Our bullpen has been so good, but this still hurt. Up by 3 in the 8th, we should win.
Up 3-0 in the 8th, Gibby let J.A. Happ start the inning. He gave up a Brendan Ryan ground rule double. In comes Aaron Loup, he gives up a Curtis Granderson single. Loup out, Delabar in. It looked like the right move when he struck out Alex Rodriguez. Then it went downhill in a hurry. Robinson Cano singled. Alfonso Soriano and Vernon Wells had back-to-back doubles and suddenly we were losing.
Yeah, it bugs me that Vernon Wells drove in the winning run.
Happ deserved better. He only allowed 4 hits and 3 walks in 7 inning, while getting 7 strikeouts. It was only the second time Happ threw 7 innings.
Our offense, once again, came on 2 swings of the bat. Colby Rasmus hit his 4th home run, a 2-run shot, in his 4 games since coming off the DL. And Ryan Goins hit his first MLB home run.
We tried for a comeback in the 9th. Adam Lind and Rasmus singled off Mariano Rivera. But it went bad when Munenori Kawasaki's bunt was fielded nicely by Lyle Overbay and, threw out pinch runner Kevin Pillar at third. The bunt might have been a bad idea, considering Goins and J.P. Arencibia were following. Goins made contact against Rivera, J.P. swung at 3 pitches.
Save number 44 of the season for Rivera, 652 of his career and 54 against the Jays.
We had 8 hits, Colby's two and everyone else in the lineup had one hit except for Anthony Gose (0 for 3, 3 K) and JP (0 for 4, 2 k). JP is now hitting .199.
I took a look to see where JP would fit in number of at bats in a season for a batter with a sub .200 average. If the season ended today, JP would be 16th on the bad list. Only 15 guys, since 1901, have had more at bats in a season and finished with a batting average below .200. Maybe he'll get a few hits before the end of the season and finish above .200.
Jays of the Day are Happ (.311 WPA) and Rasmus (.341).
Suckage goes to Delabar (-.558), JP (-.291), Kawasaki (-.186, just for the bunt. Really it wasn't a bad bunt, just Overbay made a really nice play) and Gose (-.100).
We had a nice GameThread, 26 of us put up 520 comments. MjwW led the way, a very gritty performance.
| # | Commenter | # Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MjwW | 98 |
| 2 | Tom Dakers | 81 |
| 3 | Kraemer_17 | 78 |
| 4 | Belisarius | 40 |
| 5 | mudit.rawat | 40 |
| 6 | Homer Unking | 22 |
| 7 | JaysSaskatchewan | 18 |
| 8 | dexfarkin | 16 |
| 9 | watchman_ | 15 |
| 10 | MartsB | 14 |
| 11 | Minor Leaguer | 14 |
| 12 | Gerse | 10 |
| 13 | fishedin | 10 |
| 14 | St.Sniper | 10 |