Giving up a 3 run homer, in the 9th, to lose the game, is not the way to make your managers think warm thoughts about you. Even in spring training. Jays up by two, 9th inning Neil Wagner in. He hit a batter, got a strikeout. Then single, fly out and home run and we lose. Results don't matter in the spring. Rinse, repeat.
It wasn't a good day for the defense, but Emilio Bonifacio didn't make any errors and actually had a couple of good plays. Eugenio Velez and Ryan Schimpf let easy fly balls drop to the ground, but then neither of those two are going to play for the Jays this year. Maicer Izturis missed an easy ground ball. He's up to 3 errors in his competition with Bonifacio, to see who can boot the most balls this spring. Emilio is still ahead by 1.
Pitchers:
- Mark Buehrle: 2 innings, 2 hits, 1 earned, 3 walks, 1 home run. Buehrle says he is always lousy in spring training and he always answers the bell when the season starts, so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Spring ERA 6.75.
- Justin Germano: 2.0, 4 hits, 5 runs, 2 earned, 1 k. He was the unlucky guy to be on the mound for 2 of our errors. 7.71.
- Alex Hinshaw: 1.0, 1 walk. 6.75.
- Claudio Vargas: 1.0, 1 k. 5.40.
- Evan Crawford: 0.1, 2 hits, 1 walk, 2 earned, 1 k. 13.50. He didn't impress.
- Mickey Storey: 1.0, 1 walk, 1 k. 2.08.
- Juan Perez: 0.2, k. 0.00.
- Neil Wagner: 0.2, 2 hits, 3 earned, 1 k, 1 home run. Loss. 5.79
Batters:
- Emilio Bonifacio: 1 for 4, 2k. .346.
- Jim Negrych: 1 for 2, double. .417.
- Maicer Izturis: 2 for 4, double. .136. Nice to see him hitting.
- Ryan Goins: 1 for 1, walk. .273.
- Melky Cabrera: 1 for 4, double. .280. And a bad choice on the base paths. Trying to go to 3rd, from 2nd, on a ground ball hit to short.
- Ryan Schimpf: 1 for 2 and the error in left. .200.
- Jose Bautista: 0 for 2, 2 walks. .150.
- Lance Zawadzki: 0 for 2. .412.
- Adam Lind: 1 for 3, k. .455.
- Mike Nickeas: 0 for 1, walk. .154.
- Mark DeRosa: 1 for 2, walk, k. .615.
- Kevin Pillar: 1 for 2. .333.
- Lars Anderson: 2 for 5, double, k. .333.
- Henry Blanco: 2 for 3, home run. .294. He's having a really nice spring.
- Sean Ochinko: 0 for 2. .222.
- Eugenio Velez: 3 for 3. double .417. With a caught stealing and the drop in the outfield.
- Kenny Wilson: 1 for 1. Steal. 1.000.
Tomorrow the Jays go to Lake Buena Vista to play the Braves. That game isn't on TV, but tomorrow at 2:30 Eastern, Sportsnet will have the Lawrieless Team Canada game against Italy, from Scottsdale, Arizona.
And today, at 6:30, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela play. D.R. has Edwin Encarncion, Jose Reyes, Moises Sierra and Ricardo Nanita as well has former Jay Octavio Dotel. Venezuela has former Jays Henderson Alvarez Marco Scutaro. It should be a good game.