Jays bats silent as Texas wins 12-2 but Arencibia goes deep twice

Jays v Rangers Game one of three

Short road trip for the Jays three game series with Texas. Bautista returns to third base. This will be tough series against the west division leaders. Texas has had a twelve game win streak end a couple of games ago and have won their last nine at home. Jays are once again above .500, can they stay there.

Line-ups: Jays: Escobar, Thames, Bautista, Lind, Encarnacion, Snider, Hill, Patterson, Arencibia and JoJo Reyes pitching.
Rangers: Kinsler, Andrus, Hamilton, Beltre, Young, Cruz, Napoli, Torrealba, Gentry and Colby Lewis pitching.

Top 1st: Escobar, grounds to Beltre at third, throw to Napoli at first one down. Thames, pops it up to Hamilton in left, two down. Bautista, 3-1 count, ball four down and away, one on for Lind. Grounds to Kinsler at second throw to Napoli at first to end the inning.
Bottom 1st: Kinsler leading off. 2-2 count, grounds to Bautista at third, throw to Lind one down. Andrus, bounces to Hill at second, throw to Lind, two down for Hamilton. 2-2 count, grounds to Hill throw to Lind to end the inning.

Top 2nd: Encarnacion strikes out, one down for Snider. Strikes out swinging, two down for Hill. Grounds to Andrus and Jays go quietly three up and down.
Bottom 2nd: Beltre, 3-1 count, inside ball four, one on for Young, singles past diving Escobar to left, Beltre all the way to third, two on for Cruz, nobody out, Reyes in trouble here. Lines it into left field corner, here comes Beltre, Hamilton stops at third and Cruz into second, 1-0 Rangers still nobody out. Napoli, 3-1 count, in danger of loading the bases. Full count. Grounds to Escobar, looks Cruz back to second, throw to Lind for first out as run scores 2-0 Rangers. Torrealba, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging. Two down for Gentry. Full count. Lines it deep to left centre for Snider to make the catch. Could have been a lot worse inning for Reyes. But pitch count already high at 44.

Top 3rd: Patterson leading off. Ugly pop up to Beltre at the mound. One down for Arencibia, when did he last hit number nine spot. 2-2 count, strikes out swinging, he is having a miserable time right now hitting, average sinking fast to .200. Escobar again with two down. Takes third strike. Jays not doing much against Lewis so far.
Bottom 3rd: Kinsler leading off. 2-2 count, grounds to Hill, nice play Aaron going to his left, throw to Lind for the out. One down for Andrus, bounces first pitch high back to Reyes, great play by Reyes to snare it and throw to Lind, two down. Hamilton, high fly ball to Snider for third out. Great quick inning by Reyes to the top of the order.

Top 4th: Thames leading off.3-1 count, ball four, Thames walks for Bautista. 2-1 count, 3-1, whoa, long drive to left centre but not far enough as caught by Gentry at the wall. But Jose really hammered that one. Lind, fly ball to Cruz in right, two down. Encarnacion. 0-2 count, strikes out swinging, Thames left out there at first.
Bottom 4th: Beltre lines it very hard past a diving Bautista into the left corner for stand up double. Young, 3-1 count, slow roller to third, Bautista throw not in time two on. Farrell arguing that runner impeded Bautista. Cruz with two on hammers this one to left centre, no doubt about this one 5-0 Rangers. Napoli pops it up to right Thames cannot get there. Torrealba, pops it up to Thames one down. Gentry, grounds to Hill, throw to Escobar to get Napoli, no chance for double play, two down for Kinsler. Pops it up to Escobar for third out. Pitch count 70.

Top 5th: Reyes needs some run support. Jays hitters missing big-time tonight. Lewis no hitter so far. Snider, 3-1 count, grounds to third, throw to first one down for Hill. Full count, pulls it hard to left great catch by Hamilton to rob Hill of at least a double there. Patterson, whoa this one just misses right field foul pole. The luck tonight is all with Lewis. 2-2 count, pops it up to Beltre at third. But Jays hitters hitting Lewis hard now. That could be 5-2 game with a bit of luck.
Bottom 5th: Andrus, strikes out but pitch goes to the backstop and Andrus reaches first, once again Reyes gets no break, that is one tough play. Hamilton, Andrus going and Arencibia throw gets away into centre, Andrus to third. Error to Arencibia. As we were saying the poor guy not getting any breaks tonight. Hamilton strikes out swinging. That should be two out and nobody on base. Beltre, 0-2 count, singles to right, here comes Andrus 6-0 Texas. Young, 2-0 count, lines it to left over the head of Patterson to the wall and Beltre grabs his hamstring. Yes he is out of there and probably for the series. Runners at second and third. Quintanilla pinch running. Here comes Manager Farrell, that is it for Reyes but don’t blame this guy, he has had no run support and poor defence behind him tonight. Camp now pitching. Cruz, singles back up the middle. Here come two runners 8-0 Texas. Napoli, rolls it to Bautista throw to second and gets Cruz .Two down. Torrealba, off the end of his bat and finally Arencibia does something right with throw to first to get Torrealba.

