Jays v A’s Game two of four.
Tonight Cecil goes out there against Harden a rematch of the game August 9 which Cecil lost. Other news today from the Jays, Mills caught the bus to Vegas a little later than we suggested a few days ago after his terrible start. He just didn’t have it and it is no shock to see him demoted. Luis Perez will take his rotation spot and Joel Carreno has also been called-up from Double A Hampshire and will join his colleague Henderson Alvarez.
Line-ups: Jays: Escobar, Thames, Bautista, Lind, Encarnacion, Rasmus, Lawrie, Hill, Arencibia and Cecil
A’s: Weeks, Crisp, Matsui, Willingham, Allen, Jackson, Suzuki, Sizemore, Pennington and Harden pitching.
Top 1st: Escobar, whoa lucky Yunel, grounds first pitch softly right back at Harden, Harden unable to find the ball, fumbles it and Escobar safe at first, lucky break for Escobar. Thames, full count, wild pitch but ball four, two on for Bautista. Big chance to get going early. 3-0 count, taking or swinging, taking and a strike 3-1, ball four to load the bases and nobody out for Lind. Not sure why he is swinging at first pitch when Harden has just walked two consecutive hitters 0-2 strikes out swinging, one down. Encarnacion, 0-2 count, way outside and swinging at it, strikes out on three pitches. Awful, the ball was three feet off the plate and he swung at it. Rasmus, now pressure on you Colby. Strikes out swinging. That was bad, real bad. Bases loaded and nobody out and could not get a hit between the three of them. Pitch count 23.
Bottom 1st: Cecil may have to do it all himself tonight. Weeks leading off. Full count, ball four. Crisp showing bunt, lines it right at Escobar for the out, nice catch Yunel, one down. Matsui, full count, grounds to Lind, steps on the bag for one, throw to Escobar but through his glove into centre field. Sloppy play by both Escobar and Lind. Should have been easy double play. Two down, Willingham and there it goes huge fly ball to left and out of here, home run Willingham 2-0 A’s and the poor throw comes immediately back to hurt Cecil. Allen, 2-2 count, grounds to Lind takes it himself for the out but Jays sloppy play early here is already hurting them. 22 pitches for Cecil.
Top 2nd: Lawrie 2-2 count, strikes out swinging, one down for Hill, pops it up to Allen for the out in shallow right, two down for Arencibia. Lines it back at Harden off his leg but this time finds it and throw to first for an easy three up and down inning. 37 pitch count,
Bottom 2nd: Jackson, grounds to Hill, throw to Lind, one down. Suzuki, 0-2 count, singles into centre, Sizemore, grounds back to Cecil throw to Hill at second over to Lind at first, not in time. Cecil took far too long to throw to second. Pennington with two down. 3-1 count, high ball four. Weeks with two on, grounds to Hill, throw to Lind and no damage done apart from a few more pitches. 39 pitch count.
Top 3rd: Escobar leading off, maybe he can redeem himself for that dropped throw. 0-2 swings at two balls. Strikes out at a pitch on the ground, all three balls and yet he swung at them, that is how bad that was. Thames, takes ball one, and ball two and three I hope Escobar is watching this at bat. Lines it to left but at least he had a good at bat, Bautista, two down. 3-1 finally Jays hitters have learned something to lay off the balls. Full count, ball four and Jose walks. Now can Lind make up for his sloppy throw and poor last at bat? 2-2 count, fly ball to Jackson in right for the third out, where was that hit last at bat. Pitch count 53.
Bottom 3rd: Crisp, bounces to Escobar low throw to Lind gets Crisp, one down for Matsui. Strikes out swinging on three pitches. Two down for Willingham. 1-2 count, high fly ball to Thames in shallow left for third out. 49 pitches.
Top 4th: Encarnacion, full count, takes strike three this time. Not Edwin’s night tonight he hasn’t a clue with Harden. Rasmus, pops it up to in left for out number two, Lawrie, 0-2 count, strikes out swinging. Harden just mowing them down here. Jays had their chances earlier and did not take advantage. 63 pitches.
Bottom 4th: Allen leading off. 0-2 count, fly ball to Bautista in right, one down for Jackson. 3-1 count, inside ball four. Walk number three for Cecil. Suzuki, 0-2 count, singles to Rasmus in centre, two on one down for Sizemore, strikes out swinging on three pitches. Pennington, two on two down. grounds to Lawrie, throw to Lind for the out, no damage done. 69 pitches.
