Jays v Red Sox. Final game of series.
Everybody still talking about the last out last night and whether or not Encarnacion was safe, did his foot cross the plate?, did Varitek tag him? Should there be opportunity for review? I must admit I am not in favour and prefer the traditional game with errors made by all.
Lineups: Jays: Escobar, Thames, Bautista, Lind, Encarncion, Hill, Snider, Arencibia, McDonald, and Romero pitching.
Red Sox: Esllbury, Scutaro, Pedroia, Ortiz, Youlilis, Drew, McDonald, Saltalamacchia, Navarro and Wakefield pitching.
Top 1st: Escobar, good to see him back but still not sure about leadoff with Davis in the same lineup, perhaps he could back up Lind at number six. There he goes doubles to left. Thames grounds to Pedroia at second, throw to first base Youkilis, Escobar to third. Bautista, there we go Jose, singles to centre, here comes Escobar, a piece of textbook play which we don’t see often with this Jays team, but then we never did. 1-0 Jays. Lind fly ball to left Darnell McDonald.
Bottom 1st: Ellsbury leading off, there she goes, hammers this to right field, over the wall and lead-off home run for Ricky. That didn’t take long to tie this one up. 1-1 game. Scutaro grounds to short. Escobar throw to first base Lind. Pedroia singles to centre. Shift right on for Ortiz grounds into a double play, second baseman Escobar to first baseman Lind, Pedroia out at second.
Top 2nd: Hill, leading off strikes out. Snider singles to right. Snider running and throw perfect. Snider caught stealing, one down for catcher Saltalamacchia to second baseman Pedroia, Snider out. Arencibia strikes out.
Bottom 2nd: Youkilis, first at bat since being hit in the back. There she goes, gets hold of this and over the Green Monster, Jays lead didn’t last very long. 2-1 Red Sox. Drew grounds to Escobar, throw to first base Lind. Johnny Mac. McDonald strikes out. Saltalamacchia, grounds to short, Escobar throw to Lind but Boston get back in the game.
Top 3rd: Davis, leading off grounds to short, beats out the throw, SPEEEEED. Escobar singles to centre, his second hit of the night, Davis to second. Jays have something going again at the top of the order. Thames grounds to Youkilis who steps on the bag but Thames does his job as both runners move up. Two on one down for Bautista. That will do Jose, sac fly to Macdonald in left, very shallow but here comes Davis and beats the throw, 2-2 game. More speed, not many players can make that when the ball was so shallow, in fact Jose was not pleased with himself thinking that it was too shallow. This team is going to be fun to watch when they add in some of the younger guys including Lawrie. Lind, that’s better Adam, singles to centre, here comes Escobar, 3-2 Jays. They get the lead back for the second time. Encarnacion, strikes out leaving Lind out there.
Bottom 3rd: Navarro leading off, fly ball to Thames in left, one down for Ellsbury, grounds to Escobar at short, throw to Lind. Two down for Scutaro, ball four and another walk. One on two down for Pedroia, pops up Arencibia and leaves Scutaro out there. Romero settling down ? We all hope so.
Top 4th: Hill grounds back to Wakefield throw to Youkilis at first, one down. Snider fly ball to Drew. Two down for Arencibia, fly ball to McDonald in left.
Bottom 4th: Ortiz leading off, shift right on leaving that huge gap in left, he just has to push it in to left, and it would be a double, perfect, Ortiz strikes out, one down. Youkilis grounds to Escobar throw to Lind. Two down for Drew, doubles to centre, I knew it was too good to be true. McDonald off the Monster, single to left, here comes Drew, 3-3 game. Saltalamacchia singles to Davis in centre, McDonald to third. Navarro another off the Monster in left, McDonald scores Saltalamacchia to third, Navarro at second, still two outs. 4-3 Boston. And this was the bottom of the order, here comes the top now. Ellsbury, lines it to centre, off the wall, just missed going out, here comes Saltalamcchia, here comes Navarro and Romero is shell shocked here 6-3 Boston. All with two outs. Scutaro, ball four. Pedroia, there goes Ellsbury and takes third with no throw, Arenciba had the ball but Bautista was not covering the bag at third. We don’t often see that. Pedroia grounds out in front, Romero, helps himself and throw to Lind but that is the third out finally. Red Sox send nine to the plate, when did the Jays last do that?
