Royals v Jays. Game one of three.
The day is hijacked already by the trade news. Hill and McDonald to Arizona for Kelly Johnson at second base. Not surprising to see Hill traded but everyone is sad to see Johnny Mc. BUT I like this trade. Alex A. Made it very clear that the door is still open for both payers to return to the Jays in the off-season. Meantime it gives Hill a chance to get his stroke back to where it should be and for Johnny Mc to get some playing time with a contender for the playoffs. This is or could be a win win for everybody.
My own theory about Hill is that he has been trying to hit opposite field and centre all season long when he is clearly a pull hitter to left and indeed the majority of his home runs creep over that fence into the Jays bullpen when at the Rogers centre. An interesting comment from Greg Zaun today about hitting coaches and sometimes they have conflicts with players. He was careful not to say that Hill and Dwayne Murphy are differing but someone must be telling Aaron to go the other way and not pull to left. We will see. And if truth were told majority of Jays fans want Aaron to do well. And if both players can get playoff experience to bring back to Toronto for the younger players in 2012, that would be great. Of course we now have to hope that Kelly Johnson produces.
Tonight’s game and series opener against Kansas. In the series in Kansas Jays split the four game series. Morrow pitching tonight but his last two starts have been totally different. Who knows what will happen tonight but his inconsistency is his major fault right now. The game against the Angels on August 12th, Morrow had tremendous issues with the pitch count and had 57 pitches after three innings. The start against Seattle he pitched deep into the game.
Line-ups: Royals: Gordon, Cabrera, Butler, Hosmer, Francouer, Giavotella, Perez, Moustakas, Escobar and Chen pitching.
Jays: Escobar, Thames, Bautista, Lind, Encarnacion, Rasmus, Lawrie, Molina, McCoy and Romero pitching.
Nice walk up crowd tonight, definitely a positive buzz around this team and that was before the trade was announced today. We would all love to see this team make some noise over the last five weeks. We are sitting in different location tonight. It will be interesting to compare.
Top 1st: Gordon leading off, strikes out swinging. One down for Melky Cabrera grounds to McCoy play at second throw to Lind at first, two down for Butler, fly ball to Bautista in right. Good first inning for Morrow.
Bottom 1st: Escobar returned from his two day vacation. Fly ball to Francoeur in right. Thames grounds to Giavotella at second, throw to Hosmer two down. Bautista pops to the other Escobar also at short.
Top 2nd: Hosmer leading off, Jessica Jay tells me that Hosmer has cooled off, he hammers this one to centre, this one is in the second deck, home run Hosmer and Royals strike first, 1-0. So much for the cooling off. Francoeur, doubles to centre. Giavotella, singles to centre, Francoeur to third. Ball gets away from Rasmus and Francouer scores 2-0 Royals. Giavotella at second. Still nobody out, Perez another hit, singles to centre, here comes Giavotella 3-0 Royals. Morrow is in a real mess out here and piling up the pitch count, this game could be out of reach before the end of the second inning. Moustakas, ball four, first walk by Morrow. Perez to second. But still nobody out here. Escobar, fly ball to Rasmus in centre, there we go Brandon, one down runners hold. Top of the order again Gordon, strikes out swinging. Two down for Melky Cabrera strikes out and this is what infuriates Jays fans with Morrow, one moment he is high school pitching, the next he is unhittable. If he could only put it together for nine innings for more than one game, he would be unbeatable.
Bottom 2nd: Lind 0-2 and strikes out on three pitches. Encarnacion strikes out. Rasmus strikes out. Chen strikes out the side but helped by Lind swinging at all three pitches (and missing)
Top 3rd: Butler leading off, high fly ball to Rasmus. Colby makes the catch, one down for Hosmer. Singles to right. 2-2 tonight and only the third inning. So much for cooling off. Francoeur singles to left, Hosmer to second. Giavotella fly ball to Bautista in right. Two down for Perez, grounds to Escobar throw to McCoy at second to get Francoeur. Morrow manages to hold them here.
Bottom 3rd: Lawrie leading off, strikes out. One down for Molina, pops it up Hosmer at first, McCoy with two down, strikes out.
Top 4th: Moustakas singles to left, OH what a great throw by Thames in the corner to nail him at second, that gets the crowd roused here, it is like doom and gloom night. One down for Escobar, grounds to Lawrie at third, throw to Lind. Two down for top of the order again, Gordon. Strikes out. Morrow holds them again. But his pitch count is 80.
Bottom 4th: Escobar singles to centre and there goes the perfect game for Chen. But more importantly can they bring in Escobar. Thames, Oh NO.... grounds to Escobar at short, throw to Giavotella at second, over to Hosmer at first, Escobar out. Double play ball. Two down for Bautista, strikes out.
