Jays v Indians. Game one of four. Last series before the All-Star break and Jays would love to end this half with a winning streak and get as close as possible to .500.
Line-ups: Jays: Escobar, Thames, Bautista, Lind, Hill, Encarnacion, Snider, Arencibia, Davis and Villanueva pitching.
Indians: Brantley, A. Cabrera, Hafner, Santana, Sizemore, O. Cabrera, Buck, LaPorta, Chisenhall and Zach MacAllister the rookie pitching.
Top 1st: Escobar leading off, grounds to A.Cabrera at short, throw to LaPorta at first for the first out. Thames, strikes out. Two down for Bautista, McAllister being careful to Jose, full count, he does not give him a chance, ball four. Lind strikes out. McAllister gets through the first tough inning.
Bottom 1st: Brantley leading off singles to Thames in right. One on for A.Cabrera, pops up to Thames in right, one down one on. Hafner fly ball to Snider in left. Santana, there goes Brantley no throw as Arencibia could not get a good grip on the ball. Full count to Santana, ball four and Indians have two on here with only one down. Sizemore, 2-0 Villanueva has lost the zone here. 3-0, ball four. Bases are loaded. Brantley to third, Santana to second. Sizemore at first. O. Cabrera with bases loaded, pops up to Thames in right to end the inning. Jays escape this time.
Top 2nd: Hill, leading off, full count and ball four. Leadoff walk. Encarnacion with Hill at first, pops up to O.Cabrera at second base, one down. Snider, there goes Hill and safe on the throw as it bounces into centre field. Hill goes to third on the play. Aggressive play. Love it. Error on the play to Santana on his throw. Snider singles back up the middle, so simple when executed so effortlessly here comes Hill. 1-0 Jays. Arencibia, strikes out. Two down. Davis safe at second on McAllister's error, Snider to third. Escobar fly ball to Buck in right.
Bottom 2nd: Buck leading off, strikes out. One down for LaPorta, grounds to Bautista throw to Lind at first base, two down for Chisenhall, Ohhhh, no, pitch hits him in the head, this is bad, Chisenhall goes down, that hit him on the side of the head. Trainer out you can see the bruise on the right eye, and his nose, he is leaving the game, could have broken the cheekbone there but just missed the eye. Jays have been hitting batters regularly this week that is the third. Hannahan pinch-running for Chisenhall. Brantley singles to left, Hannahan moves up to third. Cabrera fly ball to Snider in left for third out and to leave two on.
Top 3rd: - Hannahan stays in the game in as third base. Thames fly ball to Buck in right, quick out. Bautista fly ball to T.Buck. Lind strikes out to end the inning.
Bottom 3rd: - Hafner singles to centre. Santana strikes out. Villanueva's wild pitch, Hafner to second. Sizemore strikes out. This should be it. Cabrera grounds to Escobar at second, to first baseman Lind.
Top 4th: Hill grounds to third, ball bounces high and Hannahan fumbles, recovers but throw not in time to get Hill. Encarnacion singles to left, A. Hill to second. Snider grounds to second base O.Cabrera to shortstop A.Cabrera, hard to keep the Cabrera’s separate here, but Encarnacion out. Hill to third. One down for Arencibia, singles to centre, his first hit in his last 19 at bats, here comes Hill 2-0 Jays. Snider to second on the play. Davis, singles to second this should be enough as he beats the throw, Snider scores, 3-0 Jays and Arencibia moves to second. Escobar full count, ball four to get the walk and load the bases. McAllister having a rough time out there this inning. Arencibia to third, Davis to second. Thames, fly ball to shallow left for Brantley to make the catch, too shallow for Arencibia to score, has to hold. Bautista grounds to, shortstop A.Cabrera throw to second baseman O.Cabrera, Escobar makes the third out. Jays lose a great opportunity there to really blow this one wide open.
Bottom 4th: Buck leading off, strikes out. One down for LaPorta grounds hard to third, OH what a fantastic play, Bautista had to run several steps to his right to get the ball with a lunge and then throw and he gets La Porta at first, that is one incredible play by Bautista. This guy does it all.
Hannahan, hammers this to Thames in right, off the wall and Hannahan is going to third on the play. Thames was there and made the jump but missed the ball. That was catchable and Bautista may have had that one but he cannot play third and right and look at what the score would be if he had been playing in right, he would not have got LaPorta and Indians would have scored. Brantley with two down, fly ball to Davis in centre to end this eventful inning but most memories will be on the play by Bautista and fans will be lucky enough to see that on the Jumbotron in the Rogers Centre for the rest of this season.
Top 5th: Perez now pitching. Lefty-lefty, Lind swinging away here and missing by miles, strikes out. Hill with one down, singles to left. Encarnacion, there goes Hill, I don’t blame him with Edwin behind him, throw by Santana gets him as Hill tries to avoid the Cabrera tag by jumping but his foot hits the tag, first time Aaron has been caught all season in 12 attempts. Not bad record. Two down for Encarnacion, singles to left. Hill out more significant now that could be two on and one down. Snider strikes out.
