Rangers too strong for the Jays despite great outing by Drabek and Encarnacion's home run

Jays v Rangers. Game one of three. A very tough series for the Jays with the Rangers. Anything can happen from being swept by the strongest team in the AL (8-1 on the road already this season) which would not be a disgrace; OR Jays can provide some upset. On paper this is a no- brainer and Texas should win big. I think that Farrell will be happy with one win out of the three games. With this current Jays lineup anything and probably will happen. If everything clicks then they do have a chance. Rangers should be tired after playing last night and then flight into Toronto late. Tonight all eyes on Yu Darvish, unbeaten this season and coming off a great outing against the Yankees, very tough start for Drabek but being the underdog might be of help, there is no pressure on him at all. The other guy that should be under no pressure is Bautista. Right now Jose can only go up. A base hit is a plus for him. Maybe he will find Darvish pitching the antidote to his slump. One of the overlooked pluses from yesterday’s game was the performance of Mathis, already arguably better defensively than Arencibia, he has two home runs and not a slouch to make more starts. Lineups: Rangers: Kinsler, Andrus, Young, Beltre, Murphy, Cruz, Napoli, Moreland, Gentry and Darvish pitching. This lineup is POWERful and on paper Jays are way overmatched, we will see how this young Jays team can perform. Jays: Escobar, Johnson, Bautista, Lind, Encarnacion, Thames, Lawrie, Rasmus, Arencibia, and Drabek pitching. Top 1st: Kinsler leading off. Fly ball to Rasmus in centre for the out. Andrus, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. Two down for Young. Full count, strikes out swinging. 15 pitch count Bottom 1st: Escobar, leading off, strikes out swinging, one down Johnson. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down for Bautista. 2-1 count, high strike two,hmm. 10,000 boo, Reputation counts, Jays hitters should take note not to give up on that pitch. Pops it up in front of Jays dugout for Napoli to make the catch. Pitch count 14. Top 2nd: Beltre, full count, Drabek is throwing that outside and missing a lot. Lines it to right field corner wall, stand up double for Beltre. Murphy, lines it to right but Bautista makes great catch and throw to third a little off or he would have had Beltre at third. One down runner at third for Cruz. Lines it to the wall in center, Beltre scores 1-0 Rangers, Cruz at second for Napoli already with 7 home runs in the last 12 games, ouch. 2-1 count, grounds up the middle, Johnson makes the play behind the bag and throw to Lind for the out. Cruz at third for Moreland. Full count, grounds to Johnson, throw to Lind for third out. Drabek gives up only one, that could have been much much worse with the lead off double. 35 pitches. Bottom 2nd: Lind leading off. 3-0 count, down ball four, nice at bat by Lind. Encarnacion, this should be interesting match up with his great reach. 1-2 count, whoa, gets inside and hits him. Edwin says he is ok. Same spot as yesterday. Make em pay says Acton Jay. Thames with two on and nobody out. Fly ball to left for the first out. Lawrie. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down for Rasmus. 1-1 count, way outside, Colby watches it go by. Another outside, 3-1 count, full count. Lind and Edwin will be going. Strikes out could not hold up on ball four in the dirt. Darvish 35 pitches. Top 3rd: Gentry, 0-2 count, whoa takes strike three looking, nice pitch Kyle. One down for Kinsler. 3-0, ball four, one extreme to another. One on for Andrus, ball one Kyle lost the zone here. Lines this pitch to right centre, here comes Kinsler to score 2-0 Texas, Andrus stand up double. Young, grounds to Escobar at short, looks Andrus back to second, throw to Lind for second out. Beltre, fly ball to Bautista for the out. Could have been much worse. 49 pitches. Bottom 3rd: Arencibia, full count, strikes out swinging. Escobar, grounds to first, relay just beats Escobar at first. Two down for Johnson. 0-2 count, strikes out swinging. Pitch count 46. Jays hitters outclassed here tonight, have not a clue through the first three innings. Top 4th: Murphy leading off. 2-2 count, takes strike three. One down for Cruz. 1-2 count. strikes out swinging, two down for Napoli. 2-2 count. strikes out swinging and he strikes out the side, that was excellent inning for Drabek, but he needs run support and his teammates are not doing much tonight to help him. 63 pitches. Bottom 4th: Bautista leading off, Jose still in free fall. Now .188 average. Oh dear Jose. Takes first strike. 0-2 count, strikes out swinging on three pitches. When you are down and out nothing goes right for you. Lind, grounds to second, throw to first two down. Encarnacion. Takes first pitch strike. 1-1, lines this one to left and that one is out of here, second deck, HOME RUN Edwin crowd going nuts, 2-1. Thames lines it in to right. Lawrie first pitch, come on Lawrie. Garbage, grounds it to short, throw to second for the out. Got to give Thames some rope there Brett. Darvish was rattled, make him sweat it out. 56 pitch count. Top 5th: Moreland, full count, strikes out swinging. Number seven strike out for Drabek career high. Gentry, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging, five in a row. Wow. Two down for Kinsler, throws high behind Kinsler, interesting message ??? full count. Low ball four. One on for Andrus, 1-2 count, there goes Kinsler, throw there in time but Johnson drops it. Error to Johnson. 