Game 109 – No Sweep in Texas this time

Things started out well for the Jays as they jumped out to a 6-0 lead heading to the bottom of the 4th. That is when Marcum continually falling behind starting catching up to him. Through the 1st 3 innings he had thrown 1st pitch balls to 6 of 10 batters, he fell behind 2-0 twice, went 3-1 to another and had full counts to 3 batters. Marcum had escaped w/just a 2B (on one of the 2-0 counts) but if you keep putting yourself in bad counts against a good hitting team like Texas you are going to get hit hard. After a leadoff 2B to Catalanotto in the 4th (on another full count) and a groundout, Hamilton took Marcum deep to centre. Marcum also walked one in the 4th as he threw 1st pitch balls to 3 of the 6 hitters in the inning.

Things continued to unravel in the 5th as Marcum went to a full count on the 9 hitter, Vazquez, before giving up a 1-out 1B. After Kinsler singled on the 1st pitch he saw, Catalanotto went to another full count and singled in a run. Marcum’s night was over after Young won a 6 pitch battle w/an RBI 2B. Marcum would be charged w/2 more runs as Carlson was unable to strand the inherited runners meaning the game was now tied at 6.

Both bullpens did a good job until the 9th as Texas’ bullpen got 3 shutout innings from Rupe, Francisco, and Guardado. Other than the inherited runners scoring the Jays bullpen did not allow anymore runs as they went 3.2 innings. Being the home team meaning they would not have a save opportunity Ron Washington brought in his closer Wilson to pitch the 9th. Wilson struggled though and gave up a 1-out go ahead 2B to Lind scoring Rios from 1st. An RBI groundout by Mench scored Lind, who had advanced to 3rd on the throw home, to give the Jays a 2-run lead.

After Ryan got Kinsler out to start the inning he walked Saltalamacchia then gave up hits to Young and Boggs before intentionally walking Byrd. Up stepped the LH hitting Murphy who proceeded to lace a ball down the LF line (giving him 4 RBI’s on the night and 3 hits) to give the Rangers the victory. Second blown lead of the game for the Jays and another walk-off loss.

Not that the Jays should have blown the lead twice but they could have had much bigger leads and put the game out of reach as they went 1 for 9 w/RISP. In particular they had 2nd and 3rd w/1 out in the 3rd but Rolen popped out to second and then Eckstein flied out. They then failed to convert a leadoff 2B in the 8th after Eckstein was bunted to 3rd by Inglett and then thrown out at home trying to tag and score on a Scutaro flyout. Texas even made 3 errors including 2 in the 1st but the Jays failed to capitalize on any of them. The Rangers meanwhile made the most of their opportunities as they went 6 for 10 w/RISP.

Interesting to see Rolen hit a HR to straightaway CF in his 1st AB since the news came out he was having problems w/his shoulder. Maybe he can finish the season w/just a little rest here and there.

Let’s see the stats:
Adv+: Rolen (4)
P-Adv+: Hunter
NAdv: Young
P-NAdv: Marcum (6)
WG: Young
ME(f): Scutaro (2)