Jose Bautista Homers, Jays still lose 4-2

Jose Bautista's team leading 18th home run wasn't enough to carry the Jays on this night. Henderson Alvarez struggled at times and continues to be plagued by the longball. While the game ended up being around the normal 3hour mark it still felt like it dragged along. Of course probably doesn't help that Jason Frasor got into the game in the ninth either.

On the Mound

Henderson Alvarez did go 7 Innings. He gave up 3 runs early on 2 home runs (including one to Sportsnets new feature focus Bryce Harper). He managed to get through the next few innings unscathed and even got 7 in a row from the 5th to the 7th inning. Unfortunately in the seventh he gave up yet another home run, his 16th given up on the year which vaults him "almost" to the top of the MLB leaderboard. He still only managed 3Ks throughout the game all the while scattering nine hits all over the place. It seems to me that Alvarez could really use a knockout K pitch. As it stands right now he can get batters behind in the count but just continues to throw his sinker which can level out in a hurry if you are expecting it.

Darren Oliver came out for the 8th and continued being an effective reliever for the team notching another clean inning while only giving up one hit. Jason Frasor came out for hte ninth in order to slow down the game and ensure that the game took up the entire 3 hour allotted time-frame on Sportsnet. He got 2 outs after.... some amount of time (sorry I nodded off) before getting pulled for Crawford who got the final out of the ninth.

At the plate

The Jays were up against the Wang for the first 5 innings of the game. While they only managed 5 hits (including Jose Bautista's two run shot) they also drew 5 walks during the first few innings. They had their chances and just couldn't capitalize. It doesn't help that it seemed like a lot of their rallies got started with two outs which didn't give them much room for error. Bautista had two hits including the HR with 2RBI, Kelly Johnson, Colby Rasmus and Brett Lawrie each had a hit apiece. Walks went 2 for Bautista, 1 for Rajai Davis, 1 for David Cooper and 1 for Lawrie.

Jays of the Day: Jose Bautista .258

Suckage: Alvarez -.103, Edwin Encarnacion -.202, Yunel Escobar -.102 Tom Dakers - Jinxing the Jays -1.000

Much the same as it was in game one of the series, this game never really felt like it was in reach for the Jays even with the score being relatively close. The Nationals are a hot team at the moment leading a tough division and it won't get any easier in the final game of hte series when Stephen Strasburg takes the mound against Kyle Drabek. Hm, that should be interesting. It's an afternoon game so remember to tune in early.