Well, that game wasn't all bad, though the end was quite disappointing.
Aside from Jose Bautista's two solo homeruns, the Jays offence couldn't get anything get going against David Price early on. Brandon Morrow gave up an early homerun to Johnny Damon, but settled down to look terrific, striking out 10 (!) against just two walks before being lifted in the sixth inning with one on and one out. Charlie Carlos Villanueva came in to relieve, walked Matt Joyce and then gave up a three-run homerun to Ben Zobrist but escaped the inning unharmed otherwise.
Casey Janssen came on for the seventh and gave up a rather soft run. Down 6-2, our offence looked like it had new life in the bottom of the seventh inning; with two on and two out, Travis Snider hit a fly to left-centre that Sam Fuld absolutely robbed the Jays on. Janssen got three outs around a BJ Upton single in the top of the eighth. In the Jays' half, they threatened again, with back-to-back singles by Mike McCoy and Yunel Escobar, but Corey Patterson grounded into a double play to end the chance.
After Octavio Dotel breezed through the ninth, Price's luck finally ran out, giving up three straight hits to Bautista, Adam Lind and Jose Molina before being lifted for Kyle Farnsworth with Juan Rivera representing the tying run at the plate. Rivera singled and the Jays were down just 6-4 with runners on first and second and Travis Snider at the plate. Snider surprised everyone (well, me, at least) with a perfect bunt on the first pitch but was called out at first on a close play. Johnny Mac and Mike McCoy both grounded out and that was it.
On the bright side, Brandon Morrow looked great in his first start this season, Jose Bautista got on base another four times (including two homeruns) and we really looked like we had a good shot at tying the game up or at least cutting into the lead in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
Jays of the Day go to Bautista (.289) and Molina (.109). I'm giving one to Morrow (.046) for the 10 strikeouts. A Tallet award goes to Villanueva (-.304) and Hinske awards go to last night's hero, John McDonald (-.207), Patterson (-.133) and Mike McCoy (-.105). Travis Snider (-.104) has the numbers for the Hinske, but he was robbed by Fuld in the 7th inning and by the umpire in the 9th, so I'm not giving him one.
Well, there's always tomorrow: Ricky Romero on the bump for us, Jamie Shields pitching for the Rays.