Top 6th: Jays have a big hill to climb. Break up this no-hitter would be a start. Arencibia chance to make it up to Reyes here. 2-2 count, FINALLY Arencibia gets hold of this one and deep into left field corner seats, home run for JP at long last, breaks up the no hitter 8-1 Texas. Number nine hitter as well, that would hurt Lewis. But for Jays fans it is good to see Arencibia connect for a change after long drought. Escobar grounds to short, throw to first one down. Thames. 2-2 count, drives it to right, Cruz makes the catch two down. Bautista just missed home run last at bat. 0-2 count, off the end of his bat lines it into centre for Gentry.
Bottom 6th: Gentry, hits him in the back. Not the best way to start the inning. One on for Kinsler. Singles to left centre, two on for Andrus. 3-1 count, high pop up to Patterson in left, both runners tags and move into scoring position. Hamilton, intentional walk to load bases, Quintanilla with bases loaded one down. 0-2 count. Bounces to Hill, throw to second no chance for two as run scores. 9-1 Texas. Two on for Young with one down, 3-3 tonight. Not walking him. 2-1 count, lines it into right, Thames error on play two runs score, 11-1 Texas. Young 4-4 Farrell may have wished he had walked him. Cruz singles into right, another run scores 12 -1. Napoli slow roller to third, no chance on the throw and runner safe at first. Nothing going Jays way tonight. Two on for Torrealba, grounds to Bautista at third throw to second to get the runner. Camp will not like his ERA.

Top 7th: Jays need a big comeback here. Lind leading off, singles to centre, that`s a start. Encarnacion. Grounds up the middle Andrus fumbles it big-time steps on the bag without the ball, and both runners safe, Jays luck changing here. Snider with two on and nobody out. Drives it to centre, Lind tags and gets to third. Texas bullpen working now. Jays have seen Lewis out of the game at least. One down two on for Hill, just missed home run tonight, he could mess up Lewis ERA right now, 2-2 count. Pops it up to shallow centre, Gentry throw on the mark and Lind holds at third. Now Ron Washington out to help out Lewis here and his ERA. He can see Jays hitters getting to him. I don’t think Patterson would be the one to hurt it though. Arthur Rhodes now pitching. Rajai Davis pinch hitting for Patterson. Lines it to Hamilton in left. Jays get Lewis out of the game but fail to bring the runners in.
Bottom 7th: Dotel now pitching. Johnny Mac in at third for Bautista, resting his ankle. Gentry grounds to Escobar, throw to Lind one quick out. Kinsler pops it up to Davis in centre, two quick outs. Andrus lines it to Thames in right, four pitch inning by Dotel. Overpowered the Texas hitters or do they want out n the town.

Top 8th: Arencibia leading off, OH YES JP drives this one to deep centre over the wall in to the grass, deepest part of the ballpark, whoa, second home run of the night. The guy was 0-15 before tonight`s game.12-2 Texas, that quiets the crowd. Escobar, first pitch lines to right, one down. Thames. Fly ball to Gentry. Two down for Johnny Mac. Grounds to third, throw to first to end the inning but HUGE for JP and great to see his bat come around.
Bottom 8th: McCoy now playing third, McDonald at short. Francisco pitching. Garbage inning, let’s see what he does. Hamilton leading off. 2-2 count, strikes out swinging. One down for Quantanilla, strikes out swinging, two down. Murphy pinch hitting. 0-2 count, strikes out swinging, very nice Frankie. Dotel and Francisco two great innings.

Top 9th: Jays need 10 to spoil the party here. Lind leading off. Scott Feldman now pitching. First start of the season off the DL. Grounds to second nice play by Kinsler to get to the ball and throw right on the mark to get Lind. Encarnacion, pulls it to third, throw to first, two down for Snider. 0-3 tonight. I am beginning to believe Carole Jays theory of Snider playing in centre negatively impacting his hitting, this is the third game that he has played in centre without a hit. Full count, strikes out swinging, 0-4 night for Travis.

Jays lose big but from this seat at least there were a lot of iffy plays, I counted at least three balls that could have been turned into double plays but were not. Patterson, Bautista and Hill all had hits to the wall or just foul. Arencibia throwing error. Some great defensive plays by the Rangers helped Lewis. This game was by no means a blowout. Reyes had no support. Camp was another story and we have said this before, his arm looks very dead right now. He is a shadow of his earlier reliability. Has he been overused?

The great stuff tonight: JP Arencibia two home runs for all of the Jays offence but when you consider that his average was going south rapidly and he came into the game 0-15 this is a huge game for him and for the Jays. Much too good a bat to be hitting number nine but just maybe the lack of pressure on him will help. Let’s see where Farrell puts him tomorrow.

The other good, at least from this seat, was the pitching of both Dotel and Francisco. Both scoreless innings, sure at the end of a high scoring game but they mean a lot to the Jays to see Francisco in particular strike out the side.
The not so good: JoJo Reyes but once again this guy had zilch run support.