Sloppy Jays throw this one away, Romero is cold and Cordero blows yet another.

Jays v Athletics. Game one of two game series. Jays in Oakland for two on the second stop of the four series road trip. Bautista and Lind still looking for some consistent hitting. Tonight Romero pitching and maybe he can give them some incentive. Meantime Hamilton, a five hit 8 RBIs night for Texas and has just hit his fourth home run in tonight’s game in Baltimore to give him 14 on the season. That guy is locked in. Jose is not. Manny Ramirez now with Oakland due to end his suspension May 30th so Jays will miss him this time around. Lineups: Jays: Johnson, Escobar, Bautista, Lind, Encarnacion, Thames, Lawrie, Rasmus, Arencibia and Romero pitching. Oakland: Weeks, Pennington, Reddick, Gomes, Inge, Smith, Suzuki, Barton, Taylor and Parker pitching. Oakland returning from their own road trip east and taking two from Tampa at home which is a feat in itself. Jays should not take this side lightly. Top 1st: Lots of room at the ballpark tonight. Johnson leading off again, looks as if Farrell likes that option. Johnson pops it up into shallow left for Smith to make the catch. One down. Escobar, back in the lineup after his day off on Sunday. Low ball four, one on one down for Bautista. Oh boy, pick off at first and Escobar is out, two down. Too much sun on the beach for Escobar, that was not good. Full count on Jose. Low ball four, eight pitch at bat. Lind, two down one on. Pulls it to Barton at first, steps on the bag for the out. Awful. 19 pitches for Parker. Bottom 1st: Weeks leading off. Singles first pitch to right. One on for Pennington. Bunting back to Romero throw to first for the out as Weeks in scoring position at second. Reddick, one down. 0-2 count, throw to second, ball gets away and Weeks to third with one out. Error to Romero. Sloppy Jays here early. Reddick strikes out swinging. Seven pitch at bat. Two down for Gomes. Low ball four. Two on for Inge. Grounds to Escobar, throw to Lind to end the inning without a run but 18 pitches, not sharp inning by Romero and lucky to escape without damage. Top 2nd: Encarnacion, bounces to Pennington at short, throw to Barton at first, one down. Thames, full count, pulls it to Weeks, throw to first, two down. Lawrie, grounds to Weeks at second, throw to first and Jays are starting off flat. No problem at all so far for Parker tonight. 31 pitches. Yankees have beaten Tampa who have now lost three in a row but Jays are falling themselves right now. Bottom 2nd: Smith leading off. Grounds to Johnson, throw to Lind, one down. Suzuki, 3-0, outside ball four. Romero not sharp at all here. Barton, need a ground ball here Ricky. Oh wow almost hits him missing with that high curve. Full count, just cannot get that strike zone. That’s better grounds to Johnson, throw to Escobar but Suzuki all over him and no chance for two. Taylor, runner at first two down. Strikes out swinging but Romero is having all kinds of problems early. 33 pitches only 17 strikes. Top 3rd: Rasmus leading off. 3-1 count, lines it to Weeks who cannot handle it but recovers in time to throw Rasmus out, Colby slow out of the box as he thought that was out, cost him a base hit. Arencibia. Finally a hit as Arencibia doubles into right field corner. Johnson, there we go drives it to left centre and off the top of the wall, home run for Johnson and Jays go out ahead 2-0. Escobar, low ball four. One on one down for Bautista. Hammers it to left but dies at the wall for Smith to make the out, Jose follow through hits Suzuki on the wrist. Here comes the trainer. Carrying on but that would hurt and he may not be in the game much longer. Lind with one on two down. Lines it to right but Taylor makes the running catch. 51 pitches. Bottom 3rd: Now perhaps Romero can settle down with the lead. Weeks hammers this first pitch to centre but Rasmus makes nice catch, Weeks is certainly an aggressive first pitch hitter. one down. Pennington, drives it to left but right at Thames for the out. Two down for Reddick. Grounds to Escobar, throw to Lind and oh no, he drops the ball. Error to Lind. Jays have two errors already in first three innings. Rough for Romero who should be out of the inning. Gomes, singles to left. That error hurts. Inge two on two down. Strikes out swinging. 45 pitches. Might get seven innings but it will be close. Top 4th: Encarnacion, first pitch pop up to Inge, awful, one down, Thames, strikes out swinging. Lawrie, lines it into left and headfirst dive beats the throw at second. Rasmus, 3-1, outside ball four. Two on for Arencibia. Would love another double here with these two speedsters on base, lines it to Reddick in centre, turns him around playing shallow but makes the diving catch at the last minute. Catch looked a little dodgy there. 67 pitches. Bottom 4th: Smith leading off. Singles to Rasmus in centre, unable to make the catch as he dives for it. Great effort though. One on for Suzuki, bunting but foul. Fly ball to right centre but Bautista has it for first out. Barton, need ground ball here Ricky. OH MAN, gets the ground ball to Johnson, throw to Escobar who airmails it past Lind for yet another error. Barton to second on that error. Taylor, strikes out swinging 64 pitches thanks to Escobar this time. Top 5th: Johnson leading off, lines it to centre, but Reddick has it this time. Escobar, he owes the team. First pitch lines it to right for the out. Bautista, singles into centre, Lind, well he owes far too much. .189 average and should not be in this lineup. Grounds to Weeks, throw to the bag to get Jose. Surely there is a better first base with better bat than Lind in the organisation. 