This was a game that was lost on 3 plays. In the 4th, with a runner on first, Matt Diaz hit a pop fly to right that Eric Thames really should have caught and then it bounced over his head and over Corey Patterson's head too (backing up the play). Corey was good to back up the play but he has to know the ball bounces on our turf. If Eric makes that play we likely win.
Next play Garrett Jones grounds to Adam Lind and Jo-Jo Reyes doesn't cover at first. We make that play and we likely win.
Then in the 7th, we had the bases loaded with 1 out, down by just 1 with Adam Lind at the plate. He hits a hard line drive, but it is right at Lyle Overbay for a double play. Had that line drive been five feet to the left, we would have won.
Jo-Jo (do you think, if we all chipped in, we could buy the boy a real name?) was great, for 2 innings. Then he gave up a couple of runs in the 2nd on a Alex Presley home run. Then the wheels fell off in the 4th. If the plays were made, all would have been ok. But a single, the triple that should have been caught, the single that Jo-Jo didn't cover first on, the a soft single, a strikeout, soft single, a fly out, another single and Reyes was removed, after giving up 6 runs. In all Double Jo gave up 9 hits, 6 earned, 1 walk, 6 earned with 5 k.
Our bullpen did a good job. Luiz Perez pitched 3 innings allowing just a solo homer. Octavio Dotel got an out. Shawn Camp and Jon Rauch each pitched a scoreless inning.
Our offense had a pretty good night. Edwin Encarnacion hit 2 home runs. Jose Bautista and Corey Patterson had 1 each. Eric Thames had a single and a triple. Edwin looks pretty locked in at the plate. Thames brings some energy to the 2 spot of the order as well. Yunel Escobar had a single and double. On the flip side Aaron Hill was 0 for 4 hitting into 2 double plays. Juan Rivera was also 0 for 4.
Jays of the Day are Escobar (.206 WPA), EE (.164) and Bautista (.160). Suckage numbers go to Reyes (-.363), Hill (-.253), Lind (-.203), Rivera (-.203) and Thames (-.102), but I can't give Thames a suckage award when he has 2 hits and one of them is a triple.
Part of the fun of the night was to listen to Buck and Pat talk to the parade of folks that were in Toronto to play at Joe Carter's charity golf tournament. They talked to Ozzie Smith, Bo Jackson, Fred McGriff, Joe Carter, Charles Barkley and likely a few others I missed. Many of them looked like they could still play.
Rough loss but at least our offense looked good again. Jose Bautista did fine at 3rd. Thames could have helped us if he had made that one catch but other than that he was ok. It is nice not to have a bunch of easy outs in the line up.
Tomorrow Brandon Morrow (3-4, 4.90) gets the start. Paul Maholm (4-8, 3.21) goes for the Pirates. Lets win.
For some reason we don't have any pictures from tonight's game, I'll look in the morning to see if we have some then.