The Blue Jays had 3 innings that they would like to forget as in the first inning Johnny Damon grounded to Edwin Encarnacion and Damon received a hit when it off been Encarnacion first error of the game and could of had 4 errors to him name in this game. Jayson Nix came up with a diving catch in his first inning of play in weeks and doubled up Ben Zobrist at second base to end the inning and in the second inning Jesse Litsch walked the lead off hitter Matt Joyce and then on his next pitch he hit his first batter who was B.J. Upton and then the weirdest play in a while happened when Elliot Johnson sent a two run single to Jose Bautista. Then he throw the ball to second base where Yunel Escobar backed off from the base and the ball hit the bag to give Bautista an error and Litsch picked it up and throw to second to try and get Johnson out and it went into the outfield and it was his first error of the game. Sam Fuld put down a sac bunt and Encarnacion picked the ball up and throw to Arron Hill at first and throw it away for his error of the game. Then In the third inning Jesse Litsch hit Evan Longoria and Matt Joyce smacked a 2 run homer and then B.J. singled and Litsch tried to pick him off but the ball went under Encarnacion glove at first and Upton went all the way to third base and Litsch got his second throwing error but it could off been credited to Encarnacion. When Elliot Johnson flied out to Bautista and he throw a dart to the plate and J.P. was way to far in front of the plate to be able to try and tag B.J. at the plate and it was 6-0 after 3 innings. So through 3 innings Jesse Litsch hit 2 batters, 2 throwing errors, a wild pitch, and 3 walks and Edwin Encarnacion had 1 error and it could of been 3 and he also had another error in the 8 inning to give him to official errors.
The Jays came back bit by bit starting in the four inning when Arron Hill grounded into a force out and Cory Patterson scored to make it 6-1 and then in the 5 inning Jayson Nix with no outs hit into a double play and Eric Thames scored 6-2 Rays. Then in the 6 inning Arron Hill doubled in Cory Patterson and then Eric Thames got his first career hit as he drove in Arron Hill to make it 6-4 going into the last third of game the game but the Rays poor bullpen was able to keep the Jays of the board in the 7th and 8th inning. So it came down to the 9 inning Rajai Davis doubles to open the inning and steals third and then Jayson pops a ball sky high to the catcher for out 1 where Yunel Escobar grounds out for out 2 but Rajai still scores 6-5. Then Cory Patterson comes upto bat with Jose Bautista in the on deck circle and he is caught looking at strike 3 called to end the game.
I have to say that the bullpen really picked up the team as Jesse Litsch pitched better after the third, Charlie Villanueva after a singled followed by a double play and then 4 straight Ks was a very good 2 innings, and Casey Janssen pitched the finally 2 innings abd the eighth was better than the ninth as it was only the second Encarnacion throwing error while it was bases loaded in the ninth but no Rays runs after the 3 inning. So the defense in the first three innings was some of the worst defense in a long while with 4 errors in those innings and players being out of position making things worst than they needed to be and the Jays still clawed back within a run against the best road team in the Tampa Bay Rays.
Lets hope they can put this behind them and get another long win streak started with the finale of the Rays series before interleague starts Friday
Tom Mehegan
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