Top 5th: Are we going to see any power tonight or are the Jays unable to get to Harden. Bottom of the order, Hill leading off. 2-2 count, pops up to second. One down for Arencibia. Singles into left, finally a hit here. Breaks up the no hitter. Escobar with one on. Swings at one way outside. Jays hitters getting themselves out tonight. full count, strikes out swinging on ball four. Two down for Thames 1-2 count strikes out swinging at ball in the dirt. What can we say. 83 pitches.
Bottom 5th: Weeks, fly ball to Bautista in right, one down for Crisp. Fly ball to Thames in left, two down for Matsui singles into right centre. Willingham 3-1 count, ball four to walk him. Two on two down for Allen, 1-2 count, pops it up to Lawrie at third. 86 pitch count.
Top 6th: Bautista, two walks tonight, 2-2 count, singles into right. Lind, awful night so far. That’s better, high fly ball to the wall in right, enough for Jose to tag and get to second. One down for Encarnacion grounds to second but nice diving play by Weeks and throw to first to get Encarnacion. Jose to third on the play. Two down for Rasmus. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. Pitch count 96.
Bottom 6th: Jackson, full count, ball four. One on for Suzuki, 0-2 count Camp warming up in bullpen. Perfect grounds to Lawrie throw to Hill over to Lind finally a double play. Two down for Sizemore, bunting but foul. 0-2 count, strikes out swinging. Cecil is doing his job, it is his teammates that are not doing theirs tonight and chances are running out. 101 pitch count.
Top 7th: Lawrie leading off. 3-1 count, fly ball to centre for the out. Hill, back in his season long dumps on this road trip. His body language is awful, so defeatist, come on Aaron. Fly ball to centre. Two down. Arencibia, full count, ball four. Escobar with runner on.1-2 count, strikes out swinging.
Bottom 7th: Cecil still out there. Pennington, full count, takes strike three, one down for Weeks, grounds to Escobar, throw to Lind, two down. Crisp. Grounds first pitch to Lawrie throw to Lind for the third out.
Top 8th: Grant Balfour now pitching. Thames, 0-2 count, strikes out swinging on three pitches. Bautista, 3-0 count, poor guy never gets anything to hit. Full count, High ball four, third walk for Jose tonight. Problem is that Lind has not come through behind him. Lind, grounds to second, oh nice play, Jose holding back forcing him to throw to first to get Lind and relay is not in time Jose at second, great play. Lind of course almost a double play. Encarnacion. There goes Jose and safe on throw to third, trying to do it all tonight, come on Edwin your turn. Terrible swing, pops it up to Allen at first.
Bottom 8th: Camp now pitching. Matsui, full count, pops up to Escobar at short, one down for Willingham, 2-2 count, bounces high to Camp, throw to Lind, two down. Allen, grounds to Lind, throw to Camp for final out. Nice inning by Camp. Let’s hope there is another.
Top 9th: Andrew Bailey pitching, Rasmus leading off. Strikes out swinging. One down for Lawrie, singles into right, hard to get Lawrie out four times in a game evidently. Hill now or is Farrell pinch hitting for him? No, now Lawrie distracting Bailey over there at first. There goes Lawrie but Hill fouls it off. 1-2 count, terrible grounds to short, throw to second, over to first double play ball. If Hill had let the previous pitch go through Lawrie would have been at second and no double play. Farrell may wish he had pinch hit for Hill.
This was one very poorly played game by the Jays. 0-6 with runners in scoring position and three of those were in the first inning with bases loaded. One single would have made the difference in this game. Add in the Lind-Escobar defensive lapse which lead to the Oakland runs and you have the picture tonight. A game that could have easily been very different. The game was won on that failure to make and catch a simple throw.
The good: Cecil pitched well, he just had no support from the bats or from his fielders tonight. Bautista three walks, great play to get to second in the 8th followed by steal of third but he can’t do everything.
The awful: First inning with bases loaded and unable to score three consecutive strikes outs on three pitches each. Sloppy play by Escobar and Lind on the throw to Escobar. Poor hitting by Jays swinging wildly at balls off the plate. Encarnacion swung at a ball three feet off the plate to strike out. Escobar, Thames strikes out on ball four in the dirt. Harden didn’t have to throw over the plate tonight. Encarnacion in the 8th with Jose at third pops it up. Edwin had one of those games that he had for the first half of the season, terrible. Hill had another poor game and looks like a nervous wreck out there. Surely Johnny Mc will be playing tomorrow and Monday.
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