Jays continue to play sandlot ball and lose to Angels 5-1

Angels v Jays, Game one of three.

Vernon is back in town for the first time. Media today debating what reception will Vernon get from the crowd, he will get a great reception. The fans remember the good days. Jays have a tough series now and going in the opposite direction from the Angels. After the last three days Jays fans should be in for a nasty weekend unless the team smartens up on offence pitching and defence. Hmmm not much else to smarten up/ But they have been terrible and if you take away that grand slam by Lawrie this team could be on big losing streak. Too many regulars not pulling their weight, Hill, Lind, Thames to name but three. Will Farrell do what he said he would do and play the players who are performing as opposed to sticking with Hill and his season long slump, and Thames who is fast becoming a dead weight for the line-up and also in the field? Two awful plays last night that he could and should have had. Tonight Morrow, who knows what he will bring tonight.

Line-ups: Angels: Aybar, Callaspo, Abreu, Hunter, Branyan, Wells, Kendrick, Bourjos, Wilson and Santana pitching.
Jays: Escobar, Thames, Bautista, Lind, Encarnacion, Rasmus, Hill, Molina, Lawrie and Morrow pitching.

Top 1st: Aybar, grounds to Lind, throw to Morrow for the out, one down for Callaspo, 2-2 count, hammers this to centre, Rasmus makes the overhead catch at the wall, that was a Vernon catch, nice play. Two down. Abreu, 1-2 count, pops it up to Lawrie at third to end the inning.
Bottom 1st: Escobar, grounds to Aybar at short, throw to first, one down. Thames, singles to left, Bautista, lines first pitch up the middle, great diving play by Aybar at short, flip to Kendrick at second on to Branyan at first double play, instead of a hit for Jose, inning ending play.

Top 2nd: Hunter leading off, high fly ball to the wall in centre, Rasmus nice play to get this one. One down for Branyan, 2-2 count, strikes out. Wells, gets nice reception, standing ovation. I think he is moved, tips his helmet, whoa, pays them back with first pitch drive over the wall in left center, home run for Vernon. 1-0 Angels. Come on Brandon, you pitch Vernon down and away, everybody in the stadium knows that. Kendrick, full count, strikes out to end the inning.
Bottom 2nd: Lind, grounds to Kendrick, throw to first, one down. Encarnacion, lines first pitch to Bourjos centre, easy out, two down. Rasmus, 0-2 strikes out swinging. This is far too easy for Santana. 12 pitch count and that is for TWO innings. I think the one run will be more than enough for Santana tonight.

Top 3rd: Game moving a lot faster than yesterday and the painfully slow Mills who made Frasor look like lightning. Bourjos, leading off. 3-1 count, outside ball four. Morrow not sharp tonight. Leadoff hitter on base for Wilson, bunting back to Morrow, throw to Lind but he did the job. Bourjos in scoring position. Aybar pops up first pitch to Escobar, two down. Callaspo, singles to Bautista in right, here comes Bourjos, throw off the mark and Callaspo to second. 2-0 Angels. Error to Jose on the throw. Two down for Abreu. 3-1 count, ball four, two on two down for Hunter, 0-2 count, lines it to right, here comes two more 4-0 Angels and this is a rout already. Hill hesitated on the throw to the plate, maybe a little faster Aaron and you would have had him. Branyan full count. Morrow almost at 50 pitches already and only the third inning. Ball four, walk number three in this inning. Wells with two on. Now he gets some boos. Fly ball to Bautista for the out, but this one could be over already especially with Santana pitching. Hard to score five off him even if Morrow could hold the Angels. 57 pitches for Morrow, ouch.
Bottom 3rd: Morrow has thrown almost 40 more pitches than Santana tonight, the master and the pupil. It does not get easier tomorrow friends with Weaver pitching. Hill grounds to short throw to first for the out. Molina, lines this to the wall, why oh why is Molina going for a triple, out at third, that was one awful judgement call by Molina. Lawrie with two down instead of Molina at second. 3-1 count, ball four, first guy to reach base, two down for Escobar. Lawrie running but Escobar not helping him by fouling it off. This is second time he has done that in last two games. Now he goes again but Wilson throw gets him at second. But this was poor call by Molina to think he could get a triple. The slowest guy in the stadium and on the arm of Wells.

Top 4th: Kendrick first pitch fly ball to Thames in left, one down for Bourjos, 1-2 count, pops it up to Hill in shallow right, almost drops it. Two down. Wilson, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. Pitch count 66, but a long, long way to go. Not least his team-mates scoring five runs against Santana who has been perfect so far.
Bottom 4th: Top of the order for Jays, Escobar gets another crack at Santana. 0-2 count, grounds up the middle, Kendrick gets to it at second, but no chance to get Escobar at first, finally a clean hit. Thames, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. One down for Bautista in a miserable slump right now. His average has dropped like a stone .308 right now. 2-1 count, grounds up the middle to Aybar steps on second throw to first, yet another double play by Bautista. Cannot get the ball in the air these days.