Top 5th: Davis leading off, strikes out. Rajai unable to figure Wakefield out. One down for someone who has figured out the knuckleballer. Escobar, one on one down singles to centre. Thames, strikes out. Bautista singles to left, Escobar to second. Lind popped out to second baseman Pedroia.
Bottom 5th: Ortiz fly ball to Thames in left, one down. Youkilis doubles to centre. Drew, 3-0 count and ball four, walks on four pitches. Camp pitching, Reddick pinch-hitting for McDonald. Two on two down. Reddick lines into a double play, second baseman Hill to first base Lind, Drew out.
Top 6th: Reddick stays in the game in left field. Encarnacion, leading of strikes out again. Hill grounds to Navarro at third base throw to Youkilis at first, two down. Snider lines this just fair into right field corner and safe at second on the play. Arencibia, passed ball to the backstop and Travis moves up to third. Another chance here JP, pops it up to Drew in right, leaving Snider at third.
Bottom 6th: Saltalamacchia strikes out. Navarro grounds to Bautista at third, throw to first base Lind. Ellsbury with two on and two down, doubles to right. Scutaro grounds back to pitcher Camp throw to Lind at first base.
Top 7th: Davis lines out to Drew in right field. Escobar, one down, fly ball to Drew in right, two down. Thames, ball four and a walk for Thames. That was not intentional to get to Bautista. Ball gets away to the backstop, passed ball, Thames moves up to second. Bautista strikes out.
Bottom 7th: Rauch now pitching. Pedroia pops it up to Hill at second, one down. Ortiz, ball four and yet another walk given up by the Jays pitchers. Number four. Youkilis doubles to left, Ortiz to third. That’s it for Rauch, Perez now pitching. Drew grounds to Hill throw to Lind. Two down for Reddick, strikes out.
Top 8th: Bard now pitching to set up for Papelbon. Lind grounds to Youkilis throw to pitcher Bard at first for the first out of the inning. Encarnacion strikes out, for the third time tonight. Wheeler now pitching. Hill strikes out.
Bottom 8th: Dotel now pitching. Saltalamacchia grounds to Hill, throw to Lind, one down. Navarro fly ball to Davis in centre. Ellsbury grounds to second base Hill, throw to first base Lind.
Top 9th: Papelbon pitching. They will not get to him a second game in a row. Snider leading off, strikes out. One on for Arencibia, he hits him, I was wondering when the Red Sox would payback for the two hits Jays pitchers have and in particular the one on Youkilis. Francona leaves it to the very last opportunity so that no time for retaliation, maybe next series? McCoy in to pinch-run for Arencibia. Last night’s goat gets a crumb thrown to him. Patterson pinch hitting for Davis. McCoy takes second, defensive indifference. Patterson strikes out. Escobar, another hit, 4-5 tonight, here comes McCoy to score, 6-4 Boston, do we have another rally going? very good night for Yunel on his return from the wrist injury. Escobar moves up to second, yet another defensive indifference. Papelbon is focused on Thames with runner in scoring position, strikes out. Papelbon strikes out the side as Jays lose 6-4 in the rain tonight. I don't think the rain delays affected the result but the Jays came close, and maybe closer than they deserved.
The good: Jays at least played a much better series than the last one in Toronto. Definitely not outplayed. 3 run total differential in the three games. Tonight Escobar 4-5 in his return from injury and matches career high. Snider two more hits including another double, also hitting the ball very well. Bautista two more hits and two rbis.The solid bullpen tonight. Camp, Rauch, Perez and Dotel shut the Red Sox down for the last four innings.
The not so good: Youthful errors. Youth against the knuckelballer Wakefield. Youth playing the Green Monster, Jays were clueless in the field and hitting all series long. This will undoubtedly get better as they play each series for the next decade, but for now it is so painful to watch the misplaying of the ball so many times, especially compared to the way the Red Sox hammer ball after ball off the wall, and also the way they play the carooms. Romero will now have a long layoff before he pitches again and then it will be against the Yankees next week. He will have plenty of time to analyse where he was going wrong tonight. Plus the incentive to do well against the Yankees should be more than enough to chew on for a week. 12 strikeouts by Jays hitters tonight. Encarancion struck out three times, he can’t hit behind Lind, otherwise Lind is getting nothing to hit especially if Bautiusta is already on base. Teams will start to walk Lind to get to Edwin and his outs. Arencibia still sliding to the .200 level in his average. Is this starting to affect his pitch calling? Who was in charge tonight with Romero because he was throwing a lot of bad pitches.
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