Alvarez complete game shut out of Angels behind Jose home run as Jays win 4-0

Jays v Angels. Game two of four. Jays going for win number two and continue the hot bats. Still waiting for Jose but nobody seems that upset apart from Jose of course. He really is swinging at some lousy pitches and the pitchers have his number after two strikes. An alarming number of first strike pitches down the middle that he is taking. Has to adjust. On the other side Pujols is in exactly the same situation. In fact Angels fans would say worse than Jose. However the baseball gods are fickle and things can change in a hurry. Jays fans pray that it will be after they have left town. Tonight the young Alvarez pitching against Santana off to a lousy 0-5 start, let’s keep it that way tonight. Lineups: Jays: Continue with Johnson leading off, why change a winning move. Escobar, Bautista, Lind, Encarnacion, Thames, Lawrie, Rasmus, Mathis and Alvarez pitching. Angels: Trout, Izturis, Pujols, Morales, Hunter, Kendrick, Trumbo, Aybar, Wilson and Santana pitching. Izturis playing at third whilst Trumbo moves to left (for Vernon Wells), after that terrible two run throwing error last night. It would have been fine if Encarnacion had not been in the way of the ball and Pujols backed off to avoid colliding with Edwin. Top 1st: Johnson, 1-2 count, takes strike three. Looked a little high. Escobar, one down. Grounds first pitch to second and ambles down to first in his usual manner, two down for Bautista. Full count, outside ball four, Jose will take it. One on for Lind, groan. Have no idea why he is batting cleanup instead of number nine if not on the bench. How much longer before Farrell loses patience with him? Full count. Strikes out swinging. Pitch count 19. Bottom 1st: Trout leading off. Fly ball to Rasmus in centre for first out. Izturis, fly ball to Thames in left, two down for Pujols. 2-2 count, fly ball to Bautista in right. 10 pitches. Very nice start. Top 2nd: Encarnacion leading off. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging, one down for Thames. 1-2 count, fly ball to left, just foul. Strikes out swinging. Two down for Lawrie. full count, strikes out looking. Lawrie thought it was ball four. 34 pitches. Bottom 2nd: Morales, shift right with Lawrie in shallow right, Morales hammers this one to right centre but Rasmus makes nice catch. One down for Hunter. 2-2 count, full count, Alvarez thought he had him. Outside ball four. Kendrick one on one down. Hard to double up Hunter. Singles to Bautista in right, throw to second almost gets Hunter going too far off the bag at second. Trumbo with two on and only one down. This will do it, ground ball to Escobar, shuffle to Johnson, over to Lind double play ball to get out of the inning. Very nice. 23 pitch count. Top 3rd: Rasmus leading off. 1-2 count. strikes out swinging. One down for Mathis. Full count from an 0-2 count. Outside ball four, nice at bat by Mathis. Johnson with one on and one down. Another full count. There goes Mathis and Johnson grounds right at Pujols for the out throw to second not in time. Good piece of running by Mathis to avoid double play, One on two down for Escobar. 1-2 count. Nice singles to left center, Mathis all the way to score 1-0 Jays. Escobar at first for Jose OH YES JOSE, no doubt about this one, crushes it to left center into the rocks and happy happy Jose and a million Jays fans. 3-0 Jays. Lind takes strike three but who is counting anymore with Lind. Surely his days are numbered. 62 pitches. Bottom 3rd: Alvarez has some run support for a change. Aybar, lines this one to right over glove of Bautista to the wall, leadoff double. Wilson. 0-2 count. Lifts it softly to Johnson at second, one down. Trout, 0-2 count, strike three looking, great pitch froze him, two down. Izturis, grounds to Lawrie throw to Lind and strand that leadoff double. Nothing better. 35 pitches 27 of them for strikes tonight. Top 4th: Encarnacion leading off. 1-2 count. Pulls it hard to Izturis third, nice grab and throw to first for the out. Thames first pitch grounds to short, throw to first for second out. Thames and Escobar want to get out on the town tonight. Lawrie, two down. Full count, grounds to first Pujols flip to Santana beats Lawrie. 72 pitch count, thanks to Thames. Bottom 4th: Pujols, shift left for Albert. 