Top 5th: Bourjos, grounds to third, nice play by Lawrie and good throw to Lind for the first out. Callaspo, 1-2 count, pops it up to Lawrie at third, two down. Abreu, 1-2 count, grounds to Escobar, throw to Lind for the out. Good inning for Morrow but too little too late tonight, we needed this earlier.
Bottom 5th: Lind, first pitch pops it up to third. I fail to understand Lind have no idea where his head is sometimes in the game One down. Encarnacion, 0-2 grounds to third throw to first two down. Far too easy for Santana, Rasmus, 1-2 count, pops up to Bourjos. 45 pitches for five innings, that says it all tonight. But to be fair, Jays chances have not been helped by Molina goof and the first pitch outs by Lind and the double plays by Bautista.

Top 6th: Meanwhile Morrow on 78 pitches. Hunter, 2-2 count, pops it up, nobody in he infield sees it against the dusk sky and Morrow drops the ball, par for tonight. One on and error on Morrow. Branyan, doubles into right, Bautista throw back in bounces away from Hill and Lind, Hunter scores 5-0 another error to Bautista. Please, please get Johnny Mc. out there for Hill. Comedy of errors tonight. Lines it to Bautista in right, Branyan tagging and here comes the throw by Jose and gets him at third, great play Jose, two down. Kendrick, 1-2 count, grounds to Lind, takes it himself for the out. Well maybe this team needs a garbage inning like this to get them going again. They are playing very, very poorly right now.
Bottom 6th: Hill, first pitch swinging pops it up to Bourjos. Molina, grounds to third, throw to first, two down three pitches. Lawrie, lines it to left, ground rule double as it bounces into the crowd, At least someone is showing some fire here. Escobar, don`t be a hero here Yunel just a base hit. Unable to do it, pops it up to Bourjos in centre.
Top 7th: This game only an hour and a half to do six innings. Bourjos leading off. Pops it up to Hill, jeers from the crowd both for Hill and the fact he caught it. That dropped ball cost them last inning. Wilson, full count, high ball four. One on one down for top of order. Aybar, 0-2 count, grounds to Escobar throw to Hill on to Lind but no chance for double play. Two down for Callaspo. Casey Janssen ready in the bullpen. 3-1 count, there goes Aybar, throw late, runner at second, full count, fly ball to Rasmus for the out.

Bottom 7th: Jays running out of time to do anything here. They have had chances but one way or other have been unable to get a runner even to third base. Morrow has not helped himself but has not been supported by his team tonight with glove or bats. Thames leading off, 2-0 count, grounds to second, throw to first, one down. Bautista, 0-2 and two double plays and two errors tonight, 2-2 count, strikes out. Lind, grounds back to Santana, throw to first, ten pitches.

Top 8th: Casey Janssen now pitching. Abreu, 0-2 count, strikes out swinging. One down for Hunter, full count, ball four. One on one down for Branyan, strikes out, two down for Wells, first pitch fly ball to Rasmus for third out.
Bottom 8th: Encarnacion, Angels playing their bench now, Trumbo in for Branyan at second. Edwin singles to left. No pinch runner here. No Rajai Davis to get Santana out of this routine and shake things up. Farrell has to shake things up here, one on for Rasmus, 0-2 count, strikes out swinging on three pitches. One down for Hill, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down for Molina, singles to left, that would have scored Rajai Davis. Two on two down for Lawrie. 1-2 count. Grounds to second throw to first for the out.

Top 9th: Jesse Litsch pitching, Kendrick at bat. Bounces to Lawrie, throw to Lind one down for Bourjos, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down for Wilson, 1-2 count, strikes out looking, nice inning Jesse.
Bottom 9th: Jays have scored three runs in the last 17 innings, not good at all. Manager has to do something to change the line-up, that would be a start. Escobar, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging, one down for Thames. Finally, lines it over the fence in right, home run Thames, 5-1 game. There goes the shutout for Santana. Bautista, full count, outside ball four. Not giving Jose anything to hit here. Lind, perhaps he can contribute something. 0-3 tonight. Dream on, Lind grounds to second, throw to the bag, over to first double play ball.

Jays outhit the Angels tonight but still lose. They fall even further behind and are playing their worst ball of the season at the wrong time. We will probably see a strong finish in September but it will be meaningless for the fans and by then we will want to be seeing the newbies and the future, not the old guys trying to load their own stats.

The good: nothing much tonight I am afraid, finally Thames contributes but a little late. Good relief innings by Casey Janssen and Jesse Litsch but Morrow had dug too deep a hole by then. As yesterday the game was out of reach by the 3rd inning although Morrow settled down after that it was too late and in addition four walks in an outing will not help you Brandon. He was not helped much by his teammates. Lawrie a hit and a walk to get on base twice which was more than most of his teammates.

Chief goat tonight has to be Jose Molina thinking he was Rajai Davis, trying to stretch a double into a triple and not just that but on the arm of Vernon Wells to boot. That is a crazy suicide play and clots the Jays a run. Two errors given to Bautista but surely with both Hill and Lind missing the relay throw I think there are others at fault here.
Three errors do not help the cause for Morrow either.

Manager Farrell continuing to select the under achieving Hill. No display of aggressive play, even in the game in the 8th with Encarnacion on base, no pinch runner in Davis. That cost them a run when Molina singled to left. When the team has scored three runs in seventeen innings, you cannot keep repeating the old unsuccessful ways, it is time to make things happen, and leaving the two sparkplugs of Davis and McDonald on the bench is not very smart in my book.
Farrell has to do something to shake this line-up up. The beginning of the season he was showing some great aggressive play but appears to be shy these days of anything remotely aggressive. Not one relief player tonight.