Jays break out with Edwin grand slam to beat Mariners 7-0 behind great outing by Morrow

Jays v Mariners. Game two of three. Once again with their backs to the wall, Jays four game losing streak and devastating loss last night. Interesting Arencibia, saw nothing wrong with his throw and said that he would do it again. His boss meantime said in so many words that it was ill advised. Wonder when Arencibia will be sitting out a game. Not only the hitting but now the pitching and defense, all round collapse of the team that so many of us had such high hopes for. Long road ahead for respectability and not an easy next five games to do it in. When Mariners leave town in come the Rangers who are 8-1 on the road. Good luck. Jays in free fall to the bottom, tonight Boston streaking now with five game win streak can catch them. Yankees and Tampa also streaking out ahead as Jays continue their freefall to the bottom. The world is returning to normal in the east. Mariners on their own four game win streak. No changes today, same old Jays lineup. Mariners: Make two changes. Figgins, Ackley, Suzuki, Smoak, Seagher, Saunders, Olivo, Ryan and Millwood pitching. Jays: Escobar, Johnson, Bautista, Lind, Encarnacion, Thames. Lawrie, Rasmus, Arencibia and Morrow pitching. It will be interesting to see how this team van bounce back, they have a long way to go but all the baseball cliches are being dropped, long season, 162 games, a marathon not a sprint etc etc... but so far it is not looking good except in Kansas. Looks like another great crowd, just think what they could draw if they were playing well. Top 1st: Figgins leading off today. Pops it up to third, Escobar takes it behind Lawrie ? That was Lawrie’s ball. One down. Ackley, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down for Ichiro. Grounds to Escobar, bounces the throw to first not in time. Smoak, pops it up to Lawrie who takes it himself this time. 16 pitch count. Bottom 1st: Escobar leading off, grounds to short, throw to first, one down. Johnson fly ball to left for the out, two down for Bautista now .183, oh dear, not much sleep these days for Jose, outside ball one, pops up second pitch to third for the out. Eight pitch inning for Millwood. Top 2nd: Did Morrow sit down? back out again fast. Seager, 3-1 count, lines it off the wall in centre, stand up double, one on for Montero, 1-2 count. Saunders, 2-2 count, lines it to centre, Rasmus glides over there to make the catch, runner holds, one down. Saunders, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down for Olivo, full count, strikes out swinging. BUT and a big but, 37 pitches, Jays need Morrow to go deep today to give that beat-up bullpen some rest. Bottom 2nd: Lind, hooray, pulls it into right for a single. One on for Encarnacion, shatters his bat as he pops up to second. One down for Thames who arguably had his first good game last night, this season. 3-0 count, outside ball four. Two on for Lawrie. Pops it up to shallow right, two down for Rasmus. Full count, strikes out swinging. 25 pitch count. Top 3rd: Ryan, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging, one down. Figgins, Yankees getting thrashed by the Tigers 6-1, love it. But that does not help this crew here. Fly ball to Rasmus in centre, two down. Ackley, pops it up to Escobar to ends the inning. 50 pitches through three innings. Bottom 3rd: Arencibia, last night’s goat in my book. Grounds weakly to second , throw to first for the out. One down for Escobar. Full count, good at bat by Yunel, fouling them off, singles into left, nice at bat, eight pitch at bat. Johnson with runner at first and one down. Singles to centre, Escobar to third. Two on for Bautista. That will do lines it hard at third and off Seager’s body into left, Escobar scores 1-0 Jays. Lind with two on. Lines it into left corner ground rule double and Johnson scores 2-0 Jays. Jose held at third on ground rule double. Encarnacion with two in scoring position. 1-2 count, fly ball to left, Figgins throw not on target Jose scores now they have Lind hung up between second and third and tagged out for double play not very smart base running. 48 pitch count. 3-0 Jays. Top 4th: Ichiro leading off, Morrow now has a lead to work with, can he make the most if it? Grounds to Johnson at second, throw to Lind for the out. Smoak. Full count, lines it to centre, Rasmus makes nice catch at the wall. Two down for Seager, full count, strikes out swinging. Bottom 4th: Thames full count, strikes out swinging, one down for Lawrie, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down for Rasmus, 3-1 count, grounds to second, throw to first to end the inning. Top 5th: Montero leading off. 3-0 count, full count, nice strikes out swinging, good pitching by Morrow behind 3-0. One down, Saunders lines first pitch to the wall in right. Stand up double. One on one down for Olivo. 