Game 79 – Walks

It was a rare off night for Halladay giving up 5 runs. What was concerning was the 4 walks he gave up. The most costly one was to Phillips in the 1st. Halladay was ahead 0-2 and then threw 4 straight balls to put Phillips on setting up the 2-run HR to Griffey. Interesting enough Halladay did strike out 7 in the game. You get so used to Halladay pitching gems that you forget he is human and will have bad nights.

The Jays did manage to come back and take Halladay off the hook but lost it in the 10th due to more walks. Wolfe walked the 1st 2 batters to start the 10th and the Reds cashed one in w/o a hit using a sac bunt and a SF. There is not much you can do as a manager when a new reliever comes in and can’t hit the strike zone.

Neither team took advantage of the opportunities they had as the Reds went 2 for 11 w/RISP and the Jays went 2 for 12. The teams did combine to hit 3 HR’s, all of them 2-run HR’s w/the runner on 1st.

I would not have had Lind bunting in the 8th after the leadoff walk. If you had a better bunter at the plate then I’m ok w/the move, but I wouldn’t trust Lind to be able to get a bunt down. However, Lind proved me wrong and successfully dropped down the sac bunt. The only problem was Scutaro and Inglett followed by going down swinging.

The Jays big chance to win the game came in the 7th after tying it in the 6th. They loaded the bases w/none out but Rolen popped up to 2nd and then Overbay hit into the 1-2-3 DP. How many times can the Jays waste these types of opportunities?

Nice to see Rios continue picking up hits even if the power isn’t there, he had another 3 tonight. On the negative side Rolen went 0 for 5 and was the only starter not to reach base.

Onto the stats:
Adv: Griffey, Wells (2)
P-Adv: Harang, Halladay (3)
Adv+: Dunn, Stairs (4)
P-Adv+: Weathers, Halladay (5)
NAdv: Rolen (4)
P-NAdv: Weathers
DE: Ross