77 pitches. Bottom 5th: Weeks leading off. 3-0 count, low ball four. Romero now unable to find the zone again. Pennington, there goes Weeks and safe on the throw. Full count, got him, strikes out swinging, one down. Reddick, Romero is really distracted by Weeks at second trying to keep him there, Reddick hammers this one to right centre and this game is all tied up 2-2. You could see that coming, Romero totally distracted. Gomes, 3-1, ball four, another walk. Out comes Walton, maybe a little late tonight, Romero is not on his game by a long way. 20 pitch inning already. Inge, strikes out swinging, two down for Smith. Fly ball to Thames in left for the out. 91 pitches. A 27 pitch inning for Romero. Two walks and two runs. Terrible. Top 6th: Parker now wants a quick inning to get his hitters back at Romero and out of the game. Encarnacion leading off. 0-2 count, fly ball to Reddick, one down. Thames, strikes out swinging. Two down, far too easy for Parker tonight. Lawrie, one of the few pluses tonight. Pops it up to Weeks in shallow centre. 90 pitch count. Bottom 6th: Romero’s last shot to redeem himself with a quick inning, at least he has the bottom third of the order, but he is running out of pitches, this has been by far his worst outing of the season even without the errors. Suzuki, fly ball to Bautista. One down. Barton, 100 pitches and Romero in automatic, no life at all, low ball four. Five walks tonight. Taylor one on one down. Can we hope for a ground ball that no one will mess up. Strikes out swinging, two down but look who is on, Weeks. Does it again, doubles to left centre. One man wrecking crew on Romero tonight, the good news is that he cannot steal third. Pennington, Fraser working in the bullpen. Grounds to Lind, fumbles the ball of course but recovers to throw to Romero for third out. Just barely.111 pitches. Not good at all by Romero. Top 7th: Can the hitters get anything going here to bail out Romero? Rasmus leading off. Parker meantime the exact opposite and in the zone. Strikes out swinging. One down for Arencibia, pops up the first pitch to Weeks. Johnson, two down. Low ball four, one on but it is Escobar at bat, long overdue to redeem his lousy play tonight. There goes Johnson, I don’t blame him and safe on the throw. But Escobar still has to perform. Fly ball to right for the out. Pitch count 105 but he outpitched Romero tonight, helped by an error free outing. Bottom 7th: Frasor now pitching. This guy is getting overused. Reddick, fly ball to left but Thames cannot make the catch in foul ground. Ball four, leadoff walk. Parker may yet get the win. Gomes, pops it up to Bautista in right, one down one on for Inge. Luis Perez warming up in the bullpen. Inge grounds to Lawrie at third, whips it to second over to Lind, double play but it was Lawrie’s speed that made that play to save Frasor. Top 8th: Can we hope here? Bautista leading off. Jose not a bad night, on base twice. Ryan Cook pitching. ERA of 0.00. Oakland has a very good bullpen. Gets under this one and long fly ball to left. One down for Lind, he can redeem his lousy night with a hit here. Strikes out swinging and 0-4 for the night plus his error. Encarnacion in a slump for him. Has gone very cold. Grounds to third, nice play and throw to just get Edwin at first. Bottom 8th: Darren Oliver now pitching. Smith leading off. Fly ball to Rasmus in centre for the out. Suzuki, grounds to Escobar, throw to Lind to get him. Two down for Barton. 0-2 count, pops it up in foul ground Lawrie running full tilt trips over the pitchers mound in left, but great effort, he was going for the wall if necessary. Barton takes strike three. Very nice Darren. Top 9th: Last chance for Jays tonight. Grant Balfour now pitching. Thames leading off. Cordero warming up for the 9th. Finally some luck here, lines it hard to the wall in left centre, and off the wall Thames all the way to third, leadoff triple. Now Lawrie. Davis pinch running at third. Grounds to second, Davis holding at third throw to first to get Lawrie. Rasmus, one down. Ball three, intentional walk now. Two on for Arencibia. OK JP great time to hit this one out. Not Arencibia, Vizquel pinch hitting. OK. 3-0 count, takes strike one. Oh boy, bunting pops it up to Inge running in. Two down. Johnson, there we go Kelly, singles to right, here comes Davis to score 3-2 Jays, Two on for Escobar, two down. Taking these pitches for strikes come on Escobar swing the bat. Grounds to short, throw to second for third out. Bottom 9th: One run game for Cordero, not many Jays fans will be confident of this one. Especially with the top of the Oakland order. Mathis now catching. Rajai Davis in left. Taylor leading off. 0-2 count, lines it into right field corner, leadoff double for Weeks. Maybe walk Weeks? Conference on the hill. Bunting to Lawrie throw gets him at first but Taylor at third with one down. Pennington, wild pitch but Taylor holds at third, that was lucky. Singles to right, here comes Taylor, 3-3 game and Cordero has blown yet another save. Runner at first Reddick. There goes the runner, no throw, safe at second. Intentional walk to put Reddick on first. Gomes with two on and one out. Winning run at second. Ball gets away, both runners move up. There goes double play. Plus fly ball will score. Intentional walk to load them up. Here comes Farrell Jose now infield, five infielders, does not make much difference as Gomes lines this one to left into the seats, walk off grand slam, and Oakland wins big 7-3. It might be the last time we see Cordero as a Blue Jay. Tampa, Boston, Jays and Baltimore all lose tonight and Yankees gain one on everyone. I don’t know that this team did on their off day but they were awful. Maybe too much home cooking for Romero? The good: Johnson home run and stolen base. And in the ninth the go ahead single. Lawrie double and excellent play to start the double play in the 7th The awful: ERRORS. Three of them. Cordero blows save and gives up five runs. Not good: Escobar picked off in the first with Jose at bat. Throwing error by Romero in the first. Rasmus slow out of the box cost him a base hit and also Jays run as Johnson hits it out. Lind error in the third. Escobar throw error in the 4th to cost Romero more valuable pitches. And once again Cordero unable to save the game. Maybe also question Farrell’s judgement pinch hitting for Arencibia as well as leaving Cordero out there.