Do Depressing Losses Always Come in Threes?

Blue Jays 7 Rangers 8

I knew, going into the bottom of the 13th, that we didn't have much left in the bullpen. We were having supper at my cousin's house. The game was on and I was falling along. There was some happiness when we scored in the top of the inning but I was still worried. Then, from the distance I was from the TV, I couldn't recognize who was pitching in the bottom of the inning. Took me a moment to figure out that it was Ryota Igarashi. I was thinking, 'I guess they figure Mathis can't go after pitching yesterday'. Igarashi was terrible yesterday and worse today. I think we can send him back down and not bring him up again.

You can second guess the decision to have Jason Frasor pitch to Josh Hamilton. As it turned out it would have been best to walk him but you normally don't want to put on the winning run.

Henderson Alvarez pitched 5 good innings and one just awful one. Or two thirds of an awful inning. Two ground outs then 3 straight home runs. I'm amazed that John Farrell left him in after that, but then when he came inside on the next batter, plate umpire Marty Foster threw him out of the game. Seemed to me to be a little harsh. The pitch was inside but I didn't see any intent. If this is another example of umpires trying to teach the Jays a lesson, they should be told to go back to umpiring. It was just a bad call.

Up until Igarashi, our overworked bullpen had done a good job. 4 pitchers kept the Rangers off the board. Luis Perez for 1.1, Francisco Cordero 1.0, Casey Janssen 1.2 and Darren Oliver 2.1.

Our offense had 15 hits, so you might have expected more runs. Colby Rasmus hit just his 4th home run, his first since a 2 home run game April 21. Everyone in the starting lineup had at least 1 hit. Omar Vizquel had 3 singles. Yunel Escobar, Jose Bautista, Brett Lawrie and David Cooper had 2 hits each. Nice to see Cooper get off to a good start.

We should have had the game won when we scored 2 in the top off the 13th. Lawrie singled, moved to second on a passed ball and scored on Vizquel's single.

Jays of the Day? A good part of our bullpen: Oliver (.466 WPA), Janssen (.184), Cordero (.121) and Perez (.111). And a couple of our hitters Vizquel (.336) and Rasmus (.106).

On the Suckage side. The rest of our pitchers today: Frasor (-.516), Igarashi (-.365) and Alvarez (-.310). And a few of our bats: Edwin Encarnacion (-.218), J.P. Arencibia (-.155), Eric Thames (-.118) and Jose (-.098).

I'm sure there is more to say about that game, but I'm tired of talking about bad losses. Tomorrow is another day. Kyle Drabek is going to have to go deep in the game. And someone is going to have to get from Vegas to Arlington.