Game 121 – Trust your Depth

David Purcey looked the best he has all yr. Too bad for him the rain cut short his outing, although he had thrown 99 pitches anyways so he might not have lasted much longer regardless. The Tigers had problems squaring any balls up resulting in a bunch of lazy fly balls. Purcey didn’t give up a hit until 2 outs in the 5th and he gave up just 2 total. He did walk 3, which is part of the reason for the high pitch count.

Downs’ scoreless streak came to an end in part due to him leaving w/an injury. Downs came in to pitch the 9th (don’t ask me why when they are up 4 and he had pitched the last 2 days) and he gave up a BB and a 1B but injured himself going to back up home. League then came in and after a groundout scored one, Rios made a horrible error, and later a 2B scored 2 more, 1 charged to Downs (only 1 of the 2 runs charged to Downs was earned though).

I don’t get Cito at all using Downs to start the 9th, when he has worked the past 2 days. That is supposed to be an advantage of the Jays bullpen is they have good depth. Surely someone else could have got the 3 outs w/o giving up 4 runs. Like Downs, League and Ryan had thrown the past 2 days. In fact those are the only relievers to work the past 2 games. Why not use Carlson who hadn’t pitched since Fri. Now injury aside Downs is burnt for tomorrow and so is League. By the way, as proof the other guys can get it done, Frasor threw 2 perfect innings once Purcey was chased by the rain to get it to the 9th.

I mentioned Rios made a horrible error in the 9th. Well he dropped a fly ball that he got back to in time. He was settled under it, he just simply dropped it. That brought the tying run to the plate. After League struck out Raburn, Renteria doubled bringing the Tigers to within a hit of tying it, but League struck out Inge to preserve the win.

The Jays managed to beat a lefty in this game, but all their offence came in a 4 batter span to start the 3rd. Scutaro walked, Eckstein got a bunt 1B, Rios an infield 1B, then Wells jumped on the 1st pitch for a grand slam. Beyond that the Jays did little although if not for a McDonald baserunning mistake trying to stretch a 1B into a 2B they might have got something in the 7th.

David Eckstein was one Jay who had success as he ended up w/3 hits and a BB.

Let’s check the stats:
Adv+: Rios (6), Wells (3)
P-Adv+: Rogers 2
WG: Granderson
ME(r): McDonald (1)
ME(f): Cabrera