September 1: Rays 5, Blue Jays 4

Turnaround is fair play as Omar hugs Molina to end the game



Tom Szczererbowski / Getty Images


Yesterday's game featured two outfield assists including a fantastic game-ending play by Moises Sierra and Jeff Mathis to end the game. Unfortunately, the Rays executed poetic justice today, ending the game with their own play from BJ Upton to ex-Jay Jose Molina to tag out a pathetic-looking Omar Visquel in the bottom of the ninth.

The game featured number #5 starter Henderson Alvarez against the returning Jeff Niemann, who fractured his ankle on May 14 on an Adam Lind line drive.

Alvarez and Niemann looked excellent at the start, as Alvarez faced the minimum seven hitters while Niemann retired the first ten.

Alvarez's poor inning came in the 3rd. With one out, Ryan Roberts hit his 9th homer. Henderson then walked Loboton and gave up a single to Desmond Jennings. BJ Upton then hit a slower grounder to Hechavarria that should have been a double play ball. But Johnston's connecting throw to Edwin was very high and caused Edwin to jump for the ball, allowing Upton to reach and prolong the inning. With two out, Ben Zobrist hit a double to the right field corner, scoring Loboton. Alvarez then walked Longoria on four pitches, loading the bases, before giving up a double in the left-gap to Matt Joyce, scoring two. At the middle of three, it was 4-0 Tampa.

Jeff Niemann's comeback was stymied, though. With one out in the bottom of the 4th, Niemann was forced out the game with "arm tightness". It appears to be nothing serious. On came Howell. The Jays immediately took advantage as Colby earned a walk and Edwin hit his 36th no-doubt about it home run to the third level at the dome, a beautiful shot. Lind grounded out, but Torrealba singled and Kelly Johnston walked. At that point, Maddon had seemed enough and brought in Wade Davis to retire Moises with two left on.

Alvarez got into a bit more trouble in the fifth, allowing two to reach with one out before Evan Longoria hit into a double play.

Alvarez's line was not good. 5 innings pitched, 5 hits, four runs, all earned, and 4 walks. He threw only 86 pitches. Alvarez has had five quality starts in his last eighteen starts back to May 20, and is sporting an ERA of 6.37, a WHIP of 1.7, and opposing pitchers are hitting a .908 OPS off of him. His K/BB ratio was 4:3.

Matt Joyce scored a solo homer in the top of the 8th off Brad Lincoln to gave the Rays a 5-2 lead. It was Lincoln's first run scored against in 6 outings.

The Jays left it to the 8th inning to start its comeback. Hechavarria opened the inning with the double off of Peralta. Rajai then hit an infield single to move Hechavarria over to third. Colby struck out. Edwin was walked. Adam Lind then came through with a single to score two and get the Jays within one. Joe Maddon had seemed enough and brought in his closer with one one. Rodney then walked McCoy, but struck out Johnston and Sierra to end the 8th.

The game wasn't over though, and in the 9th, the Jays threatened again. Omar Visquel walked, and Hechavarria sacrified him over two second. Rajai then failed to advance the runner with a fly ball to center. Colby Rasmus then managed to turn over a 100mph heater to stroke a single to centre. Omar, with two out, was running on the pitch. But BJ Upton's throw home ended up a bit high after the bounce. Omar was coming behind Molina to slide into home, but Molina ended up stepping back to catch the ball, inadvertently blocking Visquel's path, causing him to go further outside to avoid a calamatous collision. Molina caught the ball and applied the tag to Visquel as he was crawling back to the plate. Game over.

So, some thoughts about Omar Visquel. His "clutch" baserunning is terrible. He got caught stealing 2nd against Valverde as a pinch runner on August 22, for example, but the alternatives left on the bench was Escobar and Mathis. Escobar might have been a better choice, but his baserunning leaves alot to be desired as well. In retrospect, Escobar would have been the better choice, but you have to give Tampa full credit for getting the out at home. Should Visquel have bowled Molina over? Maybe, but Visquel would have lost that battle too, and you can't expect a 45 year old hall-of-famer to bowl over the respected veteran. In fact, after the out, Visquel gave Molina a pat which was very sportsmanlike, and it appears that Molina had some (probably kind)  words to say to Visquel while he was trying to reach for home plate.