2-2 count. Andrus grounds to Escobar at short, knocks it down and throw to LInd not in time. Andrus safe at first. Kinsler to third. Yunel saved a run. Young with two on. Grounds to Escobar throw to Johnson for the out. 90 pitch count though for Drabek, not good. I think we will be seeing Luis Perez tonight early. Bottom 5th: Rasmus leading off. Opposite field single to left. Now Colby make him sweat out there. Arencibia, 0-2 count, oh boy, grounds to Young, throw to second over to first double play, two down for Escobar. Full count, strikes out swing at ball four. Only 69 pitch count. Top 6th: This may be Drabek’s last inning. Beltre, lines softly to shallow right. One on for Murphy, 3-0 count, grounds to third, Lawrie great play to throw out Murphy. Beltre to second. one down for Cruz, grounds to Escobar, throw to Lind for second out. Napoli, 2-0 count, fly ball to centre but Rasmus makes the catch. 105 pitch count. A few too many I fear. Bottom 6th: Johnson leading off. 1-1 count, lines it to left but long out. Bautista, 0-2 tonight, that was the pitch, belt high. Lets it go, 2-2 count. Grounds to second, throw to first, Jose not even hustling. Is it time for Farrell to sit this guy out for a couple of games to get his head straightened out? Right now he is completely at sea every at bat. Two down for Lind. 1-2 count, grounds to second, throw to first. 80 pitch count. Top 7th: Crawford not Perez now pitching, interesting choice. Way high and inside to Moreland, full count, fly ball to left and over the head of Thames in to the Jays bullpen. 3-1 Texas. Gentry. Nobody out. 1-2 count, same again and this one is out of here in left, 4-1 Texas. Numbers eight and nine in the lineup as well, that is real bad. Too late here comes the manager. Have to wonder about putting Crawford out there against this lineup. Frasor now pitching. Kinsler, 1-2 count, strikes out looking, Kinsler prima donna does not like the call. One down for Andrus. Grounds to Johnson, throw to Lind for second out. Young, full count, ball four. Beltre doubles to left and Andrus to third on the play. Two on two down for Murphy. 3-1 count, outside ball four, to load the bases. Now Perez is warming up, a little late John. Cruz, bases loaded. 1-2 count. 27 pitches for Frasor so far and you know how slow he is anyway. Not good, there he goes finally strikes out swinging. Bottom 7th: Unless Darvish fell asleep through that extra long inning he should cruise through the rest of the Jays lineup for a complete game. Encarnacion the only Jays hitter to solve him tonight. 1-2 count, singles back up the middle. Makes it simple. Thames, with one on. Here comes the pitching coach, Darvish stays in there. Fly ball to Murphy in left, one down. Lawrie ball four, Rasmus with two on.1-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down for Arencibia. Time JP did something for the team. 1-1 count, pops it up to Kinsler. Maybe Mathis should be catching tomorrow. 98 pitch count. Top 8th: Perez finally gets in here an inning late in my book. Napoli leading off. 2-1 count, lines it to centre but Rasmus makes the running catch, one down. Moreland, home run last at bat. 1-2 count, Payback, hits him in the shoulder, hard. Don’t hit our best player. One on one down for Gentry. There we go grounds to Escobar, over to Johnson and to Lind double play ball. Bottom 8th: Top of the order Escobar leading off. Mike Adams in there pitching, Darvish unable to complete the game, that is one moral victory at least for the Jays. Grounds to short, throw to first to get him. One down for Johnson, 0-3 tonight. Plus his error, not a good night for Kelly. 0-2 count, grounds to second, throw to first, two down. Bautista, you almost feel sorry for the guy, nothing he can do is working. 0-3 again tonight, takes it right down the middle? I think he would like that one back. Fly ball to centre for a long out and end the inning. Well I guess he did hit it at least. Top 9th: Top of the order, Kinsler leading off. Perez out there for second inning. Singles to left, Andrus, 0-2 count, lines it to right for Bautista to make the out, one down one on. Young. 0-2 count, bounces to third and spins away from Lawrie, no chance for a play, both runners safe. Two on for Beltre. 0-2 again, nice play, bounces to Escobar flip to Lawrie to tag Kinsler at third. Two down. Snyder pinch runner at first for Beltre. Murphy 2-2 count, strikes out swinging. Perez should have been in earlier and this game would be a one run game. Bottom 9th: Joe Nathan to finish off the Jays. Lind leading off. 1-2 count, grounds ball up the middle for Andrus to make the play and throw to first. Encarnacion, 0-2 count, not this time Edwin as he strikes out but look at his average. .326. Wow. Thames with two down, last chance for Jays tonight. Grounds to second, throw to first. Jays lose 4-1. Not many give Jays a chance to beat Texas this series and especially with unbeaten Darvish pitching to a team that is not hitting. However Drabek made it very close and matched him inning for inning before running out of pitches. The decision by Farrell to bring in Crawford in a one run game will be questioned. Crawford giving up back to back home runs put this out of reach. What made it worse was that it was the number eight and nine hitters. Not good. The excellent: Drabek definitely, another great start and kept Jays in the game. Encarnacion after being drilled for a second day gave pay back with the first home run given up by Darvish and the look that Edwin gave to Darvish as he rounded the bases was worth the admission price tonight. The good: Finally Jays pitchers protect their own. Perez drills Moreland hard after Darvish takes out Edwin who was the only Jays hitter able to solve Darvish tonight. Not so good: Lawrie rash at bat in the 4th after Edwin hit the home run and Thames followed with a single. Farrell’s decisions about Crawford pitching with the game still close. Crawford ? well he just didn’t have it tonight. Bautista definitely should sit, he is not adding anything right now. Arencibia ditto, bring in Mathis and maybe just maybe the competition might get him more focused.