Top 5th: Cabrera leading off, pops up to Escobar at short, one down. Butler, there she goes and another home run. Butler hits these so hard even the fly ball outs. But this one in to the left field seats, 4-0 Royals. Hosmer grounds to Lind and safe at first, infield single. Francoeur with two down strikes out. Giavotella, there goes Hosmer and Molina throw not in time. Hosmer safe at second. Giavotella doubles to the wall in centre, here comes Hosmer, 5-0 Royals. Perez, this one is trouble, lines it to the wall in centre, Rasmus dives for the ball but misses it and Jose is backing up. Giavotella scores. 6-0 Royals. Triple for Perez. That is it for Morrow, just did not have it tonight. Ledezma now pitching. Moustakas pops it up to Lawrie at third to end the inning.
Bottom 5th: Lind first pitch grounds to Giavotella, throw to Hosmer at first, four pitches for his first two at bats. One down for Encarnacion, strikes out. Rasmus, grounds out to Hosmer at first, takes it himself to the bag to end the inning.
Top 6th: Ledezma pitching. Escobar leading off, grounds to McCoy at second throw to Lind at first, one down. Gordon, singles to left. One on one down for Cabrera, strikes out, and that is it for Ledezma. Carreno now pitching and making his major league debut. Butler, fly ball to Thames in left to end the inning.
Bottom 6th: Lawrie leading off, fly ball to right fielder Francoeur. One down for Molina, singles to left. McCoy grounds to third, safe at first and Molina moves to second on the play. Jays have something going here. Escobar with two on, gets hold of this one, no doubt about where this one is going, second deck in that centre field. 6-3 game. Thames lines out to left fielder Gordon. Two down for Joey bats, Bautista strikes out to end the inning.
Top 7th: Hosmer leading off, grounds to McCoy at second, throw to Lind at first for out number one and a heavy out as well in Hosmer. Francoeur doubles to left. Giavotella, fly ball to Rasmus in centre, Francouer tags on the throw and safe at third. Perez grounds to Lawrie at third and throw to Lind.
Bottom 7th: Lind leading off, his first two at bats lasted exactly four pitches, strikes out for the second time, I think Chen has his number. Encarnacion one down fly ball to Gordon in left, two down for Rasmus, fly ball to Francoeur in right to end the inning.
Top 8th: Coreano pitching. Moustakas leading off, singles to Thames in left. One on for Escobar, fly ball to Thames in left to make the catch. Gordon strikes out. Melky Cabrera, grounds to Lind at first, safe on throw. Moustakas to second. Butler strikes out.
Bottom 8th: Getz in defensively at second base. Lawrie leading off, fly ball to Francoeur in right, one down. Molina grounds back off Chen who recovers and throw to Hosmer at first, two down for McCoy, ball four. That is it for Chen. Holland now pitching. Escobar and top of the order. There goes McCoy and safe at second. Might as well go, Jays offence is so bad here tonight. Escobar grounds to Moustakas at third, throw to Hosmer at first to end the inning.
Top 9th; Carreno still out there and why not, he has been excellent so far. Hosmer leading off, grounds to McCoy, throw to Lind at first, one down. Francoeur singles to centre. One on for Getz, fly ball to Rasmus. Two down. Perez, fly ball to Rasmus in centre to end the inning and hold the Royals to the four runs.
Bottom 9th: Soria now pitching. 22 saves but has blown five so jays may have chance to get back in this one. Thames leading off, there we go Eric, doubles to right. Runner in scoring position for Bautista, strikes out. 0-4 tonight. Someone will pay and hopefully it will be Kansas. Lind, also hitless tonight and not a very good return but now facing a right hander, maybe that will help him. Singles to left and here comes Thames to score 6-4 game with one down, the tying run in Encarnacion comes to the plate, Edwin in one of his slumps right now, maybe this at bat will help him. Encarnacion pops up to Escobar at short, two down for Teahen pinch hitting for Rasmus, this is a strange switch. Not sure why this is with game on the line. Strikes out to end the game. Jays lose 6-4.
Five Kansas players with multi hit game and Francouer with four hits in a sixteen hit attack tonight on Jays pitchers but mostly against Morrow,
Jays get multi hit game from Escobar, but the middle of the order hitless tonight.
Tomorrow another day but Jays as a team appear unable to beat up on the teams at the bottom whether it be Seattle, Oakland, Houston or now the Royals. There record would look so very much better if they could beat teams under .500.
The very good: Young Carreno making his major league debut, 3 innings of scoreless relief of Morrow. And we cannot forget Ledezma also scoreless inning of work.Escobar three hit game include the three run home run to get Jays within distance. Attendance at 20,000 which is good for a Tuesday. Lets see how it goes tomorrow with Romero pitching.
The not so good: Morrow one of his worst outings of the season and with pitch count of 50 after two innings it was not difficult to see that he did not have it tonight. Perhaps Jays have to get used to a 10 game winner for the season with wins on alternate games. The rest of the Jays line-up who just could not get to Chen apart from one inning. Jays loss of power continues with the big bats silent yet again. Jays pitchers throw 60 more pitches tonight than did the Royals. Jays were also lucky that Royals hit 4-13 with runners in scoring position.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment