Jays Lose in Extras

Blue Jays 4 Rays 5 (11 innings)

It really shouldn't have gone 11 innings. We walked 10 and hit a couple of batters and yet we still made it to the 11th. In 7 of the 11 innings the Rays got the lead off man on base, including both extra innings.

Ricky Romero wasn't good at all. 6 innings, 7 walks, just 2 hits, 7 k, 4 earned. It should have been worse. Being fair, the 2 walks in the first inning included a few strikes that were called balls. Ricky might gotten out of that first inning, if we had a left fielder with some range. Thames let a Drew Sutton hit go over his head for a double. It really should have been caught.

Our bullpen continued to walk batters but managed to keep the Rays off the scoreboard for 4 and a third, in spite of letting the lead off hitter get on base too many times. Darren Oliver pitched a good 10th, but hit the lead off hitter in the 11th, though the batter turned into the pitch. He got Carlos Pena to strikeout but B.J.Upton hit a double to the wall in left. Thames, again, was slow to get to the ball, and then threw it over the cutoff man. If he got to the ball quick, if he hit the cutoff man, like he was supposed to, we might have got the runner at the plate.

On offense we didn't do enough enough. We had trouble with James Shields, striking out 10 times in his 7.1. Jose Bautista hit a homer off him in the first and we benefited from yet another Ray error in the 5th to allow Brett Lawrie to score on a Yan Gomes sac fly. That are all the scoring we could get off Shields. Edwin Encarnacion hit a 2 run homer off Joel Peralta, to tie things in the 7th.

Bautista, Encarnacion and Colby Rasmus had 2 hits each. All the other starters had 1 except J.P. Arencibai (0 for 5, 4 k) and Yan Gomes (0 for 3, 1 k, but the sac fly).

Jays of the Day are Edwin (.308), Rasmus (.136, nice to see him getting some hits of late) and Casey Janssen (.118). Honorable mention to Francisco Cordero, for a scoreless inning of relief, and Bautista. Suckage to Romero (-.267), Oliver (-.265, hardly fair as he was in his second inning of relief), Escobar (-193, 1 for 5), Gomes (-.181), JP (-.115) and Thames (-.097, plus some bad defense).

There was some good defense by the Jays, Rasmus covers a ton of ground in center, Yunel made a nice play, moving away from first but still making a nice throw. Best play of the game was by Omar Vizquel. With runners on 1st and 2nd, Casey gave up a ground ball to the right side, Omar made a nice stop, but Casey didn't cover first. The Rays sent the runner from second home, and Vizquel make a great throw to the plate to get the runner.

The Jays have a day off tomorrow and then start a series with the Rangers on Friday. Not a great day, but we are still in 3rd, 3.5 behind the Orioles and 3.0 behind the Rays for 2nd.

Forgot to mention that Kelly Johnson, after having a tough time with James Shields, left the game with tightness in his left hamstring. Hoping that a day off will make things better