Game 64 – Ugly

No lead for the Jays bullpen to blow this time as Burnett fell apart in the 5th. Burnett wasn’t exactly cruising through the 1st 4 innings having given up 3 runs but it quickly fell apart in the 5th. He had already thrown 81 pitches through 4 mainly b/c he was throwing a lot of balls and that is what got him in trouble in the 5th. After retiring Markakis to start the inning he fell behind Huff 2-0 and went on to walk him, then fell behind Millar 2-0 before giving up a 1B and then on 3 consecutive pitches the Orioles got 3 hits. 3 pitches later Cintron picked up a 1B and finally AJ was pulled after throwing 100 pitches. Looking at his pitch count doesn’t necessarily show that Burnett was at his limit but the fact he was struggling all game w/control and leaving balls up in that 5th inning that they were hammering shows he was done. So why did it take Gibbons so long to pull him. I would like to say I thought about pulling him before Payton cleared the bases with a 2B, but even though Payton already had 2 hits against Burnett in the game I wanted to see if Burnett could get out of the inning w/o allowing any runs. However, once the bases had been cleared I would have pulled him and I can’t believe he still didn’t get pulled after the Quiroz 2B. Even after the Payton 2B it was already 6 – 1, the Jays have a deep bullpen so why not get them in there and try to stop it there.

On the other side, Jeremy Guthrie had little trouble w/the Jays giving up just 1 run through 7. However the Jays made an attempt at a comeback once the Orioles went to the pen. They loaded the bases in the 8th w/1 out against Trachsel before McDonald hit into a DP. They did however breakthrough against Trachsel in the 9th for 4 runs, but it was too little too late. How Steve Trachsel still has a major league job, I don’t get. The guy has been awful for a couple yrs now, why does somebody keep giving him a chance.

Wells did not miss a beat in his return as he went 2 for 3 w/a SF at the plate after entering for Stewart in the 2nd. I have to wonder how his wrist will affect his swing, particularly in the power department.

Now for some stats:
Adv: Quiroz, Huff
P-Adv: Burnett (2), Wolfe (1)
Adv+: Mench (2)
P-Adv+: Trachsel
NAdv: Huff
P-NAdv: Tallet (1)
WG: Huff, Overbay (3)
DE: Bynum