Jays hitters give no support to Villanueva as they lose again to Yankees 7-2

Yankees v Jays. Final game of four game series.

Still no Jose, scheduled to return on Tuesday. Jays trying to win the series this afternoon. Not a great line-up today I am afraid. But if they have the hustle and heart to win this one and the series then the fans will be happy.

Line-ups: Yankees: Gardner, Granderson, Teixeira, Cano, Swisher, Posada, Martin, Nunez, Pena, Hughes pitching.
Jays: Davis, Thames, Escobar, Lind, Encarnacion, Snider, Hill, Arencibia, Patterson and Villanueva pitching.

Top 1st: Gardner leading off, Jeter getting day off today. 2-2 count, hanging tough here fouling them off. Singles back up the middle. Good at bat. Granderson, strikes out swinging, Gardner running on the pitch and throw too late. One down for Teixeira with Gardner at second. 3-1 count, ball four, Yankees taking lots of pitches already. Cano lines first pitch into right, Gardner holds at third. Bases loaded. Swisher, 2-2 count, lines it to right, Gardner scores, 1-0 Yankees bases still loaded. Posada, Villanueva needs an out badly. 2-2 count, way to go, strikes out swinging, two down. Martin, bases still loaded, two down. Perfect lines first pitch to Escobar, makes a great catch and damage is limited to one as Yankees leave the bases loaded. Girardi will not like that at all. They had Villanueva on the ropes but could not get that one big hit. Pitch count at 30 though. Not good at all. Day off tomorrow to rest the bullpen but plan to see a few more pitching today at this rate.
Bottom 1st: Davis leading off, high pop up to Nunez playing at short today for Jeter. Thames, takes strike three, two down. Escobar, singles into centre, Escobar average up to .300 now. one on two down for Lind who has been very absent from the big hits recently. 3-0 count, takes it all the way, if you know you are going to get one right down the middle on a 3-0 count I think you should be swinging, especially with Lind power, strike one. Full count. High pop up to Swisher in right, way under it. 19 pitch count.

Top 2nd: Nunez grounds to Escobar, throw to Lind one down. Pena, fly ball to Patterson in right, two down for top of the order Gardner. Full count, lines to Escobar for the third out, 11 pitch inning, that’s more like it.
Bottom 2nd: Encarnacion, lines this on to the wall, yet another double for Edwin, he is hot, hot, hot this weekend. Number 21. Snider, runner in scoring position. That will do it Snider goes the other way into left, Hill pops up to left, one down for Arencibia, Snider keeping Hughes distract there he goes great steal he was off split second BEFORE Hughes pitched and no throw. Great steal Travis. Full count to Arencibia, come on JP do your part here. Strikes out swinging, two down. Patterson, pops up to Nunez. But Jays get one back. Pitch count at 38 for Hughes.

Top 3rd: Granderson, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging, one down for Teixeira. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. Two down for Cano. WHOA !!! that pitch sails away over the head and glove of Arencibia to the backstop, slipped out of his hand. 1-2 count, grounds to Lind, takes it himself another good inning for Villanueva 14 pitch inning. 55 for three.
Bottom 3rd: Davis, 1-2 count, grounds to third, throw beats him at first, one down for Thames. 2-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down for Escobar. Grounds to Nunez at short, throw to Posada for the out strange non-call by the umpire until he tags him out again, I guess Escobar missed the bag.

Top 4th: Swisher leading off, singles into left. Posada, lines it right at Snider in left, one down. Martin, this is trouble lines it to the wall in centre past Davis, Swisher scores easily. 2-1 Yankees. Martin at second, Nunez, lines first pitch to Snider in left, two on and one down. Pena, hammers it to Davis in centre, Martin scores 3-1 Yankees, that is called hitting with runners in scoring position and from a number nine guy at that. Two down, Nunez at first. Gardner, singles to right. Two on for Granderson. Full count, doubles to right, two runs score and Villanueva has fallen apart here. 5-1 Yankees. Teixeira with runner at second. Fortunately goes after that first pitch and pops it up to Patterson in shallow right centre to end this one. 73 pitch count but this game may be out of reach for the Jays today.
Bottom 4th: Lind who has done nothing to maintain his position as cleanup for a long time. Very disappointing after that hot spell which gave us all some hope that he had returned to 2009 form. But that may have been more with Bautista in front of him. Swings lazily at this one as he pops it into left, quick out for Hughes. Encarnacion, maybe Edwin deserves the cleanup spot for a while the way he has been hitting recently. 3-0 count, Hughes shown him some respect. Ball four and Encarnacion on base. Snider, lines it to centre, bounces over the wall and Encarnacion has to retreat to third, that was tough. But Hill maybe has to bring them both in here. Another double for Travis. This is one as Hill drives it deep to Swisher for the out in right, here comes Encarnacion and Travis tags and gets to third. Nice play. 5-2 Yankees. Arencibia, another disappointing bat. 0-2 count, strikes swinging on three pitches and leaves yet another hitter at third. Both Lind and Arencibia big disappointments.

