Game 118 – Can anyone say Cy Lee?

Based on the matchup the Jays had little hope in this one. The Jays have been bad vs LH’s and Cliff Lee is having a great yr. Not too mention Lee threw 9 shutout innings only to get a no decision (it was tied 0-0 through 9) back in May when the Jays visited CLE. If you want even more reason against the Jays, they have scored just 4 runs in the last 2 games, and have scored only 8 runs in 6 games (totalling 55 innings) against CLE this season.

The game played out as one might expect w/Lee shutting down the Jays for 8 innings on their way to a 4-0 victory. Lee gave up hits in each of the 1st 5 innings. The Jays had 1st and 2nd none out in the 5th w/2,3,4 due up but couldn’t score. They ended the game 0 for 4 w/RISP and never even got a runner to 3rd base. Lee struck out just 1 batter, retiring 12 on the ground, and 11 in the air. So the Blue Jays did nothing to help Halladay in his Cy Young case by hurting Lee’s #’s.

Lee only threw 21 balls all game. You would think a guy throwing that many strikes would give up more hits. Generally if a pitcher is throwing that high percentage of strikes you would think more than a few would be catching too much of the plate (think Josh Towers). Evidently not though, or at least the Jays weren’t taking advantage.

Some more notes about Lee’s start:
- He only threw 1 ball in each of the 1st and 2nd innings and he threw none in the 6th.
- He didn’t throw 2 balls to a batter until the 17th hitter he faced (coming in the 4th inning).
- He didn’t throw 3 balls to a hitter until the 27th hitter he faced (7th inning).
- He threw more than 1 ball to only 4 batters (of the 31 he faced).
- He threw 8 first pitch balls. Of those 8, 2 ended up getting hits.
- Blue Jays hitters put the first pitch in play 5 times, 4 of them resulted in hits.
- That means when Lee got ahead 0-1, the Jays went just 2 for 18.

Richmond had a rough 1st inning giving up 4 hits and 2 runs. However, it was good to see him settle in and throw 4 more innings giving up just 1 more run. On this day it wasn’t enough b/c of the Jays lack of offence, but that is 3 starts now for Richmond and he hasn’t given up more than 3 runs in any of them and he has gone at least 5 innings in each. Richmond has walked just 1 in his 3 outings, although he did hit 2 batter in today’s game.

The Indians could have blown this game open as they went 3 for 15 w/RISP. They had 1st and 2nd none out in the 4th but a DP (hit into by Sizemore) and a strikeout (following a hits batsmen) ended the inning w/them not scoring. They again had 1st and 2nd none out in the 6th, and again it was Sizemore up. This time he flied out and was followed by Francisco hitting into a DP. The Indians got 1st and 2nd none out for a 3rd time in the 8th and they almost wasted it too. After a strikeout and flyout it was Sizemore up w/2 outs. This time Sizemore came through w/a hit scoring 1 and Gutierrez was thrown out trying to score from 1st to end the inning.

Speaking of Gutierrez getting thrown out, I think that was a bad send. Even w/2 out I think he should have been held in that situation. Staying in the 8th, I would have Marte bunting w/1st and 2nd none out. Marte has struggled hitting since coming to the majors and you already have a 3-run lead so all you’re looking to do is add a run or two. You don’t need to play for the big inning.

Conversely, I don’t get having Eckstein bunt in the 5th when you are down by 3 runs. The way the Jays have struggled against LH’s you just cannot give them outs. Even against a righty you cannot give up outs when down by 3. You need to go after the big inning when you get the chance.

Although Rios picked up hits in his first 2 AB‘s against Lee he has had a tough time against him this season. In 8 AB’s against Lee, Rios has grounded into 3 DP’s, all of the 6-4-3 variety.

Part of the reason the Jays didn’t score much was their offence only came from a limited # of players as they had no player get exactly 1 hit. Four players, Scutaro, Rios, Overbay, and McDonald, had 2 hits apiece.

Moving to the stats: Talk about bad execution.
NAdv: Shoppach, Sizemore 2, Marte, Eckstein (6)
P-NAdv: Lee, Richmond 2 (2), Parrish 2 (2)
ME(f): Garko, Lind (1)