Laffey pitches well but poor baserunning decisions cost Jays

Jays v Tigers. Game two Lots of angst about Romero today but in my mind he was not the reason for the loss last night. Lousy defense and poor hitting was just as crucial in the loss. Tonight Laffey, he had better be on his game against this lineup. Escobar, on paternity leave. Well we wish them all well but his loss is not as major and Hechavarria playing short is what most fans have been waiting for. Maybe when Escobar returns he will be a different player. The good news is that Jose Bautista will rejoin the team in Baltimore and along with Morrow very definitely the morale boost this sinking team needs. Jays have beaten Sanchez earlier this season when they played the Marlins. Lineups: Jays: Davis, Rasmus, Encarnacion, Cooper, Sierra, Torrealba, Johnson, McCoy, Hechavarria and Laffey pitching. Our first look at Torrealba. Hechavarria playing at short. McCoy for Vizquel a good trade-off after last night’s performance. Tigers: Jackson, Infante, Cabrera, Fielder, Peralta, Young, Dirks, Baker, Avila and Sanchez pitching. Top 1st: Davis leading off. Grounds to second, bobbles it but recovery and throw in time to get Davis. Rasmus, one down, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down for Encarnacion. 2-2 count, high fly ball to left for the out. Pitch count 15. Bottom 1st: Jackson, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging, one down for Infante, 1-2 count, grounds to McCoy at third, throw to Cooper, two down. Cabrera, bounces to McCoy, nice play on the half volley, throw to Cooper to end the inning. Pitch count 12. Top 2nd: Cooper, 3-1 count, grounds to Fielder, throw to Sanchez for the out. One down for Sierra. Pulls it to left, off the wall in left field corner, stand up double nice hit. One on one down for newbie Yorvit Torrealba. Full count, outside ball four. Two on one down for Johnson. Fly ball to Jackson in shallow centre, two down for McCoy. Full count, grounds to short, throw to first gets McCoy. Pitch count 36 but Jays should be bringing them in. Same old issue with runners in scoring position. Bottom 2nd: Fielder, first pitch high pop up to Davis is left. One down, Peralta, 2-0 grounds to Hechavarria, throw to Cooper, high but Cooper makes the out. Nice play. Two down for Young. 1-2 count, grounds to Johnson, throw to Cooper to end the inning. Eight pitch inning. 20 pitch count. No complaints from here. Top 3rd: Hechavarria leading off. 1-2 count, grounds to Sanchez, throw to Fielder at first, one down. Top of the order Davis. Lines it to right for the out. Two down for Rasmus. First pitch grounds to second, flip to Fielder for the out. Nine pitch inning. 45 pitch count. Bottom 3rd: Dirks, 3-1 count, high ball four. One on for Baker. Grounds to Laffey throw to Hechavarria at second over to Cooper, double play, nice play by Hech. Avila, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. Another excellent inning by Laffey. 31 pitch count. Top 4th: Quick game here so far. 45 minutes for three innings. Edwin, 0-2 count, pops it up to Baker in right, one down for Cooper. Lines this hard to the wall in right just misses going out and throw back in he has to dive back in to avoid the out. Long single for David. Sierra hammers this to the left up against the wall for the catch, robbed there. Two hard hot balls there and only a single, could have been back to back home runs. Two down for Torrealba. Grounds to short, throw to second for the out. 54 pitch count for Sanchez. Bottom 4th: Jackson leading off. 0-2 count, grounds to McCoy at 3B, nice running throw to Cooper to get Jackson. One down for Infante, 2-2 count, lines this one hard to left centre, Davis bobbles the ball, Rasmus throw to McCoy on line but Infante just beats the ball. Triple for Infante. Cabrera, one down, one on. 0-2 count, wild pitch but Infante holds halfway down the line. 2-2 count, another wild pitch, bounces it in, and this time to the wall and Infante scores. 1-0 Tigers. Full count, high ball four. Laffey a little wild here. Fielder, perfect, grounds to Johnson, over to Hechavarria on to Cooper, another double play to get out of this one. Tough for Laffey to give up the run that way. Pitch count 50. Top 5th: Johnson, 2-2 count, fly ball to Dirks in left for the out. One down for McCoy. 2-2 count, strikes out swinging, two down for Hechavarria. 0-2 count, strikes out swinging on three pitches. 69 pitch count. Bottom 5th: Peralta , 3-1 fly ball to Davis one down for Young. Lines it to right, Sierra has it and holds Young to a single. Dirks, 1-0 count, hit and run, grounds to Johnson, throw to Cooper, two down. Baker with runner at second. Full count, singles to Sierra, throw up the line and Baker to second on the throw. Young scores 2-0 Tigers. Avila grounds first pitch to Cooper throw to Laffey for the out. Don’t blame the pitchers here, the hitters are pitiful. Pitch count 67. Top 6th: Top of the order which has been 0-6 tonight. Not good at all. Davis, 3-0 count, low ball four. One on for Rasmus, come on Colby time you connected. 