Oakland v Toronto. Game two of three.
Disappointing lack of production from the Jays bats last night show that Alex still has some work to do especially at second base with Hill. If Alex and Farrell are serious about performance being the decider then Thames and Hill should be sitting. Tonight we have young Henderson Alvarez called up from AA ball pitching. I don’t get that, either unless they are planning to shut some arms down in September and are auditioning Mills and Alvarez for the rotation.. The ESPN article about sign stealing by the Jays has Alex and Farrell upset. Alex said he cannot believe this is a actually taking place.
Big line-ups outside for walk-up tickets as I came in, definitely a buzz about the club this week and above average attendance, looks similar to last night so far at least.
Line-ups: Athletics: Weeks, Pennington, Matsui, Willingham, DeJesus, Jackson, Sweeney, Suzuki, Sizemore and Gonzalez pitching.
Jays: Davis leading off, I agree with that move and replacing Thames. Escobar, Bautista, Lind, Encarnacion, Rasmus, Hill, Arencibia, (not sure why Molina is not catching the rookie, JP is not the best catcher out there) Lawrie and Alvarez pitching.
Top 1st: Alvarez looks a little anxious out there, a deer in the headlights might be a better description. Weeks leading off, grounds to Escobar at short, throw to Lind at first and Alvarez first major league out. Pennington, lines it to right, off the glove of Hill at second. Error given to Hill, he had that ball. Nothing going right for Aaron with bat or glove. I say why is he in there? Matsui fly ball to Rasmus in centre, two down for Willingham, singles to Rasmus in centre, Pennington to second. DeJesus, two on and two down, grounds to Hill throw to Lind to end the inning but Alvarez had to throw six more pitches as a result of the error by Hill. That might hurt Alvarez later in the game.
Bottom 1st: Davis leading off, I like it. Pops up to DeJesus in right. One down for Escobar singles first pitch to right. He may be a hot dog but he is getting consistent with his hits early in the game. Bautista, one down and one on, full count and ball four, Escobar to second. Lind with two on, singles to centre, here comes Escobar to score and Jaya get a nearly lead 1-0. Bautista to second. Two on for Encarnacion, ball four and bases are loaded. Gonzalez having a rough first inning and his pitch count is high already. Bautista at third, Lind at second. Rasmus, good hit but no enough as fly ball to DeJesus in right for second out. Hill, chance to redeem his first inning error, no strikes out and leaves the bases loaded. wow, 37 pitches for first inning. Just think what it could have been if Jays hitters could bring in the people on third base? He could have been out of the game in the first inning. But once again as last night, Jays unable to score runs with bases loaded.
Top 2nd: Jackson leading off, singles to Rasmus in centre. One on for Sweeney, ball four and a walk to Sweeney, two on and nobody out, Alvarez in some early trouble here. Suzuki, oh that will do nicely, grounds to Escobar, flip to Hill at second over to Lind double play ball. Huge play for Alvarez. Two down for Sizemore, pops it up to Hill at second to end the inning which started off badly.
Bottom 2nd: Arencibia, strikes out. One down for Lawrie, strikes out, two down for Davis, ball four and a walk, now can Rajai get some action here. Distracting Gonzalez with his moving around at first. Escobar grounds to Sizemore at third, throw to Jackson at first to get Escobar and end the inning.
Top 3rd: Top of the order for second time for Alvarez. Weeks, strikes out. Pennington with one down, strikes out. Two down for Matsui, fly ball to Rasmus in centre. Nice inning by Alvarez.
Bottom 3rd: Bautista leading off, opposite field fly ball to DeJesus in right. One down for Lind, strikes out. Two down for Encarnacion, pops up to Sweeney in centre for the third out. Gonzalez settling in here, that is not good.
Top 4th: Willingham leading off, strikes out, one down. Third strike out for Alvarez. DeJesus, one down, gets hold of this one, Rasmus watches this one go out, home run to DeJesus and Athletics tie this up 1-1. Jackson, bounces to third, Lawrie misplays it and under his glove into left field, scored a hit ??? Lawrie gets away with a friendly scorer here in Toronto. That looked an error from my viewpoint at least, right in front of me at third base tonight. One on for Sweeney, this is trouble, doubles to left, here comes Jackson to score and Athletics go out ahead 2-1. Suzuki, passed ball, yet another for Arencibia, I think that is number eleven on the season, much too many. This is one area where JP has lots of work to do. Sweeney now at third, Suzuki strikes out, two down. Sizemore, singles to Rasmus in centre and here comes Sweeney, 3-1 Athletics. Weeks, fly ball to Rasmus in centre.
Bottom 4th: Rasmus leading off, singles opposite field to right. One on for Hill, pops it up to Weeks at second, one down. Arencibia, same play, pops it up to Weeks at second. Two down for Lawrie, fly ball to DeJesus in right and leave the leadoff single by Rasmus still out there.
Top 5th: Pennington leading off, fly ball to Bautista in right one down. Matsui, ouch that hit him on the foot, that would hurt at 94mph. Alvarez throws very hard. Willingham with one on and one down, fly ball to Rasmus in centre for the second out. DeJesus grounds right back to Alvarez throw to Lind at first base for the final out.
Bottom 5th: Davis leading off, grounds to Pennington at short throw to Jackson at tfirst to get Davis. Escobar, fly ball to Sweeney in centre, two down. Bautista, his average down to .312 now, nobody expected it to stay at .333 but it seems as if it has vanished overnight, pops it up to Sizemore at third for the out.
