On Thursday, the Toronto Blue Jays played the first game of a four game series against their divisional rivals, the Baltimore Orioles. The Jays sent Brendan Morrow to the mound while the Orioles countered with Kevin Gausman, a rookie pitcher who was making his first appearance in the Majors. He also became the first player from the 2012 draft to play a game in the Major Leagues. Unfortunately for this new young pitcher he would not be a part of a great story where he dominated his first team he would ever pitch against.
It seemed as though he was on his way to a good game with an early 3-0 lead until the bottom of the fourth thanks to the O’s offense, but then the Blue Jays woke up. Toronto scored 8 runs in the next three innings, 2 runs in the bottom of the fourth, another two in the fifth thanks to a two-run homerun by JP Arencibia, then the grandest hit of them all – a grand slam in the sixth inning by Edwin Encarnacion.
The Blue Jays, with an 8-3 lead, looked to be on their way to another win, but the Orioles were not giving up just yet. In the top of the seventh they scored on a sac fly and in the eighth the Orioles had two back-to-back solo homeruns by Nick Markakis and Adam Jones to make the score 8-6. Possibly fearing a comeback, the Jays added four more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and ended up with the win, 12-6, against the Orioles. Arencibia and Encarnacion each had 4 RBI’s that night.
Gausman would did not have a horrible night as he went 5.0 innings with 7 hits 4 runs, two walks and 5 strikeouts. He would, however, unfortunately get his first career Major League loss, as the O’s Bullpen did not help one bit. The three relievers that came out all had at least 2 earned runs against them. On the Jays side, Brendan Morrow pitched 7.0 innings and earned all 6 runs against him, he would also strike out 5 and win his second game of the season. The Jays bullpen once again was spotless with no runs against them. These Jays are really starting to come together. Hopefully they can keep it up, but they do have three more games against the O’s.
The second game of this four game series had the Jays showing off their own rookie pitcher, hoping that he would not get the same fate as Gausman. The Orioles decided to spoil the Jays pitcher, Sean Nolin, with a bad outing of his own. Nolin only pitched 1.1 innings with 7 hits and 6 runs against him and a walk, added to a humungous 40.50 – the poor kid did not have a chance. JJ Hardy hit a 3-run homerun in the first and by that point there still had not been an out. The Jays got a run back in the bottom of the first thanks to a Melky Cabrera solo shot. The problem for Toronto is the Orioles would score 3 more runs in the top of the second and the third inning. Ramon Ortiz, who had come in the second inning for Nolin, could not hold it for the Jays. Brett Lawrie hit a 2-run shot in the bottom of the second, however by the bottom of the third the score was 9-3 in favor of the O’s.
Not sure if Ortiz was the right choice to replace Nolin, but to be completely honest I felt that it should have been Jenkins in for the Jays tonight anyway. More bad news for the Jays happened in the bottom of the third, when Lawrie struck out the ump ejected Lawrie for throwing his gear on the ground and then of course he lost his cool. Oh, and Gibbons got tossed too – not a great moment for the Jays. Adam Jones would make it 10-3 in the top of the sixth for the O’s with a solo shot, but the Jays scored 2 in the bottom of the sixth and another run in the seventh thanks to an Adam Lind solo shot. That, however, would be the last run the Jays scored, as they lost that game 10-6.
The problems for the Jays in this game were the Orioles hitting 4 homers that counted for 7 runs while the Jays hit three runs that counted for well… three runs. The Jays managed to hit 17 times this game, and hopefully they will start to score on these opportunities more often.
The third game was kind of similar to the second game with the Orioles scoring 3 runs in the first inning off of RA Dickey. Toronto tried their best to stay in and would get close to the O’s more than once, but they never managed to take a lead this game, which means they ended up losing this game 6-5 to Baltimore. The Jays did get close by scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the eighth trying to close the gap, but lady luck was not on their side. Funny enough, the last at-bat of the game was Brett Lawrie and he struck out looking, which honestly that is not a way to end a game; by striking out without a swing, but it happens.
