MVN - Most Valuable Network

“Blew” Jays blow another one

So let me get this straight:

The Toronto Blue Jays welcomed baseball’s worst team, the 22-41 Seattle Mariners, to the Rogers Centre, and couldn’t beat them.

- Alex Rios, batting leadoff, went 3-for-4. But he didn’t score a single run.

- The Jays had their first two runners on base in the seventh and ninth innings, when David Eckstein and Rios both got on, but could only score one run total.

- The Jays loaded the bases, twice, in the tenth inning, but couldn’t get a run home.

- Jesse Litsch gave up 10 hits in his six innings, and the bullpen did not surrender a hit the rest of the way. And yet the Mariners found a way to get the winning run.

Baseball is an amazing game, and the Blue Jays saw all that happen in the same contest, as they fell again at home, 3-2 in 10 innings to an awful Mariners team.

Why did Toronto lose?

Simple.

They couldn’t score against two of the worst starters in baseball: Jarrod Washburn (10.07 ERA in his last five appearances, winless since May 5th) and ex-Jay Miguel Batista (6.06 ERA).

Washburn actually pitched one-run ball for six innings, and Batista came on in relief and struck out Scott Rolen in a key at-bat in the seventh with two runners on.

Jose Vidro, arguably the worst DH in baseball (3 HR, .220), hit one out.

The Mariners couldn’t score for 8 consecutive innings after the first, but still hung in there.

Even when things went right for Toronto, they also went wrong.

In a tie game, the Jays’ Eckstein led off the ninth by getting on base, but was promptly picked off. Rios then got on following that big out, and only got as far as third base.

Rios actually got on base four times (three hits and a walk), but the 2-3-4 hitters, Matt Stairs, Scott Rolen, and Vernon Wells, went a combined 0-for-12.

Unbelievable.

Lyle Overbay was a hero in the fourth for his two-out, RBI double, but was a zero in the 10th when his double-play ball with the bases loaded came at a worst possible moment.

And the Mariners’ R.A. Dickey, who didn’t pitch in the majors in 2007, picked up his first win since September 18, 2005.

The M’s won 3-2 on three walks in the tenth, followed by a safety squeeze. Not pretty, but they got the job done.

The Jays are now tied with the Yankees and Orioles for last place in the AL East, seven back of the Red Sox.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 2:12 am and is filed under Jose Vidro, R.A.Dickey, Jesse Litsch, Alex Rios, Scott Rolen, David Eckstein, Lyle Overbay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.