Man that was horrible.
5 perfect innings from Brandon Morrow. Then a lead off single in the 6th. After a fly out and another single, Brandon got a nice ground ball, right at Yunel Escobar and Yunel booted it. In his defense, he was wanting to make a quick play, so they would have a shot a the double play. Likely they weren't going to be able to turn two anyway. And you have to make sure of one in that spot. If he would have got one, the game would have been so much different. After Yunel's error we had a popup out, that should have been the 3rd out. Then Adam Jones took a pitch that was low on the outside corner and hit an opposite field homer. Three runs that shouldn't have scored.
Then in the 8th, Morrow walks Josh Bell to start the inning. After a pop out bunt and a phantom hit batter (it's ok, we had a phantom hit batter too), Nick Markakis hits a fly to right center. Colby Rasmus and Jose Bautista each go for it, Rasmus catches it as they gently collide. Then Aaron Hill had Colby's throw into the infield bounce past him, allowing a run to score and moving the runner from first to second. For some reason, the official scorer gave the error to Colby, when Hill really deserved it. Another single and we are down 6-2. Shawn Camp came into the game and picked Adam Jones off first to end the inning, but by then it was too late.
Brandon finished with 4 hits, 3 earned/3 unearned runs, 1 walk and 6 strikeouts in 7.2 innings. A little bit of help from his defense and it would have been a much better night for the guy.
On offense, Colby Rasmus hit his first homer as a Jay. And we loaded the bases in the 6th with no outs but just got one run, on a Jose Bautista sac fly. It was just deep enough to score Jose Molina from 3rd. Molina's helmet hit the catcher's shin pad on the slide, but he was able to stay in the game. That was it for offense.
We only had 4 hits, one each for Adam Lind, Rasmus, Edwin Encarnacion and Brett Lawrie. Molina had our 1 walk and Yunel had a ball come close enough to him that he was able to convince the umpire it hit him. Chris Tillman was pretty good but we really didn't seem to be battling out there.
No Jays of the Day. Brandon Morrow (-.283 WPA, much of which was the fault of our defense) and Eric Thames (-.111) for an 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts had suckage numbers. Thames is now 1 for his last 28 at bats with 10 strikeouts in that time. I'm ok with letting him try to work his way out of this but I'm not ok with him batting in that 2 spot. Put him down near the bottom of the order.
Tomorrow we have a 1:00 Eastern start to finish this series. Ricky Romero (9-9, 2.98) goes for the series win. Alfredo Simon (3-4, 3.83) gets the start for the O's. I hope the Jays take out my frustrations on him.
The GameThread was fun, considering how the game wasn't, but I will remind folks of the idea that this place is like our living room. If you are in my living room and you cheer against my players, don't expect to stay in my living room for long.
A Brandon Morrow post game Thwip:
The place I'm eating dinner has the game replay from tonight on.... It's currently the top of the 6th... I may be buying them a new tv soon.