Across the street from Fenway they always post the starting lineup using large player card photos. The Jays playoff chances took a huge tumble. They needed to take at least 3 of 4 here just to put themselves in a position to challenge over the final 2 wks. Now, I’m sad to say even w/a win tomorrow and a sweep of BOS when they’re in Toronto next week the Jays are still going to be looking from the outside from Oct. When Downs tumbled to the ground trying to field the Ellsbury swinging bunt my heart just sank. Of all the plays to put the final dagger in the Jays it had to be that.
Things didn’t look good for the Jays off the get go as the Sox scored 2 off Litsch in the 1st and the Jays looked sloppy in giving them those 2. Litsch walked the leadoff man and then gave up a 2B to Pedroia. After a strikeout, Litsch threw a WP and when Zaun retrieved it and tried to make a fancy throw to Litsch to get the runner it got away from Litsch allowing the 2nd runner to also score. Litsch then went on to walk Youkilis (his 2nd of 5 walks) before getting out of the inning.
However, The Red Sox were in a giving mood as the Jays had 1st and 2nd w/1 out in the 2nd when Zaun hit a tailor made inning ending DP ball to 3rd except Lowrie bobbled and everyone was safe. The Jays went on to score 5 runs in the inning (only 3 unearned since you can’t assume a DP). From there both Litsch and Colon settled in. Colon faced the minimum over the next 4 innings (thanks to 2 DP’s). Meanwhile Litsch was through 5 having only given up the 2 runs.
The bottom of the 6th is where I believe the game turned. It all started w/Cito not going to the bullpen. Let me remind you that Litsch was working on 3 days rest for the 1st time in his career and this is his 1st full year in the major leagues. Through 5 Litsch had thrown 94 pitches, 54 strikes and 40 balls. That is not a good strike to ball ratio for Litsch, especially for someone who really relies on control. Even more telling was the fact Litsch had walked 4 batters already. To me it all spelled get him out of there before the walks catch up to him. The Jays only had to use Carlson and Tallet in the 1st game so they had plenty of arms to get through 4 innings.
Cito thought otherwise and tried to milk another inning out of Litsch. The results were not disastrous but I think it swung all the momentum to the Sox and really energized the fans. Litsch gave up a 2B to Youkilis to start the inning on a 5 pitch AB. He then walked Kotsay on 4 pitches, but still no sign of Cito. Bay then lined a 1B up the middle to load the bases w/nobody out (using up another 6 pitches from Litsch). Lowrie picked up a SF and finally out came Cito. Litsch ended up throwing 111 pitches (62 strikes, 49 balls). Litsch’s 5 walks were a season high (he hadn’t even walked 4 in a game before and had walked 3 only twice). The bullpen escaped the inning w/o anymore runs scoring as Carlson got PH Lowell to line out and League got PH Crisp to ground out.
I thought it a waste to have Carlson come in to face the LH Cora, which prompted Francona to PH the RH Lowell. I know Carlson threw an inning in game 1 today so you only want to use him for a batter or two, but why waste him on Cora. Given Ortiz is only 5 batters away why not save Carlson for him. Based on the way Cito used his relievers I’m guessing he used Carlson there since he figured he would be bringing in Downs to face Ortiz. The problem w/that is it required Downs to go more than an inning. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem w/using Downs for more than an inning but he has been struggling some recently and given the large # of innings he has thrown this inning I would be more comfortable having him just pitch the 8th.
The reliever I would be trying to get more than an inning out of is League. Why not go straight to him to face Cora, that way Francona doesn’t bring in Lowell. I’d rather have League vs Cora then Carlson vs Lowell. Plus that way you give League 4 hitters before Ortiz and depending on the situation you either let League pitch to him or bring in Carlson. If Carlson is brought in then I would have no problem allowing him to finish the inning. From there you have Downs for the 8th and Ryan for the 9th.
The way it played out League gave up a leadoff 2B in the 7th and got Pedroia to ground out (which moved the runner to 3rd). With Ortiz up Cito went to Downs who walked Ortiz and then got a ground ball from Youkilis but it was too slow to turn a DP so the Sox scored one. I actually thought Cito might have League intentionally walk Ortiz and then stay in to try and get out of the inning w/o Cito having to use Downs.
Two batters into the 8th the Jays lead was gone as Downs gave up a 2B and a 1B. After the a sac bunt and a ground out the Sox had the winning run on 3rd w/2 outs. Ellsbury battled Downs until on the 9th pitch of the AB hit a swinging bunt up the 1st base line that Downs went to field but tripped and fell. Ellsbury was safe and the Sox had the lead. I’m not sure if this had anything to do w/Downs tripping but during the Ellsbury AB Downs had stepped off the mound and was trying to clean his spikes. Camp came in to try and get the last out but gave up one more run before doing so.
As you can tell I would have handled the bullpen a whole lot differently. Would it have worked, who knows, but what started it all was giving the Sox life in that 6th inning and not getting a fresh arm in there in place of Litsch.
Another note on Litsch not looking right. He had Cash 0-2 in the 2nd inning then walked him by throwing 4 straight balls. You have 2 out and nobody on w/an 0-2 count to the 9 hitter, why are you not going right after him. That is unacceptable to walk him in that situation, heck it is unacceptable to walk a hitter like Cash anytime, which by the way Litsch did again to start the 5th.
Although it probably didn’t cost the Red Sox, Youkilis had a bad read when he was on 2nd and Bay hit a 1B to centre. I think Youkilis could have scored had he read the ball was going to drop in immediately. He did end up scoring anyways though on the next play.
Rios tried a little too hard to play hero in the 8th inning. With the Jays up by 1 and Bay at 2nd Lowrie hit a 1B to right-centre. Bay read it off the bat and was going to score easily but Rios came up firing anyway. He airmailed a throw way over the cutoff man’s head. Overbay was clearly frustrated when he saw the high throw from Rios. Luckily for the Jays Lowrie was playing it safe and just stayed at 1st.
Not to put all the blame on the pitching it should be pointed out that the Jays offence did nothing to put this game away after scoring 5 in the 2nd and they shouldn’t even have scored any in that 2nd inning. The Blue Jays did not strand a single runner the rest of the game. They only stranded 2 total, 1 in the 1st and 1 in the 2nd. Yes stranding runners is not a good thing but at least stranding runners means you are getting runners on base. The Jays did have 3 batters reach base in the final 7 innings (2 on singles and 1 on an error), but all 3 were erased on DP’s. At least it means the Jays went 2 for 3 w/RISP.
And now for the stats:
Adv: Pedroia
P-Adv: League (1)
Adv+: Bay, Lowrie
P-Adv+: Litsch (3), Downs (1)
NAdv: Ortiz
P-NAdv: Litsch (8)
WG: Snider (2)
ME(f): Downs (1)
No comments:
Post a Comment