Bats missing again as Jays fall to Mariners and Travis is traded for Lincoln

Jays v Mariners. Game one of three. Romero’s last chance? Happ is awaiting. He has to have a good start tonight. As written here last week Cooper now recalled. Not sure why they waited so long with Lind, back injuries do not heal quickly he will be gone for a long time. Jays missed great opportunity yesterday to close the gap with Rays and Orioles, they have to take advantage in this series because they are heading into Oakland after this. No Ichiro and no Hernandez who pitched yesterday, but Jays should not be taking this series lightly, that is when they get into deep trouble. Lots of blue shirts and Jays fans in town from Vancouver and other BC towns for this series. Not just for the Jays but for home boy Brett Lawrie. Plus home boy Washington State Travis will have his cheering section of friends and family. Lots of incentive for them this series but I have a feeling it will be the pitching that will be the key especially tonight. Late nights for everyone in the east for next week. Lineup: Jays: Same as last game. Davis, Rasmus, Lawrie, Encarnacion, Snider, Escobar, Johnson, Mathis, Gose and Romero pitching. Mariners: Ackley, Saunders, Montero,Jaso, Seager, Wells, Carp, Peguero, Ryan and Iwakuma pitching. Top 1st: Davis, full count, WOWeeeee Rajai connects on this one, and over the wall in left, home run 1-0 Jays. Rasmus, 1-2 strikes out swinging, one down for Lawrie, listen to this crowd. Sounds like Rogers Centre. No pressure Brett. Strikes out looking. Encarnacion, 1-2 count, grounds to second, throw to first to end the inning. Pitch count 17. Boston has just beaten Tigers and Orioles have beaten the Yankees. Tampa is in Oakland. Bottom 1st: Ackley, 1-2 count, lines it into right field corner for stand up double. One on for Saunders, bunting first pitch a beauty, slow roller to Johnson, no chance for a throw and both runners safe, Ackley to third and Romero in trouble already with nobody out. Montero. Full count, lines it to second but hits the umpire and dead ball that could have been double play. Bases loaded instead. Man, Ricky not getting any breaks from baseball gods. Jaso, 1-1 count, that’s better grounds to Johnson, to Escobar over to Edwin that’s a double play. Run scores and runner to third but two outs. 1-1 game. Seager, lines first pitch to left here comes second run. Wells, now they have Seager picked off and out at second. A break there for Romero but another eventful inning. Lucky that only 16 pitches but he needs major run support from his offensive teammates tonight. Top 2nd: Snider, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging. One down for Escobar, 3-1 count, low ball four, one on one down for Johnson. Bunting and a beauty Iwakuma throw to first gets away and Kelly safe as Escobar goes to third on the throw. Error to Iwakuma. Two on one down for Mathis. 1-1 count, lines to third, throw to the plate gets Escobar, two down, Johnson to second. Gose, first pitch, grounds to first throw to Iwakuma gets Gose. Jays playing sloppy ball here, Romero has enough problems without this. Pitch count 32. Bottom 2nd: Wells continues his at bat. 3-1 count, grounds to Johnson at second, throw to Edwin one down, Carp, 1-2 count, grounds it into right centre. One on one down for Peguero. 1-2 count, wow throws this one over the back of Peguero to the backstop, Carp to second. When you are going bad nothing goes well for you. 2-2 count strikes out, first one for Romero tonight. Two down, Ryan. Another way high pitch outside, another and a wild pitch off glove of Mathis, gets away, Carp to third. Oh boy, grounds to Lawrie at third and he fumbles it, no throw as run scores. Oh my !!!! that was third out for Romero. Error to Lawrie, he makes those outs routinely. Wow. Romero must weep. 3-1 Mariners. Ackley, 2-2 count, strikes out looking. Pitch count 41 but thanks to his very sloppy teammates. They owe him a big inning here. Top 3rd: Davis leading off. 2-2 count, strikes out swinging at ball three. One down for Rasmus, First pitch high fly ball to right but got under that one for the out. Two down for Lawrie, 0-2 count, strikes out swinging on three pitches that was one lousy at bat by Lawrie, forget all your family and friends Brett, get your head in this game and just concentrate on playing ball here. Pitch count 42, and Romero is back out there before he has sat down. Bottom 3rd: Saunders, 1-2 count, grounds to Lawrie throw to Edwin for the out. That’s more like it Lawrie. One down for Montero, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. Two down, Jaso, 1-2 count, strikes out looking, Ricky very nice inning. 13 pitches. Pitch count 54. Top 4th: Encarnacion, 1-2 count, takes strike three, arguing, not good Edwin, get out of there. Snider, full count, outside ball four, Travis learned from his last at bat and did not swing at that one. One on one down for Escobar. Singles into left, two on one down for Johnson. 