0-2 count, there goes Davis and safe on the throw as Colby strikes out protecting Davis. One down for Encarnacion. OH pickoff throw sails into center and Rajai missed it as he dived back in, now he goes and safe to third., wow. 3-0 count, nothing for you to hit again Edwin. This will do as he drives it to left and Dirks drops the ball and Davis scores 2-1.Error to Dirks. Edwin to second and throw gets away. Edwin at second Mathis pinch hitting for Cooper, oh dear, hope no problem with Cooper. ??? Pops it up to Avila, two down. Sierra, 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. Jays get one back but, surely should have been more.... pitch count 86. Bottom 6th: Mathis now catching, Torrealba at first for Cooper. Does not look good for Cooper and his back. Jackson leading off. Full count, grounds to short, Hechavarria bobbles it, error to Hech. Throw to first late. Jackson safe at first. Infante, bunts to Laffey, looks at second. Throw to first to get Infante as Jackson to second. Cabrera, intentional walk, first base is open. Two on for Fielder. 2-1 count, lines it to left, Davis throw there but bounces out of the glove. Run scores. 3-1 Tigers. Peralta, two on. 2-2 count, grounds to Hech, over to Johnson, on to Torrealba not in time. Two down. Runner at first. Young, grounds to McCoy throw to Torrealba. Pitch count. 89. Top 7th: Torrealba leading off. There we go, loops it into shallow centre. One on for Johnson, once again hitless. Not long for this team, I fear Jays looking for a second baseman off season. 1-2 strikes out swinging. Just awful. McCoy, 1-1 count, hit and run and McCoy drives it past Fielder, does not even try to get it, come on Fielder at least make an attempt at a dive.. Torrealba to third. Two on for Hechavarria. There goes McCoy, safe on the throw. Two in scoring position now. 2-2 count, nice lines it to right centre, sac fly, here comes the run, 3-2 game. McCoy also to third on the play. Here comes Leyland, Jays have knocked Sanchez out of the game. Top of the Jays order now. Davis. New pitcher Brayan Villarreal. Single will do Rajai. No, grounds to Infante throw to first to end the inning but Jays have pulled a little closer. Bottom 7th: Laffey still out there. Dirks, bunting up third base line and safe at first. That is it for Laffey. Here comes Farrell. Delabar now pitching, great outing by Laffey, not supported by his offense but that is a familiar story these days with this makeshift lineup. Berry pinch hitting for Baker. Bunting. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. One down for Avila, full count, ball four. Two on for top of the order. Jackson, 0-2 count, srikes out swinging on three pitches. Wow. Infante, two down two on, 0-2 count, strikes out swinging. Amazing pitching by Delabar. Top 8th: Joaquin Benoit pitching. Rasmus, having a horrible time these days. 0-25 wow. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. One down for Encarnacion. 3-1 count, high ball four, one on one down for Mathis. 1-2 count, strikes out swinging. Two down for Sierra. 2-2 count, singles into shallow right, Edwin to third, now Sierra goes to second on the throw back in. Edwin could have scored. Two in scoring position. Gose pinch running for Sierra at second. Torrealba, two in scoring position. Lines it hard to centre, Jackson makes the out. Edwin not running has cost the Jay. Bottom 8th: Casey Janssen now pitching. Cabrera leading off, pops it up to Gose in right, one down for Fielder. 3-1 count, inside ball four, that’s ok. Peralta, 2-2 count, who slow curve ball, strikes out swinging, great pitch Casey. Two down for Young. 0-2 count, strikes out swinging on another slow curve. Top 9th: Valverde again, Mr Invincible. Jays send the bottom of the order and nobody left on the bench to pinch hit. (Apart from Vizquel.) Johnson leading off, showing bunt, ball one, 1-2 count, lines it to right for the out. One down for McCoy, pops it up to Infante at second for the out, two down for Vizquel, the last guy on the bench pinch hitting for Hechavarria. 2-2 count, singles to left, go figure. Funny game baseball sometimes. One on two down for top of the order Davis. almost hit him, come on Rajai take one for the team here. There goes Vizquel, throw down gets him, can you believe that ? surely not his call. But I doubt very much whether Farrell would have sent him. That was one crazy decision by Vizquel. Jays give another to the Tigers. Tomorrow with Verlander pitching they will be very lucky to avoid the sweep. The baseball gods are angry with the Jays: Two of the Tigers runs, one on wild pitch, one on dropped ball by catcher. Cooper injured. And in the 8th Encarnacion not going all the way home. In the 9th, who knows what Vizquel was doing try to steal with two down. The good: Has to be Laffey, that was one excellent outing against a tough hitting lineup and one in a playoff battle. Torrealba fIrst start for the Jays and also major league start at first base. The bad: Start with the last out by Vizquel in a one run game, that is the very worst and totally unforgivable. Cooper out yet again. Rasmus 0-26. Not much worse than that. Let’s end with the very good news as the cavalry reinforcements return. Jose Bautista and Brandon Morrow return on Friday, the best news.