Anyone remember when this was fun? - Jays Lose 9-5 - Brad Lincoln surrenders 2HRs

The Jays lost. Again. It was painful.

I'm reminded of lines from the Dark Knight Rises. I won't quote it for fear of getting Spoilers screamed at me but basically it deals with the concept of despair and hope. That only those with hope can truly feel despair. The thought goes that if you don't have any hope you can't really care and as such the despair isn't there as well. This team constantly shows us a glimmer of hope only to stomp on it.

Tonight the Jays were able to battle back to tie the game in the 6th inning on the backs of a 3 run home run from Kelly Johnson. Lots of smiles in the dugout handshakes and finger pointing from teammates; all was good. The good times didn't last long as the very next half inning starts out with a lead off walk followed by a HBP before Romero gets pulled. Brad Lincoln comes into the game which... was... I don't even know how to describe it. Before the inning was over not only had the Jays relinquished the lead again but they were now 5 runs behind and basically out of the game.

The decision to bring in the Righty Brad Lincoln to face the power mashing lefty Adam Dunn in the 7th inning was a strange one by Farrell. I don't get it. I don't agree with it and I honestly cannot even try to figure the rationalization that Farrell used to make the decision. Many times in baseball even if you don't agree with the decision you can understand it. Whether it is based in Baseball Lore or some other reason you can at least see it. Not here though.

Honestly, This game was just a whole lot of bad and not much good. The Jays did manage 9 hits with Cooper having 2 including a ground rule double. Both Kelly Johnson and Jeff Mathis homered, but with the Jays giving up the lead so quick after tying it up I'm sure I wasn't the only one that had the sinking feeling in my stomach the rest of way to the finish. If you are interested the rest of the boxscore can be found here but Im not really sure I have it in me to go through everything.

Here is the WPA graph. This is what hope and the subsequent misery looks like....

Source: FanGraphs

Jays of the Day: Kelly Johnson (.203) David Cooper (.174)

Suckage: Brad Lincoln (-.309) Ricky Romero (-.277) Yunel Escobar (-.118)

7:00 tomorrow night we get to do it all again. Francisco Liriano takes on Aaron Laffey.