Game 146 – Crazy 8’s

How many times have we seen a Shaun Marcum start be 0 – 0 through 5,6,7 innings? It seems like every other start he is involved in one of these games. He was up against Gavin Floyd tonight and neither one budged until the 8th when both teams broke out. The Jays looked to have broke the game open by scoring 6 in the top half. That is until the Sox answered right back w/4 of their own in the bottom half. All 10 runs in the game came in the 8th inning.

Marcum gave up only 3 hits and 1 walk through the first 7 innings and no runner had reached 3rd. He struck out Swisher to start the 8th but then gave up back-to-back 1B’s and was pulled. I would have left Marcum in at that point. They still had a 6-run lead and he was only up to 106 pitches. He was having long battles in the inning throwing 8, 5, and 7 pitches to the 3 hitters he had faced in the inning so far, but I let Marcum keep battling and see if he can’t pitch out of the inning.

I was also surprised by the fact that it was Downs who came out of the bullpen. I would think w/a 6 run lead even w/2 runners on that Cito would trust someone else to get the remaining 4 outs. Unfortunately Downs was not good tonight allowing both inherited runners to score along w/2 of his own while only recording 1 out. Downs threw first pitch balls to all 3 batters he faced and fell behind them 3-1, 3-1, 1-1. Giving up the 2B to Dye is one thing but Thome should not be crushing a HR to straight-away centre off him.

All told the Jays threw 1st pitch balls to 10 of 12 hitters in the 8th and 9th inning and it led to 4 runs. The first 7 innings Marcum threw just 9 first pitch balls in shutting down the Sox.

Ryan may have struck out the side in the 9th, but it was far from a sure thing. He hit the 1st batter and a 2-out error by Rolen put the tying run on base. It took Ryan 25 pitches to get through the inning and only 14 of them were strikes.

This game really slowed down once Floyd was pulled as Ozzie decided to play every matchup possible. He brought in the LH Thornton to face the 2 lefties Lind and Overbay. Then in came the RH Wassermann to face the 2 righties Barajas and Rolen. With 2 lefties due up on came the LH Ramirez. He was pulled for the RH Carrasco to face 3 right-handers. Finally the LH Logan came in to face a lefty. The way it worked out each of the 5 Sox relievers recorded just 1 out, that means each of the last 6 outs were recorded by a different pitcher.

I don’t get why Rolen didn’t slide back into 1st after rounding it too far in the 8th. I’m not sure if he didn’t see the throw coming to 1st or simply decided not to slide.

The hit by Rolen was one of many big 2-out hits by the Jays in that 8th inning. In fact 5 of the Jays runs came w/2 out. Floyd was pulled after giving up 1 run and he was leaving the bases loaded. Thornton struck out Lind for the 2nd out but then Overbay got a 2-out 1B, Barajas an RBI 2B, and Rolen a 2-run 1B.

The Jays also loaded the bases in the 9th w/1 out but Wells popped out and Lind struck out. The Jays finished 6 for 14 w/RISP.

Rios managed to reach base all 5 times, but only scored 1 run. He had 2 hits, a walk, reached on an error, and reached on a fielder’s choice. Scutaro was on base 4 times via 3 hits and a walk.

Looking at the stats:
NAdv: Overbay (11)
P-NAdv: Floyd
WG: Inglett (5)
DE: RamirezME(r): Rolen (6)