Jays sloppy performance as they are outclassed and embarrassed by the Rays 7-1

Jays v Rays. Game one of two game series. Lots of digital discussion about the Jays today. Firstly Romero and his terrible pitching yesterday and back to back failures. Evidently they had been working on corrections between outings, which makes it even more difficult to understand why Farrell did not hook him earlier yesterday. They knew the problem, the solution was obviously not working, he should have been pulled as soon as it was apparent that he was unable to throw strikes. Obviously Farrell thought the hitting against the lowly Twins could overcome any deficiencies in Romero. Wrong, wrong and more fuel to the growing group of Farrell detractors. Tonight, Brandon Morrow and a great article in the Star today about his being a role model for young children with his Diabetes. Morrow himself describes himself as diabetic and baseball player second. The article tells about his daily struggles to maintain his blood sugar levels, even between first and second innings. Great role model. Certainly makes one look at him a little differently lot there tonight. Jays home from disappointing 5-5 road trip. Could have, should have won at least two more in Minnesota. Tonight Tampa in for two. Start of a tough homestand for the Jays. Rays, Yankees, Mets. Could be a horrible week. Interesting news that Carreno is going down to New Hampshire to be in the rotation, NOT the bullpen. Someone must like what they saw this weekend. Evan Crawford back up in Toronto. Lineups: Rays: Zobrist, Upton, Joyce, Pena, Scott, Rodriguez, Rhymes, Giminez, Johnson and Niemann pitching. Jays: Johnson, Escobar, Bautista, Lind, Encarnacion, Thames, Lawrie, Rasmus, Arencibia and Morrow pitching. Lind batting cleanup because he has such a good record against tonight’s pitcher Niemann. Hmm. Top 1st: Zobrist, 3-1 count, high ball four, we saw too many of those yesterday Brandon. One on for Upton. Oh boy, pops it up foul and Lind drops it. In and out of his glove. Error to Adam, not having a great year again and again and again. Full count, low ball four, thanks Adam. Two on for Joyce. 0-2, takes strike three. Nice pitching Brandon. Pena, two on one down. Pena, 2-2 count, takes strike three, two down for Scott. Bounces over Morrow to Escobar steps on the bag for the out. 23 pitch count. Bottom 1st: Niemann pitching. Johnson leading off. Oh wow, hammers this first pitch high to left just foul. Singles next pitch to right centre. Escobar, fly ball to Upton in centre for first out. Bautista, 2-2 count, there goes Kelly runners safe on the throw, full count to Jose. Low ball four. Two on for Lind, let’s see if he is worth moving up this high in the order. 2-2 count, grounds back off the leg of Niemann, collects and throws to first to get Lind, both runners move up. Two down, Niemann making some throws here to check out his leg, all ok. Encarnacion, 2-2 count, grounds to second, throw to first for the out. Jays threaten but nothing results. 23 pitch count. Top 2nd: Rodriguez leading off. 1-2 count, fly ball to Bautista in right, one down, Rhymes, pops it up behind Johnson, nice catch Kelly in front of Bautista, two down. Giminez, full count, pops it up to Bautista in right to end the inning. 35 pitch count. Bottom 2nd: Thames leading off. Maddon speaking with umpire, now the trainer out there, that’s it for Niemann. No one wants to see a pitcher knocked out of the game like that. New pitcher is Cesar Ramos. 2-0, tough to come in cold to a game. Full count, strikes out swinging, one down for Lawrie. Grounds first pitch to third, throw to first two down for Rasmus. Full count, low ball four, one on two down for Arencibia. 3-0 count, low ball four. Two on two down for top of the order Johnson. 0-2 count, singles to left, here comes Rasmus and scores on the throw, 1-0 Jays. Escobar with two on. Get on base Yunel, 0-2 count, oh boy takes strike three, come on swing at the thing. Maybe when Lawrie is ready he will be hitting in front of Jose because Escobar is not the guy. Top 3rd: Morrow now has the lead at least. Johnson first at bat tonight, 3-1 count, low ball four, leadoff walk. Zobrist, 0-2 takes strike three inside. One down one on for Upton. There goes Johnson and safe on the throw, great throw but Johnson had great jump. 1-2 count, takes strike three, great pitch. Two down for Joyce. Grounds first pitch to Lawrie, throw to Lind at first to end the inning. 50 pitch count. A little high but no runs. Bottom 3rd: Bautista leading off. 3-1 count, grounds to third, throw to first, one down. Lind, 2-2 count, fly ball to Zobrist in right, two down for Encarnacion. Full count, outside ball four. One on two down for Thames. Grounds to third, slow roller, bounces in the glove and no throw. Two on for Lawrie. 0-2 count, strikes out swinging. Slow game tonight three innings in an hour and half. Top 4th: Pena, grounds first pitch to Johnson, shovels it to Lind for the out just gets him. Scott, shift right on, full count, strikes out swinging, number five for Morrow. Two down for Rodriguez. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. 63 pitch count. Bottom 4th: Rasmus leading off. 2-2 count, pulls it to right, throw to first for the out. Arencibia. Pulls it to third, throw to Pena at first for the second out. Johnson. Grounds off the end of the bat to Rodriguez at third, throw to Pena for third out. Top 5th: Rhymes, 0-2 count, drives it to left field corner, stand up double. One on for Giminez, fly ball to Bautista for the out. Rhymes tags and to third on the throw. One down for Johnson. Singles up the middle and Rhymes scores 1-1 game. Zobrist, one down one on. 0-2 count, grounds to Johnson, throw to Escobar, cannot turn the double play. Zobrist at first for Upton. 