Jays lose Morrow but make it close losing 6-3 to Nationals

Washington Nationals v Jays. Game one of three. Jays flew home last night from Atlanta on a high with those bats a booming, but yet another series against division leaders, this time Washington Nationals leading the east. All the hype about teenager Bryce Harper, who sounds like a younger Lawrie. Averages and stats are all in favour of Lawrie but I think it is impossible to compare these two from different decisions and leagues. We shall see. Plus of course on Wednesday Stephen Strasbourg pitching. Lots of interest in this series for the fans. Nationals: Lombardozzi, Harper, Zimmerman, LaRoche, Morse, Desmond, Espinosa, Bernadina, Flores and Jackson pitching. Jays: Lawrie, Rasmus, Bautista, Encarnacion, Johnson, Escobar, Cooper, Arencibia, Davis and Morrow pitching. Top 1st: Lombardozzi, 1-2 count. Lines it into right field corner for stand-up double. Bryce Harper, 2-1 count. oh no. Morrow is hurt, pulls up after that pitch. Pointing to his side. Did he pull a muscle? Nine pitches and he is out of the game. Not good for the Jays. Today and for the future. Chad Beck now pitching. This will be a committee effort tonight. What a terrible start to this series and to Morrow their best pitcher. Zimmerman, lines to Bautista in right. Here comes Lombardozzi, throw not in time. Just. 1-0 Nationals, one on for Zimmerman. Lines it off the glove of Cooper, that could have been double play. Error to Cooper. Harper to third. LaRoche. Pops it up to Cooper for the out. One down for Morse. Fly ball to Bautista, Harper tags and scores 2-0. Throw not in time. Two down for Desmond. 1-2 count. Grounds to Lawrie, throw to Cooper. What a start to this game. Bottom 1st: Edwin Jackson pitching. Lawrie, grounds to LaRoche at first, takes it himself for the out. Rasmus, 2-1 count, WHOA Colby, launches this rocket into right field seats second deck, wow. No doubt with that swing. One day that is going in to the fifth deck here in Toronto Rogers Centre, he has that type of Delgado-Green swing. Home run all the way. Very nice Colby. 2-1 Nationals. Bautista, full count. Outside ball four. Jackson playing safe here, not going to let Jose hit another. One on one down. Encarnacion, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging as his bat goes flying into the crowd. Two down for Johnson. 1-2 count, there goes Jose as Johnson grounds to second, throw to LaRoche for the out. Jackson up to 24 pitch count and Jays fight back. Top 2nd: Espinosa, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging, one down for Bernardina, grounds to Copper at first, takes it himself for second out. Flores, lines it to right and Bautista makes yet another highlight reel catch both feet off the ground as he dives horizontally. WOW. And result is a quick three up and down inning for young Beck. Bottom 2nd: Escobar, grounds to Espinosa at second, throw to first, one down. Cooper, owes the team one for his error which lead to the second run. Grounds up the middle, Espinosa nice play and throw to get Cooper, two down. Arencibia, lines it hard to Zimmerman at third knocks it down and throw not in time. One on two down for Davis. Lines first pitch to right for Harper to make the out. 34 pitch count. Top 3rd: Lombardozzi, grounds to Johnson at second, throw to Cooper at first, one down for Harper. 3-0 count, Beck staying away from him. High ball four. One on one down for Zimmerman, there he goes, throw not in time, stolen base Harper. 2-1 count, grounds to Escobar, throw to Cooper for second out. Adam LaRoche, oh dear, he hammers this one high to right, second deck home run, 4-1 Nationals. Morse lines to right for a single. Desmond, pops it up to Johnson at second to end the inning. Bottom 3rd: Top of the Jays order. Lawrie. 1-1 count, lines into left field for a single. Rasmus, 2-1 count, there goes Lawrie, grounds to second throw to first for Rasmus but Lawrie safe at second, one down for Bautista. Grounds to short, throw to first to get Jose. Lawrie retreats at second. Two down. Encarnacion, 1-2 count, grounds to second throw to first to get Edwin and end the inning. 45 pitch count. Top 4th: Espinosa full count, strikes out, one down. Bernadina, 3-0 count, high ball four. Flores with one on one down. 1-2 count, wild pitch, gets away from JP and Bernardina all the way to third. Slides into third base and is hurt, there was no need for that slide, there was not even a throw, a bit of hot dogging and he paid the price, tough lesson. Now leaving game limping. Nady is the replacement. Full count, strikes out swinging, huge out with that runner at third, two down. That is it for Chad. Did a nice job replacing Morrow like that. Luis Perez now pitching. Top of the order Lombardozzi. 0-2 count, grounds to Lawrie great stop, turns 360 and throw on the run to Cooper for the third out, great play Brett saves a run as well. Bottom 4th: Johnson, first pitch fly ball to Lombardozzi in the left field corner for the out. One down Escobar, full count, rounds to short, throw to first, two down. Cooper, 1-2 count, grounds to second, throw to first for a very easy three up and down for Jackson, Cooper not hustling down the line there, not good at bats by the Jays hitters there. Pitch count 57. Top 5th: Harper again, bunting, fouls it off, not perfect after all. 0-2 count, singles to right. One on for Zimmerman, lines to Bautista in right, Harper going to third, that is not very smart as Jose throw beats him by a mile. Lawrie was waiting for him with the ball, liked that tag. Never run on Jose kid. One down one on. LaRoche, 2-2 count, another pitch gets away off the glove of Arencibia. Zimmerman to second. Fly ball to Rasmus in centre. No way is Zimmerman tagging. Two down for Morse, grounds first pitch to Johnson, throw to first for third