Ricky Romero looked great, the first 3 innings, but a bad fourth was all that really mattered. The inning went single, walk, fly out. Then Encarnacion threw a ball past Hill at second. I thought the mistake was going for the force at second, the easier, smarter play would have been to go to first, but he hoped to get the force. Bad choice. A run scored on that play. Next came a 3 run Jhonny Peralta homer. That was followed by a ground out, a walk and another homer before the inning was over. And pretty much the game.
Not that it mattered but our pen did pretty good. Casey Janssen gave up a run in his 1.1 innings. He allowed 3 straight singles to start the inning then almost pitched his way out of it. Shawn Camp and Jesse Carlson each pitched a scoreless inning.
We got all our offense on Jose Bautista's 41st home run. Which was also number 100 for his career. So those of you good with math can figure he has hit 41% of his career homers this year.
We did have chances. We ran ourselves out of the third inning. Edwin Encarnacion hit what I thought was going to be a double down the left field line, but the left fielder made a great throw and he was tagged out at second. I thought he went hard out of the box, but your mileage might differ. It did take a great throw to get him. Then Fred Lewis singled and stole second on a pitchout. He was barely safe. Then, for unknown reasons, he tried to steal third and was thrown out. There is very little to be gained by stealing third with 2 outs. It was just a bad idea. Anyway, an inning with potential died on the base paths.
We had 7 hits on the game, 3 for Edwin, 2 for Jose (double and homer) and 1 each for Fred and Vernon. No one else got on base. Max Scherzer pitched a great 8 innings for the Tigers with 8k.
No Jay of the Day today. Romero was the only one with Suckage numbers, -.275.
Lewis had a tough day. On top of the caught stealing, he struck out 3 times. I can't see the point in playing him over Travis Snider.
Tomorrow Justin Verlander (14-8, 3.65) goes for the Tigers, so it doesn't get any easier. Shaun Marcum (11-7, 3.70) starts for us. And it is on Sportsnet One so most of us won't get to see it. I don't know how it can be called 'One' when it is their 5th channel.