One We Really Should Have Won

Angels 6 Blue Jays 5

A bad first inning for Tallet put us behind the 8-ball right away. But in Tallet's defense had Chavez thrown out Vladimir Guerrero stealing, like he should only one run would have scored. Or had he thrown out Torii Hunter like could have they would have only scored two runs. Instead they got three. After that Tallet gave up a run in the 4th and one more on a Mike Napoli homer in the 6th.

But we still should have won. The winning run scored when the Angels had runners on the corners with none out after a bunt single and a line single off Brandon League. League got the next batter Aybar to ground into the drawn in infield. Jays turned the double play but Kendrick at third scored. They could have had him if Scutaro had realized he was running and instead of throwing  to first to finish the double play he could have gone home and easily got the runner.  Overbay realized late that the runner was going home too and was late throwing home, I'm not sure he could have got the runner anyway but could have made it close.

We also could have won if our 2-3 hitters had come up with anything. Hill was 0 for 5 leaving 7 runners on base. He's in an 0 for 21 slide at the moment. And Rios was 0 for 5 with 5 strike outs. He only left 2 on base but still. We had 12 hits and 5 walks on the day. But power was missing again, we only had 4 extra base hits, all doubles and 3 of them by Adam Lind. He was terrific, 5 for 5, unfortunately he never came up with runners on. Overbay was 2 for 5, with 3 RBI and had the other double. Raul Chavez was 2 for 3.

The 7th inning was a sad thing. A walk from Bautista, single from Chavez and walk from Inglett loaded the bases with no outs. But we only scored 1 when Scutaro popped out, Hill ground out, scoring the run and Rios, of course, struck out.

We did better in the 8th when we scored 3 to tied things with a Lind double, Millar single, Overbay double, Bautista walk and Barajas single. But after that we got bad luck when Inglett lined out into the drawn in infield, Scoot hit a sac fly and Hill stuck out. The interesting moment of the innings was Barajas' at bat. With none out and Overbay, the tying run on second and Bautista on first, Barajas was bunting until he got one strike. With Overbay at second and the first and third basemen charging, the bunt would have had to be perfect to move them up. With one strike Rod swung away and loaded the bases. It worked out well, I'm not sure Rod is a good enough bunter to have moved up the runners there, but having the fielders moving made a hit more likely.

Bottom of the 9th it looked like we'd at least tie again when Lind had a 1 out double and Millar walked. We did have an interesting choice here, with Overbay up and a lefty pitching, Cito could have pinch hit with Rolen but choose not to. In his defense, Overbay doubled off a lefty the inning before. This time he struck out. I don't know, I likely wouldn't have pinch hit either, but it's one of those moments. Of course I might have wanted to pinch hit for Bautista who came up after him. Bautista struck out too. Today Bautisa walked twice and the other 3 times up struck out. He's in a terrible slide too, if the pitcher doesn't walk him he doesn't seem have a pray lately.

Jays of the Day today are Lind (.323 WPA), Barajas (.172, just 1 for 1 but a big hit), Overbay (.102) and Chavez (.101). I should take away Chavez' for the crappy throwing in the first inning. Suckage Jays are Hill (-.279 WPA, in just an awful slump), League (-.274, he actually pitched well but the winning run did score), Tallet (-.217), Rios (-.214, he seemed to be swinging the bat well till the last couple of days) and Bautista (-.136). Really just about anyone in the lineup could have won the game with a timely hit, except Lind, who unfortunately following Scoot, Hill and Rios didn't come to bat with anyone on base.

To look at the bright side, the team worked their way back into a game they were down by 4. Bad side is that we have too many guys slumping. Hill hasn't hit since May 30, Rios hasn't hit since his homer Tuesday, Wells .209 the last 12 games, Millar .182 in the last 6 games, Bautista hitting .158  in his last 6 games.

Oh well, tomorrow we start a series with the Royals.