And some thoughts about Henderson Alvarez. I think it's time for him to be shut down. He had 155 innings pitched so far this year, after only pitching 63 major league innings last year (and 96 minor league innings). His outings have been inconsistent at best, and his numbers require alot of run support in order for the Jays to have a shot at winning. With his 5+ ERA (that is not improving) and short outings (less than 90 pitches on average), it's time to give Jenkins or Laffey a view. With respect to next year, it's questionable whether Alvarez would make it into the rotation.

Romero, Morrow and Happ are presumable locks. If the Jays sign Villanueva to a contract (and they should) and go out and get a free agent starter in the off season (which they better), then the starting rotation will be complete, and Henderson will either start the season as the journeyman in the bullpen (with lefty Perez) or in the minors.

Offensively, the Jays managed 7 hits and 7 walks against the Tampa pitchers. The Jays left 7 on base. Moises went 0-4 and struck out three times. Rasmus walked twice and got a key hit in the game. Johnson got no hits but walked. Everyone else got a hit.

Tomorrow's outing  features a battle of the aces. Ricky Romero came off a great start over 7 innings against the Yankees, allowing two runs and five hits over seven innings in a tough 2-1 loss. Romero will have his work cut out for him against nemesis David Price, who after 12 quality outings (1.56 ERA, .182 BA, .857 WHIP) had a stinker against the Yankees, letting in 6 runs over 4 innings.

August 8: Jays 2, Rays 3

DVR Classic as Jays, fans fall asleep at 8pm

Part of the reason that I love summer nights is that although there is nothing to watch on TV (well, there is the Olympics), the Blue Jays are usually on, and the games are pretty entertaining.

But these games are not entertaining, at all, not because the Jays lose, but in the manner that they lose. Tampa's pitching looks great, but the Jays pitching before they reach bullpen is just good. That allows the opposing team to win with less than 5 runs. The offense for the Jays has evaporated. Jose is not getting better. Lind is faultering. Arencibia is out. Lawrie will probably go on the DL. Hope for this team has all but disappeared. But I'll get to that later. Here are the highlights of this one:

The Jays opened the scoring in the top of the 3rd with a sac fly from Edwin to knock in Rajai Davis, who went first to third on a Colby Rasmus single.

Carlos Villanueva then had a minor blowout in the bottom of the third, allowing the first three runners to reach in a double-double-single combination to Jennings, Upton, and Matt Joyce, plating one. Evan Longoria grounded into a nice double play to plate Upton. Then two walks and a single to plate Ben Zobrist. 3-1 Rays after three.

Villanueva then allowed a single, then retired 9 in a row in the the middle frames.

The Jays threatened in the top of the 7th. With a double by Johnston, Farrell elected to bunt Mathis in order to try to score Johnston. But you know, sacrificing an out for a base at this stage in the game, down by 2, doesn't make sense with me. Let Mathis hit away and hope that a single scores the run again. As it turned out, the bunt did move Johnston, but Cobb went ahead and struck out rookie Gose and Hechavarria to wrap up the inning. It was a dumb time to bunt.

Delabar and Lincoln pitched excellently in the 7th and 8th, allowing one hit in the two innings.

The Jays made it interesting in the 9th, as David Cooper bounced a 325 foot home run off the top of the 5 foot wall next to the line in LF. Jennings was there but didn't make a real attempt to catch it. Johnson and Mathis then hit balls in the air to the shortstop to end the game.

The Jays bullpen have pitched extremely well in the last 13 games, including tonight's game. Over 41.1 innings pitched, the bullpen has let in 6 runs for an ERA of 1.41. They sport a BA of .162, an OBP of .256, and a SLG of .223 for an OPS of .479. So, the bullpen has completely righted itself thanks to the AA acquisitions. Unfortunately, the Jays have absolutely no run support and the starters have been decent as well. Now the story for the Jays is the absolute outage at the plate.  

That doesn't mean I'm off the bandwagon - I'm being realistic. I still love this team, and the team has now I think got to focus on its youth. What does that mean?

For one, I think that the Jays need to come home and put the best players out there and try to eke out a series win against the Yankees. Once the fans have gone home from the weekend series, it's time to make some team changes. Maybe I'm being drastic...

First, Bench Rajai Davis and let Moises, Gose, and Rasmus play the outfield on a regular basis, get some ABs, and see how they progress. Rajai can come on and pinch hit or pinch run late in the game. Let Bautista heal. If Rasmus is playing with pain, let Gose play center. It's unlikely that Bautista will be back before September's callups anyway.

Second, I think you need to bench Escobar and put Hechavarria as the regular shortstop. Let the youth play at his natural position and see what he can do. Omar Visquel can finish his career at 3rd base until Lawrie comes back.

Third, leave David Cooper on first and let Edwin DH for the rest of the year.

Fourth, platoon Yan Gomes at catcher and let him learn the ropes at the MLB position.

Don't rush Brandon Morrow back to the majors. Let JA Happ pitch. Let Jenkins start. End Alvarez's year before he pitches too many innings and wears out his arm.

For the Jays fandoms, look for alot of losses, and the Jays will probably running 20-30 until the end of the season and finishing with 72-74 wins. But you know, that playing experience for the junior Jays will mean alot.

August 7: Rays 4, Rasmus 1

Jays bats typically silent in sleepy loss

The Jays scoring drought continued in Tampa Bay last night as James Shields pitched brilliantly for the 2nd game in a row, allowing 3 hits and 1 walk over 8 innings. The lone run was a Colby Rasmus blast to open the top of the 4th giving the Jays a glimmer of hope.

JA Happ simply was as expected, not good, giving up 4 runs over 7 hits in 4.1 innings. The Rays scored one run in the second on a single-double combination, two runs in the 3rd in a single-double-sacfly-sacfly combination, and a run in the 5th on a double-double combination.

Happ threw 82 pitches in what we knew was going to be a short effort (since his arm really wasn't ready for a 100+ pitch set) but he walked only 1.

There was a couple of firsts in the game (and I'm not talking about a delay-of-game call by a soccer referee): Adeiny Hechavarria got his first hit in his 8th plate appearance, a solid single to center.

And the Jays got to see the start of 24 year old Chad Jenkin's career in the majors. Jenkins, promoted from AA over the weekend, went 3 innings, recording 2 singles and 2 strikeouts. He looks very good on the mound, with a 90-92 mph fastball and a 82-84 mph slider. Drafted by the Jays in the 1st round of the MLB June Ameteur draft in 2009, the starter has gradually moved up the ranks. This year at AA, he posted a 4.96 ERA and a 1.536 WHIP over 20 starts for the Fisher Cats. Likely his role on the team will be long relief with Brad Lincoln. I wouldn't be surprised however if we saw a start from him before the end of the season, perhaps when Alvarez is taken off the starting rotation for innings.

Last night's loss, while not unexpected, was disappointing. James Shields was outstanding last night, and the Jays just did not bring it to the plate. It is very difficult to score without baserunners. And with such a mediocre start by Happ, only a decent offense can overcome that deficit. Tampa is in the hunt and has excellent pitching to back them up. The Jays have terrible starting pitching and with 4 of their best hitters out of the line up, terrible hitting. The only way you are going to win games with the combination of the two is luck and steps up in terms of performance.

Tonight's matchup hopefully will be a better one for the Jays. Carlos Villanueva, back from personal leave, will take the mound tonight against Alex Cobb.