Top 5th: Cano leading off. Lines it to first, well Lind gets one here, very nice catch, makes up for his at bat maybe. One down for Swisher. Arguing with the umpire here on the calls, Yankee entitlement. Full count. strikes out swinging, walks away muttering to himself. Tough when the umpire disagrees with you. Two down for Posada, pops it up to Encarnacion for third out. 86 pitch count so we should see Villanueva out for the sixth inning.
Bottom 5th: Patterson bunting first pitch, awful bunt right to Pena at third thrown out by a mile. Waste of an at bat. One down for Davis. Lines it right at Pena at third, two quick outs for Hughes. Thames strikes out swinging, hardly worth Hughes getting out there, six pitch inning but poor at bats by the Jays.

Top 6th: Martin leading off, grounds first pitch to Encarnacion at third, fumbles it but throw is good to get Martin, one down for Nunez. Full count, pops it up to Lind, two down. Pena, strikes out swinging. That is probably it for Villanueva today. He struggled all day but after that 30 pitch first inning another 70 for the next five is ok. Plus he has had little run support from his free swinging hitters so far.
Bottom 6th: Escobar leading off 3-0 count. Ball four way inside. One on for Lind, perhaps he can contribute here. No, fly ball to Swisher in right, one down. Encarnacion first pitch pop up to Cano, two down. Snider 2-2 today, not this time fly ball to Swisher in right. Jays go quietly.

Top 7th: Perez now pitching. Gardner leading off. Another who does not like the strike zone, 0-2 count, grounds back to Perez unable to handle it cleanly and Gardner safe on the throw. Granderson, grounds to Hill he has to hold until Escobar gets to second and only one out. Teixeira, singles past a diving Escobar into centre, Granderson all the way to third. Nickel and diming here. Three iffy plays. Cano, fly ball to Patterson at the fence, here comes Granderson, 6-2 Yankees and that will clear out some of the crowd. Two down for Swisher. Pops it up to Patterson in right to end the inning but the damage is done.
Bottom 7th: Yankees bullpen will take over to finish this one off. Hughes only threw 80 pitches. I don’t see this team scoring four this afternoon and it looks as if the fans agree emptying out the seats here. Wade out there again. Hill, full count, lines to Swisher in right, one down. Arencibia, 0-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down. Patterson, 3-1 count, fly ball to Swisher for third out. Pitiful.

Top 8th: Lots of empty blue seats, too hot to watch this poor display by Jays hitters. Posada leading off, grounds first pitch to third throw to Lind, one down. Yankees also want to get out of here fast. That is it for Perez. Dotel now pitching. Martin, fly ball to Davis in centre, two down. Nunez, strikes out swinging. As I said Yankees want out of town here.
Bottom 8th: Top of the Jays order. Davis leading off. Robertson now pitching. Slaps it to Cano at second throw to Posada for the out. Thames, bounces to Posada throw to Robertson two down. Escobar, full count, strikes out swinging.

Top 9th: Frasor now pitching, I hope it is a better outing than Friday night. That was painful to sit through. Pena, strikes out swinging. One down for top of the order Gardner. Full count, ball four, here we go again. Granderson, 2-0 count, for some reason Frasor is awful in the ninth inning. There goes Gardner as if a four run is not enough for the Yankees, who are they kidding, this is rubbing it in friends. They know this team will not score four in the ninth. Full count. singles into right, here comes Gardner 7-2 Yankees. Teixeira, 2-0 count, this is Frasor pitching at his finest. Lines it to left but Snider makes the catch, two down one on for Cano.2-2 count. strikes out swinging but yet another 25 pitch inning for Frasor, exactly as on Friday and once again shows Farrell that he is definitely not the closer he is looking for.
Bottom 9th: Let’s see how the Jays play this one out. So far today very little spunk, hustle and heart shown apart from Snider. Boone Logan pitching. Lind leading off and 0-3 today. a good example of lack of heart. Feeble swing to strike out, 0-4 and deservedly so. Lind is no leader on this team with Jose out of the line-up. Encarnacion, full count. Strikes out swinging at ball in the dirt. Two down for Snider 0-2 count, strikes out swinging to end this one. Jays totally outplayed today as Yankees lead from the start.

Yankees took the lead in the first inning and never let it go. They looked far more businesslike as this Jays team bumbled through all afternoon as if most of them did not want to be out there. Jays win two of the four game series but I don’t think many will be happy.

The very good: Snider first at bat, single RBI and also a great steal, split second BEFORE Hughes even threw the pitch. Travis two hit today and Villanueva gutsy outing even though he obviously did not have his best stuff. Encarnacion also continued his hot streak but that was it today.

The rest of them: Most of them looked as if they did not want to be there, free swinging at poor pitches, unable to hit when they did get runners in scoring position 1-4 today, Yankees on the other hand go 5-8. Patterson does not belong at this level, it is painful to watch him at bat. Arencibia has not hit for power for far too long.
BUT the biggest disappointment has to be Adam Lind, with Jose out of the team Lind should be stepping up to lead this team. If I had to select a leader by example it would be young Snider.
After the exciting two wins on Thursday and Friday evenings the two day games fizzled. The weather may have sizzled but not this team. They had the chance after Friday to send a message to the Yankees but this was not the message that they wanted to send. The team is still short of a couple more good players. Maybe when Jose and Brett Lawrie are back in the line-up but I am afraid that long time players such as Lind and Hill also need to step up.