Top 6th: Jackson grounds to Lawrie at third, throw to Lind for first out. Sweeney grounds to Hill, throw to Lind, two down. Suzuki, singles to right, one on. Sizemore singles to Davis in left, two on and that will be the end of the night for Alvarez, gets a nice standing ovation. Janssen now pitching with two on and two down. Weeks to of the order, singles to Bautista in shallow right, Jose running in on this one and releases ball to home plate in one movement. Nobody running on Jose. Bases loaded for Pennington, strikes out and leaves bases loaded.
Bottom 6th: Lind, leading off, there we go Adam not so difficult is it, doubles to left. I just wish both he and Hill could do this when it really mattered with runners at third, Encarnacion, ball four, Rasmus, bunting, not good, oh Suzuki throwing down to second to try to get Lind and ball gets away into the shallow outfield, both runners move up. Error to Suzuki. Rasmus full count and ball four, bases loaded yet again and that is it for Gonzalez, I cannot believe he was still pitching after those first two innings and his pitch count at 50. Jays were unable to knock him out of the game. Breslow now pitching. Hill, singles to left, here comes Lind. 3-2 Athletics. Encarnacion held at third on the play.. Rasmus, full count and ball four to walk bases loaded. Arencibia, with bases loaded strikes out. Lawrie, bases loaded, he would love to get something here. A base hit should score two. OH MY, he has hammered this to left, just creeps over the wall in left into the bullpen, Home run Lawrie, his first GRAND SLAM. Here comes, Encarncion, here comes Rasmus, and Hill and Lawrie right behind Hill. His home run trot is a gallop. Crowd is on their feet and still shouting for him with Davis at bat, finally Lawrie answers and takes curtain call. Wow, two home runs in his first five games. More importantly Jays have retaken the lead blown this one open 6-3.Too late for Alvarez but at least he does not get a loss. Davis, how c can he concentrate with that noise going on. Fly ball to De Jesus in right, two down. Escobar, grounds back to Breslow throw to Jackson at first to get out of this mess. Lawrie with luck he should not have to give anything up for that ball as it did not end up in the crowd.
Top 7th: Trever Miller now pitching with a lead. Matsui leading off, ball four, not quite what Farrell wanted. Willingham with one on and nobody out, Miller had better treat this guy with care here, pops it up to Lawrie makes a very nice running catch right on steps of the Jays dugout. One down for DeJesus, bunting and safe without a throw as Lawrie, Arenciba and Miller converge, Lawrie had one chance with his bare hand but holds his throw. Two on and that is the end if Miller’s night. Jesse Litsch now pitching. Jackson, strikes out, two down two on for Sweeney, grounds right back at Litsch, throw to Lind and Jesse gets out of this inning very nicely and without any damage..
Bottom 7th: Magnuson now pitching. Bautista, just gets a piece of this as he stretches out and singles to centre. One on for Lind, fly ball to Willingham in left. Encarnacion, doubles to centre, here comes Bautista. 7-3 Jays. Rasmus pops up to Sizemore at third, two down. Hill strikes out but Jays have added another run.
Top 8th: Suzuki leading off, singles to left. One on for Sizemore, lines it very hard to left but a great running catch by Davis for the out, one on one down. Top of the order, Weeks grounds to Hill at second, flip to Escobar throw to Lind, double play ball to end this inning.
Bottom 8th: Norberto now pitching. Arencibia pops up to Jackson at first, one down. Here comes fan favourite, Lawrie with one down. Hammers this one to the fence in left just misses going out, that was a foot from going out, Lawrie into second base with a double. He is in a groove right now. Good to see him like this and at home as it will undoubtedly add to the crowds. I can see the weekend series with the Angels getting much larger crowds. Davis, singles to right, here comes Lawrie. He was running on the hit. 8-3 Jays. Escobar, Norberto hits him, on the arm, Yunel does not like that and takes a couple of steps to the mound, Norberto holding his arms out, “what me?”, that clears the benches, and look at the bullpen trundling in. Not sure I would like to go up against Rauch here. All over, and Escobar stays in the game at first. Davis to second. Bautista, 3-0 count, ball four his second walk tonight to load the bases with only one out. Davis at third, Escobar at second. Lind, strikes out. It is as if Adam freezes up when it matters. Encarnacion pops up to DeJesus in right to leave the bases loaded. Jays have to do something about this one day.
Top 9th: Litsch still out there but Francisco had been warming up. Pennington, leading off, fly ball to Rasmus in centre, one down. Matsui, strikes out. Crowd loves that. Willingham, oh dear, he gets hold of this one at it is the left field seats, another home run by Willingham to go with yesterday. Crowd throws the ball back to major cheers. 8-4 Jays. DeJesus, this should do it, grounds to Lind, takes it himself to the bag at first and Jays have won one. 8-4. They go for the series win tomorrow.
The very good: Lawrie two hit night double and a grand slam home run. Magical night for Lawrie. Everyobody in the lineup has a hit except Arencibia, that is good. Lind has his first multi hit game for a while. Jose gets his usual two walks plus a hit to stop his average dropping lower. Encarnacion also two walks and a hit. Lawrie with grand slam and a double. Great night for Brett.
Jays score seven runs in their last three innings after scoring two in the previous 15 innings against Oakland. Perhaps they can continue that surge tomorrow and win this series.
Alvarez had an excellent outing into the sixth inning, he was only victimized by lack of run support which arrived after he had left, but this was a good outing and 104 pitch count, striking out four and only walked one.
The not so good: Bases loaded in the first and again only one run. Unable to knock out Gonzalez when he had that 37 pitch first inning but managed to hang in until the sixth.
Attendance just shy of last night’s 20,000 but another good crowd for a mid-week game. It will be interesting to see how many tomorrow afternoon, should be camp day and loads of noise....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment