Jays Go Downs Again

Surely on a day when Boston and New York both lost Toronto could pull off a win to climb a token rung on the AL East ladder. And when you look at the game tonight, their staff mostly did what was needed. Mostly.

Rzepczynski looked rough to start the game, balking Ichiro over to second with none out. Ichiro would come home to score, filling me with dread for the unravelling I have come to expect.

The rookie settled in and actually pitched a solid game after that. He did fall apart in the sixth in typical rookie style, though. He only gave up five hits and two walks, and managed eight strikeouts (through 5.1 innings). I'll call that a good start.

And of course the Jays' offense saved itself for late, scoring all three of their runs in the seventh and eighth innings.

This game was really defined by pitching though, and the part I'll remember most is Scott Downs, the Jays de facto closer, coming into a tie game in the bottom of the ninth and putting the first two batters on by way of single and walk. Chris Woodward, the third batter, bunted, and with the ball rolling toward third Downs missed it. This left the bases loaded with no one out.

To Downs' credit he settled in after that. The next batter grounded into an easy force out at the plate, and the one after that struck out. But that left Ichiro to come up, two down, bases loaded. He was 2-for-3 with a walk at that point, and as it turned out the Japanese hit producer wasn't prepared to let up. He hit a flare to short center field and the game came to an abrupt end.

That leaves the Jays 12.5 games back in the division.

But hey, at least they still have the best pitcher in baseball.