The Out of Town Scoreboard

So I came up with a new name for this. The Out of Town Scoreboard. I heard that on the radio once.

Jays 3, Kansas City Royals 6

The Blue Jays fell to the Royals tonight as Zack Greinke held off his social anxiety disorder for long enough to shut down the Jays potent lineup.

Josh Towers started for the Jays and pitched reasonably well. He seemed to have good command of all his pitches and was spotting his fastball, which he needs to do to have success. He also had some good, late break on that little slider he throws. It also seemed like he struck a lot of guys out when there were runners in scoring position which is always a good thing. Josh's final line was 5.2, 1o H, 6 R, 6 K, 0 BB. 6 runs seems like a lot in 5.2 innings, yes, but only 3 were earned as the D betrayed him with four (4) errors. The big defensive lapse was Glaus' shitty throw in the 6th which Alex Gordon belted out to right for his first Major League home run. Towers never made it out of the inning as he allowed a double and a triple before Gibbons told him to hit the showers. Downs came in but shit the bed, allowing a base knock to David DeJesus to score the runner from third. Downs did recover to pitch a flawless 7th before Shaun Marcum came in for two good innings.

The offense never really got going tonight. A leadoff double by Rios was wasted. The Jays wouldn't threaten again until the fifth when Jason Smith, playing short for Clayton, was singled in from second by Rios. Aaron Hill and Greg Zaun kept their bats hot as they doubled and homered, respectively, to cut the lead to three in the seventh inning. This was all the Jays could muster though, and they went quietly in the last couple at-bats.

Positives : Towers pitched real good after being concerned that he did not have enough work (which makes sense because he had none). Although he gave up 10 H in only 5 plus innings, about 5 of them were cheap hits that were blooped over the infield. Also of a positive tone was the 2-4 outing that Rios had tonight. Hitting leadoff because Johnson was on the bench (more on this later), Rios got on base twice and even drove in a run.

Causes for concern: First of all, why the fuck would Gibbons start Stairs, Smith, and Jason Phillips in one game. I understand getting your bench some work. As Tabler said during the game, you can't have these guys sitting around for a week and then expect them to win a game with a pinch hit. Putting them all in at once reeks of stupidity though. Why not sub them in like one at a time ? There's a reason they aren't starting. To counter my own point, those three went 3-10 compared to a 5-25 from the rest of the lineup. Gibbons did give Zaun a PH at bat which he predictably turned into a 2-run tater. Besides retarded managing, causes for concern include the 4 errors and a complete lack of hitting from the middle of the order. Overbay, Vern, Frank, and Glaus were a combined 1-16 with 6 K's. That is simply unacceptable from those guys. Give Greinke credit however as he got them swinging on a lot of junk. Which is probably another cause for concern, but that's for another day.

Men of the Match: Rios for the 2-4 day he had leading off. Greg Zaun for the pinch hit homer that got the Jays in the game.

Vince Young mental aptitude award: John Gibbons for benching half of the fucking starting lineup.