Top 6th: Victorino, full count, ball four, Ibanez, pops it up to Patterson in shallow left, one down for Brown, pitch out, not going, Dotel warming up in bullpen. Pulls it to Lind at first, throw to McDonald back to Lind, no chance to double up Brown but they get Victorino at second. Two down for Gload, fly ball to left either Patterson or Davis both going for it, Davis pulls up to the relief of thousands of Jays fans, no collision this time as Patterson makes the catch.
Bottom 6th: Lind leading off. Just misses here into left seats past the foul pole, almost, grounds to Gload at first, takes it himself, one down. Encarnacion first pitch of course, fly ball to Ibanez in left two down. Arencibia, has to take the first pitch, thanks Edwin. Strikes out. 71 pitches and you can see why with this wild swinging by the Pattersons and Encarnacions on this team.
Top 7th: Ruiz, lines it over the head of Davis in centre off the wall for a double. Rollins, tough job now for Villanueva to hold them here, lines it to Davis in right centre, makes the catch and strong throw but Ruiz safe at third. Polanco, 3-1 count. Perfect grounds to McDonald, looks runner back and throw to first to get Polanco. Two down for Utley. No, that’s it for Villanueva he pitched superbly today against a very tough line-up. Luis Perez now pitching. No room for error with runner a third. 2-2 count. Oh boy, the worst, Utley lines it to centre, over the wall in centre, 4-3 Phillies game no win for Villanueva today maybe Manager farrell should have left him in there. Howard Grounds to McDonald throw to Lind.
Bottom 7th: Déjà vu all over again as the man used to say, just like yesterday’s game. Jays now have to come back against Halladay. Bottom of Jays order, Halladay can smell the win now. Patterson strikes out swinging. Davis, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging, babes in the wood against Halladay. McDonald, two down. Singles into right. Johnny Mac his second hit off Halladay. Hill, 1-2 count. Takes strike three, does not even swing, come on Aaron that was bush league. 86 pitch count for Halladay and that is direct result of all those free swingers earlier.
Top 8th: Perez still out there, chance to make up for that lousy pitch last inning. Victorino, lines it into left, one on for Ibanez, grounds to Bautista throw to second on to Lind Ibanez safe. One down for Brown, singles to left, two on for Gload, 0-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down. Ruiz, that’s it for Perez. Dotel now pitching. 0-2 count, grounds to Bautista, throw to Lind for third out. No more damage and Dotel did his job.
Bottom 8th: Top of the order, last chance against Halladay. Thames leading off. Lines it to third, throw to first, One down for Bautista, full count, grounds to third, throw to first, two down for Lind. Bounces it right back at Halladay, throw to first for the out. 100 pitches. He will be out for his complete game but should never have been put in that position.
Top 9th: Jon Rauch now pitching. Rollins leading off. 2-2 count, singles to Thames in right. Polanco, 0-2 count, soft liner to Johnny Mac makes the catch and first out, grounds back to Rauch throw to McDonald, throw off the bag, but gets Rollins falling over, and throw late at first two down. Howard, game is held up for runners on the field, full count. Ball four, definitely strike three as replay shows. Rauch is robbed there. Two on for Victorino, lines it to Patterson in left, Patterson throw at the plate Arencibia swipes at him but runner safe, run scores 5-3 Phillies. Oh boy, now Rauch loses it, and goes after home plate umpire, is ejected, and Farrell has hard time holding on to him, takes four guys to get him away, he is 6.11 after all. Farrell now has to get relief pitcher and is now jawing the home plate umpire; he is ejected and now also loses it, drawing the strike zone in the dirt. Camp now in to pitch. Victorino, full count, grounds to Hill, throw to Lind to end this weird inning.
Bottom 9th: Encarnacion singles into centre, one on for Arencibia, time to connect big-time JP. 2-2 count, way outside, strikes out. One down for Patterson. Grounds to short, steps on the bag and throw to Howard for the double play ball.
Jays predictably lose this one but they made a much better fight of it than expected and on balance can take a moral victory. Halladay definitely was favoured by the home plate umpire with the borderline pitches and the replays showed that but that is baseball and tradition judges that he has probably earned the close calls from the umpires.
The very good: Villanueva goes into the seventh. Bautista has to be the winner today with that home run off Halladay. Superb the best against the best and Jose wins. I can`t wait to see the Bautista-Halladay matchup in the All-Star game.
The not so good: Jays free swinging hitters meant that Halladay was still in the game in the eighth, a bit more plate discipline and he would have been out of there much earlier. Maybe Villanueva should have stayed in for the Utley at bat in the seventh. Manager Farrell gambled wrong at that one but ended up 1-1 on the day with his decisions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment