Series wrap: The nightmare continues in Tampa

Where's the magic button that fast forwards to the end of the season?

Don't you wish, as a Jays fans, that you could just simulate the game instead of enduring the torture of watching these games?

Toronto has always had trouble in Tampa, having not won a series there in something like 6 or 7 years. That trend has continued, but these games were so lopsided. And Tampa is in the chase for a wild card spot 5.5 games behind Oakland, the team has to pull out all stops to catch the Athletics. Turns out that they did.

Friday, September 21: Jays 1 at Tampa 12

Carlos Villanueva started the night against James Shields, who has been fabulous against the Jays last year and this year. Carlos, on the other hand, was out to continue to audition for a coveted starting role on some team. Alot of Jays fans are stating that Carlos should be signed to a deal and to show him the money, and my position has been the same: the guy is not proven as a starter. Yes, he can start games, but can he last an entire season? No, he probably cannot. After the game, the Jays management stated that Carlos had arm soreness. The fact of the matter, fans, is that pitching is a violent and unnatural thing to do. Most of us can't throw anything over 40mph, and the fact that these pitchers get pitches up over 90mph is incredible. But it's extremely hard on the arm. Typically, managers will allow a 30% of overage for innings pitched from year to year. Carlos had arm soreness last year when he was given the starter's role, and it's the same this year. He doesn't have the stamina to go a full season in a rotation, and therefore, he will not command a starting position salary. Carlos has pitched about 12% more innings this year over last (so far). Next year, he will probably top out at 160 innings. A big league #1 starter will pitch over 240 innings, while a decent healthy starter will top out at about 200. That leaves Carlos one month short of making it through a season, and that is if everything goes right.

Tampa opened scoring with a Zobrist solo shot in the bottom of the 1st. Two more runs came into score on a Carlos Pena triple. Pena should have been dead to rights at 3rd but Lawrie couldn't pick a bad Hechavarria throw out of the dirt. Molina followed up with a two run home run to make it 5-0. Villanueva then opened the bottom of the third with two singles and a walk before a Luke Scott double (off the glove of Rasmus, a very EASILY handled fly ball) scored two more runs. Carlos then got Pena to pop out before Farrell pulled the plug on Villanueva. Chad Beck came in and stopped the damage, but it was already 7-0 at the end of 3.

Really, is there more to talk about? Beck was okay, letting in 1 run over 2 2/3rds inning of solid mid-relief work, but allowed 3 hits and two walks. With Tampa up 8-0, Farrell marched the very shaky David Carpenter onto the mound, the the Rays managed to score four more runs in the 6th to make it a 12-0 game. Loup and Janssen came on to finish the game.

Ug. Offensively for the Jays, a Yan Gomes double scored a Rasmus single, and that was it for the offense in the top of the 8th. Gose, Arencibia, and Lind were kept off the hit sheet, with Edwin taking the only walk.

Saturday, September 22: Jays 5 at Tampa 11.

Saturday's matchup was a resurgent Brandon Morrow vs a very good Matt Moore. Unfortunately for Brandon he had a frustrating start, not being able to command his slider and not getting calls on some very close pitches with his fastball.

It looked promising for the Jays, as they scored two runs against Matt Moore, as Lawrie opened the game with a walk, Rajai doubled and Edwin singled. Adam Lind hit a sac fly and it was 2-0 after the top of 1. But Brandon was worse, giving up a single and three walks. It was going to be a long night.

Brandon Morrow left a breaking ball over the middle of the plate in the bottom of the second to the desparate Tampa Rays Evan Longoria, who hit a three run homer.

The Jays thretened in the top of the 3rd with 1st and 2nd and two out, but Maddon pulled the plug was pulled early on Matt Moore and went to their very deep bullpen.

Brandon Morrow gave up a solo home run to Desmond Jennings in the bottom of the fourth and with the Jays down 4-2, that was the end of Morrow's day.

The Jays got to Jake McGee in the top of the 5th, as Adam Lind tripled home a single by Gose and Lawrie, and it was 5-4 at the top of the 5th.

But Brad Lincoln sunk it for the Jays, letting in 6 runs over two outs as Keppinger doubled, Francisco doubled,  Roberts singled (scoring Francisco), and Molina homered on an inside fastball. Then Jennings singled and  BJ Upton homered on pretty much the identical pitch to Molina. And it was 11-4.

In the top of the 8th, Hechavarria managed to get a one run back for the Jays knocking home Moises Sierra who had doubled.

And that's it: Morrow had a terrible start, and Brad Lincoln was terrible for the 2nd game in a row. The offense started off well enough, but Tampa was determined to win.

Sunday, September 23rd: Jays 0, Tampa 1

The hope disappeared for the Jays sometime in mid-August, but for Tampa, now only 3.5 behind Oakland for the last wild card spot with Boston, Chicago, and Baltimore left to play, every game matters. Today's matinee featured Jeremy Hellickson against a hopefully not-so-much scouted rookie Chad Jenkins.

Jenkins pitched very well, going five innings. His only blemish was a BJ Upton soloe home run given up in the first, and a couple of hits went very far and were caught, including a very nice Colby Rasmus catch to save a double. He went five innings, threw 60 pitches, and struck out four. Delabar and Oliver pitched fairly flawless sixth and seventh innings.

But Hellickson and the Rays were better, and the Jays managed to spray six through over the game, threatening in the 2nd from a Yunel and Johnson single with two out, but Sierra grounded out. In the 5th, another threat from a Yunel single and Gose single, leaving runners at 2nd and 3rd with two out, but Lawrie struck out. And in the sixth, the Jays managed to load the bases through a single and two walks with two out, but Maddon elected to go to the bullpen to McGee who struck out Kelly Johnson. And in the seventh, Gose doubled on a short fly ball into no-man's territory and was sacrificed by Brett Lawrie, but Maddon went to Howell. Rasmus got jammed, and Howell made an amazing play to throw out Rasmus for third out.

The Rays attempted to add some insurance in the 8th against Brandon Lyon, and a broken bat single by Jennings who stole 2nd. Zobrist was intentionally walked with one out, and Longoria hit a long fly ball to the wall that Sierra just missed, scoring two more runs and pretty much ending any hope for a comeback with the way that the Jays have been playing.

Rodney closed off the game stranding Escobar on first.

0-6. That's the story of these Jays for the road trip thus far, with four more to play in Baltimore. The Jays can't string together hits into runs, and if they do, it's when they are far behind in the game. They've come on the losing end of three close one-run games now, unable to solve the Yankees nor the Rays. There were terrible starts by Brandon Laffey, Morrow and Villaneuva, and when the team didn't pitch well, their hitting was worse.

Highlights for the Jays offense included an Escobar 3-3 day (3 singles and a walk) and a Gose 2 for 3 day. Lawries, Rasmus, Lind, Arencibia and Sierra did not hit. Arencibia has gone 2-37 since his return.

Meaningless games for the Jays, but with games against Baltimore and the Yankees, the Jays will play an instrumental role in the playoffs. Dropping three to Tampa allowed the Rays an outside chance of making the playoffs, being either 2.5 or 3.5 games back of Oakland.

September 2: Rays 9, Jays 4

Romero pitches pathetically; game finished early

After a very nice outing in New York against the Yankees where Romero gave up only 2 earned runs over seven innings, the fans were looking forward to Romero building off that game and hopefully finish up the season on a positive note. With David Price on the mound (2nd in the AL in ERA), it would be a tall order.

Unfortunately, the game was over very early for Ricky. In the bottom of the 1st with two out, Rajai pretty much missed a Longoria fly ball to left field that resulted in a run against Ricky. Rajai just didn't pick up the ball in time. Then in the 2nd, Ricky threw a 1-2 cutter for a home run against Ben Francisco. Carlos Pena then walked (plunking the ump in the process). Davis then hesitated on what should have been a single to Roberts (which turned into a double). That put runners on 2nd and 3rd with none out. Molina then singled, scoring another run. Jennings singled on the next pitch to score another run. Sierra then lost a ball in the sun and the ball bounced away from him, loading the bases, still with none out. Ben Zobrist then singled in two runs poast a diving Escobar to end Romero's afternoon. Romero's line: 7 runs on 8 hits, 1+ innings, 1 BB, 0K, and 43 pitches.

Chad Jenkins came in and gave up a run to Upton on a sacrfiice fly. After the top of two, it was 7-0 Rays. The Jays did threaten in the bottom of the 2nd, as Price gave up 3 walks to load the bases, but the Jays could not hit anyone home. Carlos Pena opened the 3rd with a deep home run against Jenkins (8-0 Rays). Tampa scored another another run from a Francisco ground rule double that knocked in Longoria (double). Chad Jenkins was acceptable in the 5th and 6th inning. And by the end of 6 it was 9-0 Rays.

The Jays did score 2 in the 7th off David Price, as Hechavarria singled, Rajai walked, and Colby singled to load the bases with 1 out. Edwin then hit a sacrific fly and Adam Lind singled on a high bouncing ball off the plate to score the two runs. Smart baserunning by Colby on Lind's single as third was left completely open on Lind's ground ball. Price then left the game (6.2 IP, 6 hits, 2 runs, 4 walks, 5Ks). Badenhop then came on to get Escobar to ground into a fielder's choice.

Laffey threw three innings of 3 hit ball, striking out three and walking 2. The Jays had a sputter of 9th inning offence as Colby singled and Edwin hit his 37th home run into the bullpen in left.

Final score: 9-4.

Offensively, Davis walked once in an 0-4 outing. Moises bat 0-4 again. Rasmus had a 2-4 afternoon, with all the others hit once. The Jays allowed 18 hits.

What is wrong with Ricky Romero? I still think it's definitely his head. In a game against David Price, he knew that he would have to be on top of his game to have a shot at winning. Rajai Davis' play to allow Roberts to reach 2nd took away the double play in the top of the 2nd. Sierra's loss of the ball in the sun did not help the cause. The ground ball singles were close to players. But mostly, Ricky just was not sharp and not mentally prepared to pitch this game. No excuses. If Ricky is going to succeed he has to get his mental game in order. Until that happens, you are going to see some very inconsistent starts. In the post game comments, Ricky had alot to say:

 Is any of it psychological? Do you go out there and feel like, ‘Here we go again?’
“No. Felt pretty good today. Just left some fastballs up. Other [hits] fell for them that inning. That’s just the way the game is. Everything went their way today.”

There’s probably no easy answer, but do you have any guesses about what may be wrong with you this year?
“No idea.”

Did the two days’ extra rest in New York help?
“No. I’m a starter in the big leagues and you’ve got to be ready to go every fifth day....  These performances have been rough. It’s tough to hear boos from your own fans. It’s tough to see your teammates going out there to battle every day. It’s been tough, it’s been stressful. But at the same time, you’ve just got to come back ready to work.”

Are you out of answers?
“Yeah. What more else can I say? It’s worn on me. I was born a winner. Going through something like this I’d never wish upon anyone.”

The thing is, Ricky, is that it is psychological.

August 31: Tampa 1, Blue Jays 2

Practice makes perfect as Mathis and outfield connect to save the game

The Jays are looking like a team again. With their offense still being inconsistent, the pitching and defense would have to be fantastic to beat the Rays. But the Rays offense hasn't exactly been consistent either. This afternoon, before batting practice, John Farrell had his outfielders out there throwing balls home in order to improve the throws into the infield, which have been pretty poor as of late. Turns out that the training was timely.

Brandon Morrow started the game, his second game back, and this outing was very good, not lights out by any stretch, but very good, getting key outs when required. In all, Morrow went 6 2/3rds, throwing 102 pitches, striking out 5 and walking one. All of his pitches were working. He sprinkled 8 hits in the inning, and the only damage done was Desmond Jennings home run to open the top of the third to give Tampa a temporary 1-0 lead.

Steve Delabar was perfect coming on with two out in the bottom of the 7th to induce a grounder, and then to pitch the 8th to strike out Zobrist, Longoria, and Joyce on a very nasty combination of changeups and fastballs that just fooled the Rays.

Tampa's Hellickson was much better on the mound, but two home runs by Moises Sierra (to reply, opening the bottom of the 3rd), and Edwin Encarnacion (in the bottom of the 4th, bases empty, one out) to the 200 level in centre-left was enough for the Jays to win it tonight. Hellickson walked 1, struck out 2, and surrendered 2 more hits (a single to Encarnacion to open the 7th, and an Adam Lind single after the Encarnacion home run).

Off the hit sheet was Colby Rasmus (again, now not hitting in 4 games), now hitting 0-12 in his last four games with 4Ks and a walk. Yunel's hitting streak also ended. Rajai, Mathis, and McCoy also did nothing offensively.

Defensively, in the first, McCoy bobbled a Ben Zobrist double play ball but managed to get the speedy Zobrist out. And, in the top of the fourth, Colby couldn't outrun a Ryan Roberts hit into centre-left, which I think he catches if his groin was completely better. And in the top of the 7th, Rajai went all out to catch a Desmond Jennings line drive into left which ended up going to the wall for a double. It would have been nice to catch that. None of these, thankfully did no damage.

Jeff Mathis tags out Matt Joyce at home
(Rogers SportsNet)

But there were two fantastic defensive highlights in the game. The first was in the top of the 2nd with Keppinger on 1st and Matt Joyce on 2nd with one out. Ryan Roberts hit a single to left, and with Matt Joyce running, typically, Rajai makes a throw that ends up bouncing a few times or is 20 feet left or right of home plate. Not this time. Rajai throws a single bounce strike to the plate which Mathis picks up, blocks the plate, and tags Matt Joyce who barreled Mathis at home. Out!!!



Jeff Mathis tags out Elliott Johnson to end the game
(Rogers Sportsnet)



The last defensive play ended the game. With pinch runner Elliot Johnson on 2nd and pinch hitter Carlos Pena up with two out, he lined a Janssen 1-1 fastball single to Moises Sierra. With Elliott running home, Moises picked up the ball and fired a one bounce strike to Jeff Mathis, just in time for Mathis to once again block the plate and apply the tag to a diving Elliot Johnson to record the out and end the game and secure the 19th save of the season for Casey Janssen.

Well, this series is a guaranteed push for Toronto. It would be great to see the bats come out tomorrow, and with an Alvarez coming off of two very poor starts and Jeff Niemann making his first start for Tampa since Adam Lind broke Niemann's ankle with a sharp comeback to the mound on May 14th. Look for a high scoring game.

August 9: Jays 1, Rays 7

Henderson Alvarez fails, Jays muster three hits, limp home.

The Blue Jays limp home from their road trip going 2 - 8 against three very good pitching teams. The road trip looked promising enough, but after Lawries and Rasmus' exit in the Oakland game 6 nights ago, things looked bleak indeed, and the team was only able to eke out a couple of very lucky wins on Saturday and Sunday.

The Jays opened scoring with a lead off double by Rajai, followed by a stolen base, walk and a balk. Henderson looked good in the first, but then seemed to unravel. The second inning started with an Encarnacion error at 1st, followed by an out at first, single, walk, single (scoring 2), walk (to load the bases), out (to score). Alverez then let in a run each in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th inning and exited early.

Henderson's line was bad, letting in 6 runs (4 earned), giving up 11 hits and 3 walks over 4 and 2/3rds, throwing 83 pitches. Loup finished the 5th and 6th, Oliver pitched the 7th, and Janssen pitched the 8th, giving up a run on two doubles (the second appeared to be a home run, but hit the top of the glass in CF to be a double). Janssen let in his third earned run in his last 22 appearnances in a meaningless appearance.

So, the Jays once again fall victim to poor pitching and no offense, mustering up a very paltry three hits (Davis, Sierra, Cooper) in the afternoon's outing.

The Blue Jays take their AC Jetz plane home from Tampa after this game, to open a welcome home stand against the Yankees, White Sox, and Baltimore, all good teams.

I'll talk about the Blue Jays hitting woes in another post. But man, what a disappointing road trip.

Tampa Bay - Jays series preview

Jays hope to salvage road trip - not likely

After getting swept in Seattle and losing Travis Snider, then seeing Colby Rasmus and Brett Lawrie exit the same game, things looked pretty hopeless for the Jays for the road trip.

The Jays last series win at Tropicana
was in April 2007

But the team pulled out two very gutsy (and lucky) wins on Saturday and Sunday to give them some confidence for the plane ride to Tampa. The Trop has been very unfriendly to the Jays. The last time the Jays won a series at Tropicana Field: April 2007, when Roy Halladay took the deciding game 6-3. Casey Janssen made the save. So, I think a 1-2 performance in Florida, while disappointing, is the new par for the course.

It's difficult to win the AL East without going through Tampa, and when you can't win a series on the road, the best you can really hope to do against Tampa is go 7-11 or 8-10 for the year.

Tampa is suffering from a hitting outage as well, scoring 25 runs in the past 10 games and getting shut out by Baltimore in their last two games. However, Longoria is being activated for the game and his .329/.433/.561 bat will be a very welcome return.

Colby Rasmus and Brett Lawrie likely will be back for the series in Tampa, though I would expect to see Hechavarria, Gomes, and Sierra make a start perhaps. Jose Bautista and Adam Lind will not make appearances this series, and Arencibia won't be back anytime soon.

Look for a starting lines up of Lawrie - Rasmus - Edwin - Johnson - Escobar - Cooper - Davis - Mathis  - Gose for tonight and Wendesday's game and a different look for the Thursday afternoon game against the lefthander.

Tonight's matchup features J.A Happ in his first start as a Blue Jay. Farrell stated that the relief appearances really don't count as he is not a reliever, and certainly, Happ has had a rougher first inning in his relief appearances, which is normal for a starter. Don't expect Happ to wow you. He has been inconsistent this year pitching for Houston, having bad outings (>3 runs, <6 IP) in 6 of 18 of his starts. He will walk 2.5/9 and strike out 8.5/9. If he has a consistent start, look for him to hang in there against Tampa. There will the benefit of pitching in the AL for the first time, so the hitters haven't really seen him. And The Rays counter with James Shield (on 6 days rest), who shut out Oakland in a 3 hitter in his last outing, but in the previous 7 outings, has had only one quality start.

Expect a low scoring game, but I think the Rays will pull out a 4-3 squeaker tonight.

Tomorrows matchup features Carlos Villanueva who is 6-1 with a 3.19 ERA and Alex Cobb (5-8, 4.60 ERA). Cobb has had two very good starts following a couple of poor outings. Villanueva has been very very good as a starter so far for the Jays. I think this one will be close as well and the result of the game depends on which Cobb shows up. I think the Jays will take this one 6-3.

Finally, Thursday afternoon's game features Henderson Alvarez (7-8, 4.47 ERA) vs Matt Moore (8-7, 3.84 ERA) in a lefty-lefty matchup. Matt Moore has had 17 scoreless innings, but in the last two games, he threw alot of pitches (103 and 104) to get throw 6.1 and 5.1 innings respectively. Nevertheless, he has been very very good in his last four starts. Henderson had been fairly inconsistent this year. Look for Tampa to take this one in a 6-2 victory.

Things to look forward to this series is the return of Lawrie and Rasmus to the lineup, the continued play of David Cooper, and the major league debut of Chad Jenkins. Anthony Gose will get some more play and we'll see if his bat continues to improve.

Don't expect Toronto to win the series in Tampa.