out. Bottom 5th: Arencibia, pops it up to Lombardozzi, one down. Davis, 0-2 count, goes around, two down. Lawrie, bounces to LaRoche at first who takes it himself. Eight pitch inning. Top 6th: Desmond, 0-2 count, lines to Bautista in right for a single. Espinosa, lines to right but Johnson knocks it down but not able to throw to first. Two on for Nady, 1-2 count, grounds to Escobar, over to Johnson on to Cooper for the double play. Two down for Flores, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging. Nice pitching Luis. Now for the bats to get going here. Bottom 6th: Rasmus leading off. Lines it to Nady in right for the out. Bautista, will Jackson pitch to him this time? 3-0 count, Jackson not giving Jose anything here tonight period. Jose does not even get in the box here, dares him to throw a strike, and Jackson throws low, ball four. Jose second walk tonight but Jackson is not throwing to him. Nice way to prove the point and show up Jackson. I think the fans came to see the hitters Jackson. Encarnacion, 2-2 count, fly ball to Nady in right. Johnson, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. Top 7th: Lombardozzi bunting up the third base line, and stays fair. No throw. One on for Harper, singles up the middle. Two on for Zimmerman but that is it for Perez. Frasor now pitching. 0-2 count, strikes out swinging, one down for LaRoche, singles to Davis in left to load the bases. Morse, need a ground ball Jason. 2-0, not like that. Pops it up to Rasmus in shallow centre, runner Lombardozzi at third holds. Two down. Desmond, lines to Jose in right, one run scores but Harper holds at third, lesson learned. 5-1 Nationals. Espinosa, bases still loaded. 1-1 count, nice grounds to Cooper throw to Fraser covering to get out of this one. Nationals could only get one across with bases loaded and only one out, very nice pitching. Bottom 7th: Can Jays build on that victory there? Escobar, first pitch fly ball to right for the out. I guess not. Cooper, 2-2 count, pops it up to short for the out, two down for Arencibia, a game he wants to forget. Full count, bounces one in for the walk. He would not be happy with that pitching and the manager immediately on the phone to the bullpen. Walking Arencibia is nothing to be pleased about Davis. Lines to first, knocks it down for the out. 94 pitch count and considering the number of first pitch outs made by the Jays as tonight he is very lucky to still be in the game. Top 8th: Cordero pitching, as if the Nationals need any help here tonight. Ankiel 3-0 count, the same old Cordero, there it goes lines it into left field seats, home run 6-1 Washington. Flores fly ball to Bautista in right, stand up double. One on and nobody out. Top of the order. Lombardozzi pops up to Johnson, one down Harper base open, but he ye are pitching to him3-0 count, full count, strikes out swinging, go figure. The worst Jays pitcher gets Harper out and after 3-0 count. Zimmerman two down one on, grounds to Escobar, throw to Cooper but Cordero puts the game out of reach for the hapless jays tonight. Bottom 8th: Jackson still out there, that could be big mistake. Top of the order Lawrie, 2-2 count, bounces back to Jackson throw to first, one down. Rasmus, outside not pitching to Colby either, ball two but he goes after it, pops it up to shallow left for the out. Two down. Bautista, will he pitch to Jose? Probably because one run here is not going to do much damage. Jose going after them all, swinging at pitches outside, 0-2 count, fly ball to right for the out. That was frustration at bat. Top 9th: Villanueva now pitching. LaRoche, pops it up to Lawrie for the first out. Morse 1-1 count, fly ball to Rasmus in centre for the second easy out. Desmond, bounces off the plate and Arencibia tags him out, easy inning for Villanueva. Bottom 9th: Jackson still out there, he wants the easy outs here. Encarnacion, Edwin has other plans and hammers this to centre just misses going out of the park off the wall stand up double and here comes the manager, reality over ego for Jackson this time. Sean Burnet now pitching, lefty lefty matchup Johnson at bat with runner at second. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging, one down for Escobar, please don’t swing at the first pitch Yunel. Thank you. Full count, foul tip for the second out. Gomes pinch hitting for Cooper, WHOA Jan, hammers this one to centre and over the wall, two run home run for Gomes, 6-3 game. Arencibia, first pitch grounds back to Burnet off his glove to short, throw to first for the out. That about sums up Arencibia’s game tonight as well. This game was over after nine pitches when Morrow went down. Hard to overestimate the impact of your number one pitcher out of the game in the first inning. Not many teams are going to recover from that. Not least he impact on the bullpen. Beck and Cordero are not going to win many games. AAA rookie Beck did his best and held them to three runs but the game was over early. Take away this three runs and this game would have been interesting in the 9th and probably a different result. Jays hitters continually getting themselves out with the first pitch swinging did not help much either. Jackson refused to pitch to Bautista. But Jose showed the Washington rookie Harper a valuable lesson when he threw him out at third from right field, that is how the master does it son. Excellent: Rasmus home run rocket to right. Two incredible defensive plays by Bautista in right, a highlight reel catch and a laser bullet throw to the plate to get Harper 7th inning Nationals could only get one across with bases loaded and only one out, very nice pitching. Gomes pinch hit home run. The not so good, yet again as all season long the first pitch outs by Jays hitters. Verdict on Morrow is an oblique strain in his left side, day to day for now,