Game 108 – Welcome to your 2008 Blue Jays

Poor Scott Richmond cannot get any offensive help in his debut. It was a really brutal display by the Jays. They were down 3-2 heading to the bottom of the 4th and that is when the horror started. Lind led off the bottom of the 4th w/a 3B, so you’re thinking the Jays should tie it this up. However, this is the 2008 Jays and instead Wilkerson pops out in foul territory to 3rd, w/the infield back (so even a ground ball would have scored the run). Then the Rays bring the infield in and Zaun hits a ground ball right at Pena and the Jays still don’t score. So it was left up to McDonald to get a 2-out hit and all he could do was hit a fly ball leaving Lind stranded at 3rd.

Sadly that wasn’t the worst of it. In the 5th Inglett singled and Scutaro reached on an error. Add in a WP on the 1st pitch to Rios and the Jays have 2nd and 3rd none out w/3,4,5 due up. Well before you know it the inning was over and Inglett was still standing on 3rd. Rios tapped a ball back to the mound, then Overbay struck out, and after a walk to Stairs, Lind flied out, inning over, no runs.

The Jays did get back-to-back 2-out 1B’s in the 6th but couldn’t convert. They then went quietly from there.

It was a decent start form Richmond as he kept the Jays in the game and by all accounts should have been on the right side of the score rather than ending up the loser. Although he did not walk anyone he was not efficient, going deep into a lot of counts. He ended up throwing 92 pitches over 5.1 IP.

The Jays LH trio of Carlson, Downs, and Ryan threw 3.2 innings of 2-hit shutout relief. It is so nice to be able to watch a bullpen come in and shut the other team down.

The Jays came up empty in 9 AB’s w/RISP. However, I should point out the Rays were not much better at 1 for 9.

I would not have used Mench to PH for Wilkerson in the 6th. Even though a lefty was on the mound it was only the 6th, which means that spot in the order will come back up in the game and the Rays are RH heavy in the bullpen. So I’d rather have Wilkerson stay in there to face the lefty so he can face the RH later, then have Mench face the LH now and have to face a RH later. If there was a runner on base and the Jays had a chance to tie in the 6th then sure bring in Mench, but not to lead off the inning. With Rolen basically unavailable the Jays are already short on the bench.

I would however have used a PH for McDonald in the 8th. Assuming Rolen wasn’t even available to PH then I probably would go w/Barajas. I also would have had Eckstein PR for Zaun, and then both Barajas and Eckstein can just stay in the game. At that point in the game you have to sacrifice defence to give yourself the best possible chance to tie the game. Barajas does not exactly have a great avg. or obp. But he does have the power to hit it out or at least hit it by the outfielders and he is certainly better than McDonald.

Here are the stats:
Adv+: Navarro
P-Adv+: Richmond (1)
NAdv: Rios (11)
P-NAdv: Jackson