Bottom 5th: Cabrera strikes out. Hafner grounds to Hill at second and beats the throw, one down one on for catcher Santana, singles to Thames in right, Hafner moves up to second. Sizemore one down and two on, Villanueva gets him, strikes out. Cabrera pops up to Arencibia to end the inning.
Top 6th: Arencibia leading off fly ball to Brantley in left. One down for Davis, lines it to Sizemore in centre, two down for top of the order. Escobar ball four and on with a walk. Thames now with two down, and one on needs to get on base for Bautista behind him. Grounds back to pitcher Perez throw to LaPorta at first for third out and leaving Escobar out there.
Bottom 6th: Villanueva still pitching. Buck fly ball to Snider in left, makes the catch, one down for LaPorta, strikes out two down. Hannahan pops up to Bautista at third. Nice inning by Villanueva, seemed to get stronger as he went along. I am amazed that his pitch count 110 pitches for the six innings when he had high count early in the game.
Top 7th: Durbin now pitching. Bautista leading off, grounds to Hannahan at third, throw to LaPorta for the out at first. Jose not having a great night with his bat at least. Lind with one down grounds to Cabrera at short, throw to LaPorta at first for the out. Hill grounds to Hannahan throw to LaPorta at first to end the inning.
Bottom 7th: Rzepczynski now pitching. Villanueva did a great job holding this line-up to zero runs scored. Brantley leading off strikes out. Cabrera, taking them here, 3-0 count, ball four. Hafner grounds to Hill throw to Escobar playing at short, throw over to Lind at first base great time for a double play.
Top 8th: Herrmann now pitching. Encarnacion singles to centre. One on for Snider, strikes out. Arencibia singles to right, Encarnacion to second. Davis pops up to second base Cabrera. J. Smith now pitching. Escobar, strikes out.
Bottom 8th: Rzepczynski still pitching, second inning for him. Santana leading off, ball four.
Sizemore, one on, grounds back to pitcher Rzepczynski, throw to Escobar covering the bag at second, one down. Rzepczynski did what the Manager wanted and another call to the bullpen.
Jason Frasor now pitching. This will do perfectly. O.Cabrera grounds to Escobar, over to Hill throw to Lind, one down. Escobar grounds to Hill at second, throw to Lind, Sizemore out at first.
Top 9th: Sipp now pitching. Thames 0-4 not a good night for Eric. 0-5 as he strikes out here. I don’t think this guy will be getting many of these 0-5 hitless games. Here comes Bautista, Sipp being cautious, full count, NOT this one though, WOW… Jose hammers this one high into left halfway up the stand. 4-0 Jays. That is called clutch hitting. He does everything this guy. Lind, keeps the line moving, singles to right. Home run number 29 and ties George Bell Jays record for most home runs before All-Star break. Hill has also had a great game, two hit night plus a walk, pops up this time for Buck in right field. Encarnacion, three hit night, not this time as he strikes out looking. Edwin does not like the call, arguing and now tosses his helmet, and now the umpire has ejected him. Come on Edwin.
Bottom 9th: Jays leading 4-0. Francisco now in to close this one out. Buck singles to centre. Not what Manager Farrell wanted. LaPorta doubles to right, Buck to third. Francisco awful out there, two in scoring position and nobody out. Hannahan full count, and now ball four. That is it for Francisco. How can you come in as a closer and load the bases? Perez pitching. Need to exchange some runs for outs right now. Brantley strikes out, that’s better although only one down. Cabrera with bases loaded, singles to left, here comes Buck and Indians are on the board 4-1, bases still loaded. Indians were 0-8 with runners in scoring position tonight, it had to end sometime but not in the ninth please. Hafner, NO he gets all of this one and it is a rocket to right, high into the seats, grand slam to Hafner, and Indians win with walk off four runs. Jays bullpen gives up five in this inning and if anyone is counting there was only one out in the inning but five runs after Indians had been shut out for eight.
I can’t believe what I just saw. In the space of minutes, this game has gone from a four run deficit to a one run win for the home side. They had left 21 on base tonight and had been shut out for eight. How can the bullpen give up five ? More to the point maybe, is this the end of Francisco. This is not the first time he has been on the hot seat this season. He had already blown four saves this season.
The excellent: Yes there was some and we should highlight it. Bautista yet again but this time with both his glove and bat. His magnificent play in the 4th inning is a highlight reel play. His home run in the top of the ninth gave the Jays more than enough space to win this one.
The awful: The ugly and I never ever want to read this again. Francisco given a 4-0 lead managed to load the bases with nobody out. Perez, over agitated and overthrowing maybe should not have been the pitcher out there in that situation. Camp would have better choice with 20.20 hindsight.
Jays have three more against the Indians and nothing short of a sweep of the three will give many fans a fillip.
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