Cordero, You Have to Cover First. Jays Lose to Royals.

Royals 9 Blue Jays 6

You know, Francisco Cordero was getting unlucky. A soft ground single through the infield. A soft ground single that Kelly Johnson and Yunel Escobar ran into each other trying to get. A soft line single. Finally an out, ground ball to Johnson who threw to home for the force at the plate. Then a broken bat single, driving in a run. A strikeout. Up to here, I'm ok, he's the victim of bad luck and a bit of bad defense.

Then a ground ball to hit to Cordero's right, Kelly makes a nice play on, after Edwin Encarnacion can't get to it. Youe know what the pitcher is supposed to do. Everyone knows what the pitcher is supposed to do. But, Cordero, instead of running to first, stood and watched the play, then thought 'hey, I should be over at first base'. He was way too late and 2 runs scored on the play. 2 very important runs. John Farrell comes out to get Cordero. That he managed not to slug him shows more emotional maturity than I would have been able to muster. I'm sure they have talked by now. The funny part is that Colby Rasmus got a single, earlier in the game, because Luke Hochevar also forgot that he was to cover first on a similar play.

And, tomorrow, there will be two hours of the fun drill where the pitchers cover first base.

Henderson Alvarez had a bad/unlucky inning of his on. He gave up 3 ground ball singles. Add in a line single, a ground ball double and a couple of walks and 5 runs scored without a really hard hit ball. A bad call on what should have been strike three early in the inning cost him. Add in a ball that would have been a double play (third to home to first), but was ruled to have hit the batter's foot, so therefore foul instead. A couple of dozen looks at the replay later, I couldn't tell you if it hit him or not.

Other than that one inning Henderson was very good (insert Titanic joke here).

There were some good parts to the game:

• J.P. Arencibia hit 2 home runs. I hope this is the start of another hot streak.
• Sam Dyson got into his first game, 1 walk, 1 strikeout.
• Andrew Carpenter got into his first game as a Jay. 1.1 innings, 3 hits, 1 earned, 1 home run, 1 k.
• Ben Francisco hit a 2-run triple.
• Colby Rasmus went 2 for 4, double and a walk.
• Yunel Escobar went 2 for 3, with a walk.

Jays of the Day are JP (.143 WP) and Colby (.102). Suckage Jays are Henderson (-.216), Cordero (-.124 and the idiot moment of not covering first), Jose Bautista (-.170, 0 for 5, including a strikeout with 2 and 2 out in the 5th), Rajai Davis (-.138, 0 for 4, k) and Bret Lawrie (-.137, 0 for 5, k and a bad error, but also a brilliant barehanded play).

One other moment I want to mention: in the 8th, down by 5, with Edwin on second and Lind on first, Yunel singled. Edwin went home on the play and was barely safe, but safe or not, it was a dumb move. Down 5, in the 8th, you gotta be more careful. There was no reason to send him, though I'll admit, Buck said that Butterfield sent him and I and taking Buck's word. Perhaps Buck was wrong and EE ran through the stop sign. Or perhaps Butterfield saw that Eddie was going to go for home, so he just waved him figuring there was no real choice. Either way, one of them made a mistake.

Anyway, that series is over, we are 42-41, 3 games from the last wild card spot. Tomorrow we start our last series before the All-Star break, in Chicago, against the White Sox.