1-2 count, Lines a bullet to left but right at Escobar who makes great grab robbing Albert there of a double. One down for Morales singles into the corner right. Hunter bounces one high to Alvarez nice grab and throw to second to get Morales, no chance for two. Two down and Hunter at first. Kendrick. Grounds first pitch to Escobar at short flip to second to get Hunter. Pitch count 42. Top 5th: Jays need some insurance runs. Rasmus leading off. A bunt maybe ? Grounds first pitch to Pujols. Come on Colby. One down. Mathis, 0-2 strikes out swinging. Two down for top of the order Johnson. Grounds up the middle great play by Kendrick and off balance throw to get Johnson at first, very nice play. 77 pitch count. Bottom 5th: Trumbo leading off. Fly ball to Rasmus in center for first out. Aybar, 0-2 count, grounds back at Alvarez, hits him on the leg as he turns but nice recovery and throw to Lind for the out. Two down for Wilson. Fly ball to Bautista in right. 50 pitches 39 strikes, that is an excellent ratio and explains the low count after five innings. Top 6th: Alvarez getting attention in the dressing room. Hope that is not bad news. Escobar leading off. Grounds to left, Aybar make the play, throw gets Escobar at first, Bautista full count, pops it up to third for second out, Lind now, long fly ball to centre for the out. 88 pitch count. Bottom 6th: Alvarez back out. Trout leading off. 0-2 count, strikes out swinging. One down for Izturis. Grounds right back at Alvarez, knocks it down and throw to Lind for the out. Helps himself there. Pujols with shift left. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. 60 pitch count. Top 7th: Jays could really help themselves here with some more runs and maybe knock Santana out of the game.. Encarnacion leading off. Pulls to third, throw to Pujols for the out. Thames, grounds to short, throw to Pujols for second quick out. Lawrie, grounds to short, Aybar fumbles it and no way will he get Lawrie on that throw. One on two down for Rasmus. Oh boy another first pitch pop up to third to end the inning. Rasmus catching the first pitch plague. 97 pitch count. Bottom 7th: Morales, one of the few Angels to solve Alvarez tonight. Soft grounder to Lind throw to Alvarez for first out. Hunter, great bunt slow roller and hits third base bag safe at first. No throw. Kendrick, one on one down. 2-0 count, PERFECTO, grounds to Escobar, to Johnson over to Lind, yes another double play. 68 pitches for seven innings. WOW! Top 8th: Game at Fenway with the Orioles in the 13th inning with Orioles ahead by one. Mathis hammers this to left, JUST foul. 0-2 count. Strikes out, One down for Johnson, slow roller to Pujols at first, two down for Escobar. Drives it to left centre, slides in to second safe. Bautista with runner in scoring position, two down. Mound conference, respect for Jose, he will like that ! 2-0 count, maybe pitching him on, no inside and Jose turns on it foul into left corner. 2-1 count, another conference, look who is on deck guys, no brainer put Jose on. Low strike two. Jose does not like that call. Outside, full count. Strikes out swinging, Jose still boiling and words with umpire, have to cool it Jose. Bottom 8th: Trumbo, 2-2 count, fly ball to left Thames for the out. One down for Aybar, 1-2 count, grounds to Lind at first, takes it himself, two down. Callaspo pinch hitting for Wilson singles back up the middle. Trout with one on two down. 2-1 count. Grounds hard to Lawrie at third, long throw to Lind for the out. 84 pitches. Top 9th: Boston has lost in extra innings to the Orioles 6-4. Yankees and Tampa both win. Lind leading off, 0-4 tonight. Jason Isringhausen now pitching. Singles back up the middle. One on for Encarnacion. Pulls it hard to third, throw to second on to first not in time. One down for Thames. Singles through the gap into left centre. Edwin all the way to third. Lawrie with two on and one down. That will do grounds to short, throw to second but Thames all over him and no throw to first for double play, 4-0 Jays. Rasmus there goes Lawrie throw down and safe at second. 2-0 count, now putting Colby on to get to Mathis, incentive here Jeff. 1-2 count, oh dear grounds back off Isringhausen and to short, and all runners safe, error to the pitcher Isringhausen. Bases loaded for Johnson. 2-2 count, strikes out swinging but Jays get another. Bottom 9th: Alvarez out there to try to finish it off. Izturis, lines it to left, Thames running along side it, get it man. Lead of double. Pujols now with runner on. 2-1 count, pulls it to Lawrie, looks Izturis back and throw to Lind for first out. Morales, 1-1 count, grounds to Johnson, throw to Lind for second out, Hunter with runner at third. 2-1 count, grounds to Johnson throw to Lind, to end this one. Alvarez wins big tonight. Shuts out the Angels. The excellent. Alvarez shut out victory. Just amazing the whole game. The very good: Excellent defense by the Jays turning the two double plays. Bautista with his home run and a no doubter from the moment it left the bat. The not so good: Lind even with his single is now .177 average. Something has to change. Jays have shut out the Angels in first two games. Tomorrow Drabek’s turn.