RA only managed to only pitch 6.2 innings with 9 hits and all the runs the O’s scored were against him at 6. He walked 3 and strikeout 4 and earned the loss. Freddy Garcia (remember him?) was the winning pitch with 9 hits against him, 3 runs and 2 earned runs against him with only one strikeout, but he earned the win. It was another close one that the Jays could have won. At least they are keeping it close and showing that the 20-29 record they hold does not really describe how this team actually plays.
The fourth and final game against the O’s and the Jays were ready to tie this four game series. It did not start the way the team would have liked, but they would play an exciting game till the very last pitch. The Orioles would draw first blood and score two runs in the top of the second inning. The Jays cut the lead in half in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a Lawrie Sac Fly. The O’s got another run in the top of the seventh and the Jays got a run back in the bottom of the eighth. Only losing 3-2 the Jays got into some trouble in the top of the ninth inning. With the bases loaded, Matt Wieters would got his 12th double of the season and got two RBI’s in the process with Nick Markakis and Adam Jones scoringnow the Jays were in a deeper hole and losing 5-2.
Now it was up to the Toronto Blue Jays to score three runs to tie it or four runs to win it, or would they not get enough runs and just lose the game? Well ladies and gentlemen, who have read my article thus far, the Jays finally had lady luck on their side. First JP Arencibia would have an RBI single and Edwin Encarnacion would score, then after Anthony Gose getting walked to load the bases Mark DeRosa would ground out, but would not ground into the game ending double play, he would make it to first base and Adam Lind who was on third would score. At this point the game is 5-4 and with JP Arencibia at third and DeRosa at first it was time to see a miracle. This baseball Miracle would be Munenori Kawasaki who would he a double to the outfield wall and see Arencibia and DeRosa score to win the game 6-5. It was a fantastic game with an exciting finish. For those people who left to beat the traffic they sure missed a great end to the game. Steve Delabar would get the win and Jim Johnson would lose again to the Jays the second time this season. Chad Jenkins would go 5.0 innings with 8 hits and 2 runs against him with 3 walks and 2 strikeouts, while the O’s starter Miguel Gonzalez would go 5.2 innings with 4 hits, 1 run, 3 walks and 7 strikeouts, both pitchers would get a no decision.
The Jays are really starting to wake up and it is getting exciting. They obviously need to win a lot more than lose, but they are going in the right direction and a lot of us have enjoyed the baseball they have been playing recently. Coming up an odd four game series against the Atlanta Braves, first two games are in Toronto while the next two are in Atlanta should be an interesting series.
Nicks Notes:
The Orioles scored first in every game of this series, which meant the Jays have had to catch up to the O’s multiple times in this four game series.
In every game the Jays hits were in the double digits, the highest was 17 in the second game where they lost 10-6, their lowest amount of hits was 11 in the first game. The had 53 hits in this four game series that is amazing, the O’s did have 49 hits, but I am focusing more on the positive fact that the Jays managed to hit a total of 53.
Josh Johnson had a triple A rehab start and would go 4 strong innings and have three strikeouts, 1 walk and 1 hit in those innings he pitched. It is yet to be seen where his next start will be, I am hoping it is Toronto, but if it is better to continue his rehab in Buffalo by all means do it properly. I cannot wait to see him back in the rotation.
By the end of the series with all the hits the Jays had, some of the players have managed to raise the averages. Melky Cabrera has a 283 avg, while Jose Bautista is at 295 avg, Ednwin Encarnacion is just over 253 and Adam Lind of all people is over 300 with a 304 average. I am very happy for all these guys, but I am really happy for Lind he deserves it will all the hard work he has put in.
It seems Jose Reyes is rehabbing nicely which means soon enough he will be back at short, but that is not what I wanted to talk about. What I want to talk about is how I really hope the Jays management does not blow it and lose Kawasaki when Reyes is back. He has been a decent addition in place of Reyes’ absence and has become a fan favorite. I think if this team does not keep him there will be a lot of angry Jays fans.
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