0-2 count, pop it up to Johnson behind Lind and oh he drops it, error oh boy, Saunders to third, one down. Two on for Ryan, this is trouble for Brendan. Wow, wonder what happened there, Kelly had called Lind off who seemed to have a bead on it. Ah well. Ryan strikes out, that is huge out, two down for Figgins. Perfect, grounds to Johnson at second, throw to Lind for third out. Johnson off the hook there. Pitch count 85, should see another inning for Morrow. Bottom 5th: Arencibia leading off. Singles to left, one on for Escobar. Oh boy grounds to Ryan at short, steps on second and throw to Smoak at first, double play ball. Johnson, owes Morrow here. 2-2 count, strikes out swinging to end the inning. Top 6th: Ackley, first pitch swinging, high fly ball to Rasmus for first out. Ichiro, grounds back through Morrow into shallow centre for a single. Smoak, full count. Nice pitch, strikes out swinging. Two down for Seager, 2-1 count, singles to Bautista in right, two on two down for Montero. 2-2 count, crowd into this one, probably his last hitter, strikes out swinging. Morrow gets into the 7th and today that is ok with a 3-0 lead.104 pitches. Bottom 6th: Bautista first pitch fly ball to left for the first out. Lind, 2-2 today, fly ball to centre for the out, two down. Encarnacion, pulls it down third base line for a stand up double. Thames one on two down. Full count, Edwin running throw to third and sliding tagged out on his back, Edwin says no way and Farrell joins in the fight. Not going to win this one although replay shows Edwin may have a point. Top 7th: Fraser now pitching. Saunders, takes strike three, one down. Olivo, 0-2 count, singles to centre. One on one down for Ryan, pops up to Lind for second out, Figgins. Two down one on. 2-2 count, grounds to Johnson, nice play by Johnson running and scooping the ball with glove to Escobar for third out as Figgins slides in. Johnson starting to perfect that play. Bottom 7th: Lawrie, 2-1 count, pulls it hard to left for a single. One on for Rasmus, 2-2 count, pops up to Figgins in left, one down. Arencibia, fly ball to centre for the out Lawrie tagging at first and slides into second head first safe. That was a very risky play. Two down. Escobar with Lawrie in scoring position. 2-2 count, grounds to first, throw to Millwood for the out, Escobar running this one out, good to see that he can. Top 8th” Darren Oliver now pitching. Ackley, 1-1 count, bounces to Johnson, throw to Lind, one down. Mariners running out of chances to get back in this one. Ichiro, first pitch grounds to Escobar, throw to Lind, two down. Smoak, full count, strikes out swinging to end the inning. Bottom 8th: Johnson leading off. Hishashi Iwakuma, singles back up the middle. Bautista, lines it to right and bounces into the crowd in the corner, ground rule double, two on and nobody out, Jays have something going now. Lind, intentional walk to get to Encarnacion. Bases loaded nobody out, Encarnacion. First pitch lines to right and this one is carrying over the fence and into the Mariners bullpen, GRAND SLAM Edwin.... 7-0 Jays. I love the justice that grand slam ended up in Mariners bullpen. Still nobody out. Thames strikes out. One down. Lawrie grounds to third throw to first for the out. Two down. Rasmus, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging. Top 9th: Villanueva now pitching, Kawasaki, pinch hitting for Seager. 3-0 high ball four, not quite what your Manager wants Carlos. John Jaso pinch hitting for Montero. 2-2 strikes out swinging, one down. Saunders, full count, grounds to Johnson, throw to Lind for second out, Olivo, Kawasaki at second. 2--0 count, 2-2, strikes out swinging on last three pitches, very nice pitching Carlos. Jays win big (finally) and put an end to a horrible week and the loss streak. The very good: Morrow six innings, nine strikeouts and no walks. The lack of walks is the most impressive in my book. Edwin and his grand slam, I stay convinced that just playing DH is the best thing for Edwin, he remains focused and has no other distractions. For whatever reason he is terrible in the field and Farrell should recognise this by now. Until Jose gets his bat going Farrell should be leaving Edwin without distractions. The bullpen of Fraser, Oliver and Villanueva three scoreless innings. Back to normal ? The crowd again ....over 30,000 this afternoon, good to see for a game against Seattle. Bautista got this thing moving with his RBI even if it was off the body of Seager. Lind with two hits and the opposite field double resulted in two runs. Rasmus in the field makes a great catch. The not so good: Hard to select anything today so let’s not try. Tomorrow final game of the series before Texas rolls into town with Yu Darvish pitching on Monday.