Toronto Blue Jays Offense Shut Down By Jarrod Washburn

The Jays continued to struggle against left handed pitchers as they lost to Jarrod Washburn and the Seattle Mariners, dropping their record against left handers to 10-18. Already this season, the Seattle southpaw has gone 2-0 with a minuscule 1.80 ERA in three appearances against the Jays.

A lot of speculation was swirling around the ball park as Washburn was rumored to have gone to the Yankees. Unfortunately for the Jays, that did not turn out to be the case.

Washburn gave his best performance of the season. He threw eight strong innings, giving up just one run on four hits.

His only blemish on the day was catching to much of the plate on a fastball to John McDonald. McDonald would deposit it over the left field fence for his first home run since May of 2007.

The Jays ended up leaving a total of 13 runners on base and only twice did they manage to get past first.

Meanwhile, Shaun Marcum excelled early on in his second start since his elbow injury, but he ran into big problems in the sixth.

Marcum began having trouble locating his pitches and it all went down hill from there.

He started the sixth inning off with a walk to Ichiro, and then followed that up by serving a 1-0 meatball up to Jose Vidro, who took it for a ride, giving the Mariners a 2-1 lead.

Marcum almost got out of the inning without further damage, but a costly error by Marco Scutaro prevented that from happening.

Jeremy Reed appeared to have hit into a inning ending double play, but instead of flipping the ball to John McDonald, Scutaro took it himself and only managed to get the out at second. This put runners in the corners with two out.

The next batter, Kenji Johjima, put an end to Marcums day with a costly two run double. Marcum lasted 5 and 2/3 innings, giving up four runs on six hits and three walks.

The Mariners would score one more run in the seventh, giving them a 5-1 victory and helping them avoid the series sweep.

Up Next: AJ Burnett (11-9) starts off the series against the first place Tampa Bay Rays. He faces James Shields (9-6).