3-0 count, bounces one to the plate, ouch ball four. Not pretty. Two on for Joyce. Grounds to first, off Lind’s glove to Johnson, throw to Morrow not in time and Zobrist scores. 2-1 Rays. Another error to Lind. His second tonight. Pena, with two on, two down. Two hours to get through half a game. 2-2 game, strikes out but ball bounces away and no chance to get Pena at first. Bases loaded again, that was rough. Scott, singles to Thames, two more runs. 4-1 Rays. Rodriguez, two down two on. Drives it to right centre wall, two more score, 6-1 Rays. Rhymes pops it up to Bautista for third out. 90 pitch count. All from the Lind error. Bottom 5th: Jays hitters have done nothing all night, their turn to help out Morrow here, but I think too deep a hole to overcome this tonight. Wade Davis now pitching. Escobar, fly ball to centre, one down. Bautista, high fly ball to centre, two down. Got underneath that pitch. Two down for Lind, boo, time this guy was out of here. No contribution from him tonight with bat or glove, full count, low ball four, please pinch run Davis for this guy. No such luck. Encarnacion, 3-0 count, takes it right down the middle. Full count. Fly ball to right for third out. Awful. Top 6th: Perez now pitching. Gimenez, grounds back to Perez, throw to Lind one down. Johnson, full count after 0-2 count to start, wild pitch why not, is that the third one tonight? runner at first. Top of the order again Zobrist, one down one on. 2-2 count, strikes out looking, looked high inside from here and Zobrist also thought so. Two down for Upton, 3-0 count, now Perez has Johnson picked off and Lind throw to second gets him. No more runs but Jays still have to score five. So far that seems very unlikely tonight. Bottom 6th: Thames, 0-2 count, grounds to first, Pena takes it himself for the out, one down for Lawrie, full count, takes strike three. Lawrie thought it low. Two down for Rasmus. Pops it up to Upton in shallow centre. Jays pitiful inning. Three up and down. Top 7th: Rookie Evan Crawford now pitching, just to eat up an inning or two. Upton, 2-2 count, singles to left, one on for Joyce. Strikes out swinging, one down for Pena, strikes three looking. Pena does not like that call either. Two down for Scott. There goes Upton, throw not in time Escobar does his usual primadonna act and starts to run off the field, umpire is not impressed, Upton stays at second. Scott 0-2 count, strikes out swinging. Rookie does well. Bottom 7th: JP Howell now pitching. Arencibia, strikes out swinging, one down. Johnson, 2-2 count, grounds to short, throw to Pena two down. Escobar, 0-3 night.1-2 count, fly ball to Upton in centre once again unable to get on base for Jose. Top 8th: Cordero now pitching. Vizquel now in for Escobar, I wonder if that is a result of his acting. Rodriguez pops it up and off the glove of Johnson, difficult play but he had his glove on it. one on for Rhymes. Hits him, two on and nobody out, always an adventure with Cordero pitching. Giminez, that’s better grounds to Lawrie, throw to Johnson over to Lind double play. Two down. Johnson with runner at third. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. Bottom 8th: Burke Badenhop now pitching. Bautista leading off. 2-2 count, takes strike three. One down. Lind, terrible game tonight. Grounds first pitch to first, Pena throw to pitcher Badenhop for the out, two down. Surely Lind will be moved back down the lineup tomorrow if not on to the bench. Encarnacion, pops it up to Pena for third out. Top 9th: Villanueva for the last inning. Zobrist, first pitch, moon shot home run to right. 7-1 Rays. Upton, 1-2 strikes out swinging, one down. Joyce, shift right, grounds it past diving Lind but Lawrie in shallow right makes the play and throw gets him at first. Two down. Pena. 3-0 count, ball four. One on for Scott, shift right still on. Strikes out swinging to end this embarrassment tonight. Bottom 9th: Jake McGee now pitching, Thames leading off. Full count, inside ball four, one on for Lawrie. 0-3 tonight. 2-2 count, singles to right, Thames to third on the play, two on for Rasmus. No, Francisco ? pinch hitting. Farrell does not want the lefty lefty matchup. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging, well that was a great idea, not even able to bring in Thames from third. Arencibia, 0-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down. Johnson, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging and that about sums up this awful game as Jays in three attempts unable to bring in the guy from third, that is minor league. Jays back to reality big-time playing the teams in the east and outclassed by the Rays tonight. It gets no easier for them with Price tomorrow and then the Yankees come to town. Jays are in mess. Boston win number four in a row closing rapidly on the Jays two losses in a row. The good: Nothing much in this one. Morrow pitched far better than the score suggests. He had no help from his fielders or his hitters. He was on his own tonight, Not so good: Lind two errors. Hitters still on the road somewhere tonight. This is going to be a bad week. Escobar apart from his acting in the field is not performing with the bat, 0-4 tonight but unable to get on base for Jose, twice he was the third out making it much easier for Rays to pitch to Jose as the leadoff next inning. Jays 1-8 with runners in scoring position. May be one reason why they are not scoring runs.