Jays embarrass themselves with sandlot baseball.

Athletics v Jays. Series finale and decider.

Series tied at one apiece. Huge crowd today, it is another matinee camp day game. Children in their thousands LOUD and wanting some action, would that they had been here last night. If Lawrie thought the crowd was loud last night, a grand slam reaction today would sound like thunder all the way to Oakland.
Today Mills pitching.

Line-ups: Athletics: Sizemore, Pennington, Matsui, Willingham, Jackson, DeJesus, Suzuki, Sweeney, Rosales and Moscoso pitching.
Jays: Escobar, Thames, not sure why he is still playing over Davis, perhaps today he will prove me wrong but he has not adjusted to the way pitchers are now pitching to him second time around. Bautista, not a happy guy these days with his bat, Lind, another lost soul out there, seemingly in two minds with most of his at bats, Encarnacion really the only consistent Jays hitter over the last few weeks, Rasmus, Hill, should not even be in the line-up, is doing nothing at all to warrant a position, Arencibia, Lawrie providing the few sparks that we have seen for this offence recently. And Mills pitching, who knows what he will bring today.

Top 1st: Sizemore leading off, fly ball to Bautista in right, one down for Pennington. Full count, ball four and walk to Pennington, one on one down Matsui, lines it hard but right at Hill, two down. Willingham strikes out, good first inning for Mills.
Bottom 1st: Escobar leading off, grounds to Pennington at short throw to Jackson at first, one down. Thames grounds to Jackson at first, takes it himself for the out. Bautista, two down, strikes out.

Top 2nd: Jackson leading off, strikes out. One down for DeJesus, doubles to Bautista in right. Suzuki, strikes out. Sweeney with two down, strikes out.
Bottom 2nd: Lind fly ball to Sweeney in centre, one down, Encarnacion. Fly ball to DeJesus. Right fielder Rasmus fly ball to Sweeney in centre. I think Jays hitters are trying to say that they can hit the ball hard. Not enough.

Top 3rd: Rosales full count, ball four and Mills has the leadoff guy on base. Now the top of the order. Sizemore, doubles to Thames in left, Rosales to third. Pennington doubles to left, here comes Rosales followed by Sizemore and A’s go out ahead 3-0. Matsui, singles to Rasmus in centre, here comes Pennington 4-0 A’s. Willingham, ouch hit by a pitch, Matsui to second. Jackson, oh this one is trouble, lines it to the wall in left, Willingham scores. 5-0 A’s. Jackson gets himself a triple. Oh my, pitch gets away and here comes Jackson, 6-0 A’s, wild pitch by Mills. Nothing is going right here for Mills. DeJesus, strikes out. That is the first out of the inning, six runs down. Suzuki pops up to Arencibia, two down. Sweeney fly ball to Rasmus in centre to mercifully end this agony for Mills and the rest of the team having to stand and watch. He should be on the bus to Vegas later tonight and maybe with others.
Bottom 3rd: Will Jays hitters fight back here and at least get one. Hill fly ball to DeJesus in right, one down. Arencibia, grounds to Sizemore at third throw to Jackson at first. Lawrie strikes out.

Top 4th: That is it for Mills. Camp now pitching. Rosales grounds back to Camp, throw to Hill over to Encarnacion at first for the out. Sizemore grounds to Lawrie at third, throw to Encarnacion. Two down. Pennington full count and ball four. Even Camp now getting into the walks. Matsui grounds back to pitcher Camp, throw to first base Encarnacion.
Bottom 4th: Escobar, ball four and leadoff walk. Thames strikes out. Bautista, 3-0 count, ball four. Second walk this inning by Moscoso, Escobar to second. Lind grounds to Pennington at short, OH my, Pennington throws it away at first and here comes Escobar to score. 6-1 A’s. They all count. Lind safe at first and Bautista at third. Encarnacion bounces one to third, Bautista running on the contact and safe at home 6-2 game. Lind to second, still only one down, chance here for a big inning for the Jays. Rasmus with two on, fly ball to DeJesus in right, two down for Hill, strikes out.

Top 5th: Willingham leading off, strikes out. One down for Jackson, grounds to Lawrie on to first base Encarnacion. DeJesus, oh that hurts, was hit by a pitch. Suzuki doubles to centre, DeJesus to third. Sweeney, intentional walk to load up the bases. Rosales grounds to Lawrie throw to first for the out, over to Hill, Sweeney out.
Bottom 5th: Arencibia strikes out, one down. Lawrie fly ball to Willingham in left, two down. Escobar fly ball to DeJesus in right.

Top 6th: Luis Perez now pitching. Sizemore, grounds it to Lawrie, high throw pulls Lind off the bag and Sizemore safe at first. Error to Lawrie. Nothing and I mean nothing going right tonight for the Jays. Pennington ball four, Sizemore to second. Matsui singles to right, here comes Sizemore, 7-2 Jays, Matsui to second. Willingham, full count and ball four. Jackson, no question about this one, lines it to Thames in left, deep enough for Pennington to tag and score from third, 8-2 Athletics. DeJesus strikes out. Suzuki 3-0 count, ball four to load the bases, could this game get worse? Matsui to third, Willingham to second. Sweeney grounds back to Perez, throwing to Lind at first to get the sure out but ball gets away and Matsui scores followed by Willingham 10-3 Oakland. Suzuki to third and Sweeney to second. Rosales, grounds out to Escobar throw to first base Encarnacion. Oakland gets four more but on a series of errors and crazy plays,
Bottom 6th: Thames leading off, singles to centre. Bautista, fly ball to Sweeney, one down. Lind doubles to right, Thames to third. Encarnacion pops it up to DeJesus in right but this one is too shallow to risk more outs, Jose has to hold at third. Rasmus, strikes out. Jays leave two out there in scoring position.