0-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down. Mathis, oh boy, grounds first pitch to second, throw to Carp at first to end this one. He is having a lousy game with bat and glove. Jays are 0-4 runners in scoring position already. Mathis has two of those at bats. Pitch count 58. Bottom 4th: Seager, 2-2 count, oh wow, lines this to centre and Rasmus makes a brilliant diving play wow. Seager cannot believe it. Wells lines first pitch to Rasmus in centre for the out, the Colby show here two down. Carp, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. Look at Ricky striding off. No head down tonight. Pitch count 65. Top 5th: Gose, showing bunt, ball one, full count, low ball four, now maybe some action. Speed on the bases to distract Iwakuma. Davis, 0-2 count, strikes out swinging, one down for Rasmus. Hammers this one to centre but out at the wall, almost. Two down for Lawrie. Not having a good night himself. There goes Gose and throw down gets him. Manager Farrell disagrees and out to question call. Replay shows safe. Pitch count 73. Bottom 5th: Peguero, 0-2 count, strikes out swinging, number six for Ricky tonight. Ryan, lines first pitch to left centre for stand up double. Ackley, 1-1 count, fly ball to Snider in left for the out. Ryan holds at second, two down. Saunders, 2-1 count, lines it to right, Ryan scores, stand up double for Saunders, 4-1 Mariners. Montero, two down, 3-0 count, inside ball four. Jaso, here comes Bruce Walton. Ricky had been sailing along there pitching so very well. First pitch high fly ball to Rasmus for the out. Pitch count 82. Top 6th: Can this team give Romero run support tonight. Pathetic hitting so far. Lawrie resumes, don’t be a hero here, we need base runners. 0-2 count, strikes out swinging on three pitches for second time tonight. Not good. Encarnacion, also 0-2 tonight and not looked like hitting anything. 1-2 count, high pop up to left, two down. Red Sox already level with Jays, if they lose tonight they drop back into the basement. Snider, 1-1 count, way to go Travis, singles to right, one on two down for Escobar. 2-2 count. Strikes out swinging. 88 pitch count. Bottom 6th: Seager 2-2 count, lines it right back at Romero and off his glove into centre. One on for Wells, 2-2 count. Loup warming up in Jays bullpen, that’s better grounds to Lawrie, throw to Johnson over to Edwin double play ball., Two down for Carp, 3-0 count, high ball four. Peguero, 2-2 count, thought that was a strike. Full count. strikes out swinging. Number seven and 102 pitch count, 62 strikes. This was a much, much better outing for Ricky. Has earned another start. Top 7th: Johnson leading off. That’s better, lines the first pitch into right field corner, stand up double. But we have been here before to no avail. Mathis, horrible night with the bat. At least he is not trying to bunt here. Fly ball to right for the out. Gose, takes it right down the middle, oh my, first pitch. 1-2. Strikes out swinging, welcome to the big leagues son. Please Jose get back in his lineup, and put Gose out of his misery. Two down for Davis. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. 12 strike outs. Pitch count 100. Jays 0-6 with runners in scoring position. Romero must be weeping somewhere. Bottom 7th: Gomes now in for Snider in left. They have pulled Travis. Interesting. HE IS TRADED. NOT Travis. Oh man. To Pittsburgh for pitcher Brad Lincoln. Loup pitching, Ryan lines to Johnson for the out. One down Ackley, strikes out looking. Two down for Saunders, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. Top 8th: Rasmus, grounds to second, throw to first one down. Lawrie, 0-2 count, takes strike three, swing the bat Lawrie, that is what you are paid for. Nine pitches three strikeouts, that is lousy however which way you want to look at it for Lawrie. Encarnacion, 1-2 count, pops it up to shallow centre. Jays pitiful tonight. Bottom 8th: Carpenter now pitching, Montero lines to Lawrie at third one down. Jaso, 3-1 count, ball four. One on one down, Seager, pops up to Lawrie, two down. Wells, there goes Jaso and safe on the throw. Not much that Mathis can do right tonight. 2-2 count, wild pitch gets away and runner to third. Full count. Low ball four, come on Carpenter. Two on two down for Carp, grounds to Johnson, flip to Escobar to get Wells at second. Top 9th: Last chance for hapless Jays tonight, but most of us are too upset about Travis trade. Of all the players. Josh Kinney now pitching. Gomes leading off, 0-2 count. strikes out swinging. One down for Escobar. 2-2 count, strikes out. Two down for Johnson, 3-0 count, low ball four. Johnson on base, two down for Cooper. Now they want to change pitchers? With two out in the 9th? That is tacky by Seattle manager. Luetge the closer. Come on David hit him out. 0-2 count, grounds it in the hole at short throw to first just gets Cooper. Almost embarrassing end to that one for Seattle. Jays sink to the bottom of the division and that might be it for this team this season. The good: Has to be Romero despite the loss, he was for the most part locked in and with run support he could have won this one. The lousy.When Rajai Davis is the hitting star tonight you know that this was not good hitting display. Poorly played, sloppy defensive play by the Jays tonight. No help at all to Romero. Poor fielding by Lawrie cost them a run. His hitting was even worse. Lousy hitting all round apart from the Davis leadoff home run and Kelly Johnson. Encarnacion looked in a dream out there tonight. Mathis a terrible game with glove and bat. But the really bad stuff tonight is saying goodbye to Travis. Every Jays fan will wish him luck in Pittsburgh. He always had a rough deal with the Jays and perhaps now he can be appreciated and perform as an All-Star that he really is.