Top 7th: Trevor Miller now pitching. Top of the A’s order. Sizemore fly ball Bautista in right, one down. Pennington fly ball to Bautista in right field. Two down. Matsui with one on singles to Bautista in right. Two down. Willingham, pops up to Hill at second for the final out.
Bottom 7th: De Los Santos now pitching. Hill leading off, strikes out. One down for Arencibia. Oh very nice line drive, Arencibia gets all of this one with arms extended and drives it to centre. 10-3 Athletics. Lawrie full count and walks on ball four. Escobar fly ball to DeJesus in right, makes a great running sliding catch to the fence to get this one. Thames fly ball to Willingham for the out. Jays get one but they need at least seven more and little time to do it in.

Top 8th: Jon Rauch now pitching. Johnny Mc. in the game but for Escobar NOT Hill. Teahen in at first base. Jackson strikes out. DeJesus full count, ball four. Suzuki fly ball to Bautista in right field. Sweeney with two down, fly ball to Rasmus in centre for the final out. Looks as if this crowd cheering are hoping for a win in Windy City.
Bottom 8th: Fuentes now pitching. Bautista leading off, strikes out. Oh boy poor Jose someone will suffer for this and soon I hope. Lind, one down, grounds back to Fuentes, throw to Jackson for second out. Teahen in the game for Encarnacion, strikes out.

Top 9th: Francisco now pitching. Davis has moved to right field. Rosales leading off, fly ball to Rasmus in centre field for first out. Sizemore doubles to centre. Pennington strikes out. Matsui singles to right, Sizemore to third. Willingham a full count, ball four, Matsui to second. Jackson fly ball to Davis in right.
Bottom 9th: Last chance for the Jays. Breslow now pitching. Rasmus leading off, fly ball to Sweeney in centre, one down. Hill, lines this one hard and going all the way to the wall, Hill with a double to centre. Arencibia fly ball to Sweeney in centre. Lawrie pops up to Jackson to end this one. More like mercy killing for the Jays.

Oakland take two from the Jays in Toronto to win the series to follow the two wins in Tampa, that is not bad back to back series away from home.

The not so good: Notes:
The numbers that do not lie. Walks by Jays pitchers today 9 yes 9 !!! is that a team record? I can’t imagine any game worse than that. Two errors, plus two dropped balls by Thames in left, difficult chances but definitely playable.
Number of pitches: and forget the 80 by Mills by the third inning. Jays pitchers all six of them threw a combined 225 pitches. Oakland threw 138 that is almost 90 pitches less, Jays pitchers pitched almost another 9 normal innings.
And Mills was not alone with his futility today. Camp threw 36 but at least it was over 2 innings. Perez, 35, Miller 25, Rauch 20 and Francisco 25 each threw only ONE inning. WOW.

And even worse today, Jays hitting: 5 hits 3 walks in total. And RISP the usual inept 1/8 although to be fair that is better than the 0-6 two nights ago. Oakland however 6/13 today, that is called clutch hitting.

Don’t tell me that this team is ready for competing with the rest of the division. Their list of wants is growing daily. Second base, left field, pitching, starters and relievers and of course the non-existent closer. This is a team with large holes even against sub-500 clubs. That has to be the worst comparators as if truth were told the Jays themselves are sub-500 club.

This was a stinker all round friends. Nothing at all to redeem it, not even the home run by Arencibia. Pitching was the very worst, defensive errors were like watching a comedy movie. And the hitting was non-existent. Even when they did get a hit to the wall and chance to score it bounced over the wall for ground rule double and then of course the hitter sat at third whilst three attempts were made to bring him in let along the guy at second.

The excellent: Huge crowd today, Camp day, thousands of children in 100 different groups listed in the Jumbotron, all of them children from the various camps in and around the city, what a wasted opportunity for the players as well as the Club itself.
Not a game to forget, this one should be replayed before every game until the end of the season and throughout the spring.
As for bus to Vegas it should be so full with Mills, Thames and Perez sitting in the first rows. If it were worth sending Hill I would put him on as well. But what’s the point, he will not be around and will not get in the line-up with the September callups but it should be Johnny Mc. out there every day until September. He earned the right with that 3-4 game on Sunday, but has sat on the bench since apart from the cameo appearance for Escobar this afternoon. Normally this would not bother me but when Farrell says the team will select itself on performance, then you know that is not the case regarding Hill and Thames.

27,918 attendance, what a wasted opportunity by these Jays. This weekend could be even worse against an even better team LA Angels fighting for playoff spot. This could be one very ugly home stand by Sunday at 1-5. I hope I am totally wrong but watching this performance today was agony.