Scorecard: June 14, 2011 Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays - Game 1 of 3

From Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario,

Canada

Baltimore Orioles

(30-33)

Manager: Buck Showalter

@

Toronto Blue Jays

(32-34)

Manager: John Farrell

Game 1 of 3

First pitch: 7:07 PM EDT

Starting Pitchers
Baltimore - Chris Jakubauskas
Toronto - Carlos Villanueva



Umpires

Home - Brian Knight
3B - Hunter Wendelstedt
2B - Bob Davidson
1B - Jerry Layne

Weather
Clear
Temp: 16°C | 64°F
Wind: South-West at 10 kph | 6 mph
(home plate to right-centre field)


On the Boston brutalization over this past weekend, Jays' Play by Play man Jerry Howarth says, '..the 35 to 6 runs scored tally was the biggest run differential in a 3 game series in Blue Jays' franchise history.'

'The Jays didn't lose,' says Howarth, 'the Red Sox beat them.'

And but good.

Reading the Toronto papers last night, no one had that as their take home message. Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star choose to pick on team management (link) - and Jeff Blair of the Globe wrote about a team in a rebuilding year, Drabek's ball to strikes ratio (and pointedly I think, not mentioning the gazillion balls in the dirt that Arencibia was seen running to the back stop to pick up while Bostons circled the bases), and didn't give a second thought to the idea that Boston has what may be the best line up in that franchise's history - and that they came to town in the midst of a hot streak.

In my opinion, this is an example of a failure by the hacks in the day to day trenches of sports copy writing to see the forest for the trees. But there was no excuse for that this time, with the day off Monday both writers had 24 hours to come up with something a little more insight-full.

My take during the game here and afterwards was that over the weekend we were lucky to have witnessed possibly a Great team in the history of the game, a Great team on a hot streak - one of the most awesome displays of hitting and running I have ever seen. The Red Sox took advantage of every opportunity offered  - the way you're supposed to.

The take home message for this young Blue Jays team should be:  'Look! That's how you play baseball, That's how you hit the cut-off, That's how you play station to station, hit and run, and That's how you work the count - That's how you pitch strategically. But learning from the experience how the game is supposed to be played is a lesson that is not being head around here in baseball media so far this week.

And now the news that the Jay's are sending Drabek to AAA Las Vsgas. Sending Drabek down at this time - after this Boston juggernaut has just past - is a blink in a staring contest - a strategic mistake. Looking at their belly buttons when they should straighten their collective shoulders, admit that they had just witnessed a first division team firing on all cylinders, get up off the turf and get back in there. Drabek's next start would have been on the road against a National League team, where he would be a relative mystery - and not facing Boston.

The team won't admit that this is what they're motivation is at this time - in fact they undoubtedly aren't thinking this; they're lost, their still in shock, they're knee-jerking, re-acting.

Of coarse a lot depends how this plays in the club house - but I doubt, looking back on this season come October - many will say this was a good move. 


Anyway, that's all I'll say on that, now we can get back to some competitive baseball against a team in the same division - the same universe - the Baltimore Orioles for three - Yay! - I can smell a win.



11th Inning

I thought I saw a bunny rabbit... I did, I did!




Line-up and pitching totals from ESPN (box score).

Colour Legend (as of this date)

Neon Green is a Base Hit Forest Green is a runner advanced by a Base Hit or a Sacrifice Yellow is Intentional Base on Balls, Defensive Indifference, a Sacrafice or Fielder's Choice Red is an out Pink are un-earned bases - Wild Pitch, Passed Ball or an Error Neon Blue is a Stolen Base Navy Blue is a base earned via a Hit or a Sacrifice, that results in a Run Scored

The Scoring Notations

BB Base on Balls - Batter to first base because the umpire ruled that pitched ball was the forth pitch of the at-bat out of the strike zone HBP Hit By Pitch - Batter is ruled by the umpire to have been hit by pitch - awarded one base BH Base Hit - Batter-runner safe at first base via a hit ball 2BH Two Base Hit - Batter-runner safe at second base via a hit ball 3BH Three Base Hit - Batter-runner safe at third base via a hit ball HR Home Run - Batter-runner safe at home plate via a hit ball RBI Run Batted In - via a SAC, a BH or a BB - a run scores RS Run Scored. SAC Sacrifice - With less than two outs the batter causes a base runner to advance but in the process, is put out FC Ball hit on the ground, fielded and a put out made anywhere but at 1B DI Defensive Indifference - A baserunner advances because the defence, for strategic reasons, does nothing IBB Intentional Base on Balls - The defences decides to walk a batter for strategic reasons

SB Stolen Base - Base runner advances on a pitched ball despite the defence's best efforts CS Caught Stealing - A baserunner is put out while tring to advance on a pitch K Called third strike - Batter out because the umpire ruled that with two strikes in an at-bat, a pitched ball was in the strike zone Ks Batter out, swinging third strike IFR Infield Fly Rule - A ball popped up on the infield that an umpire rules is easily catch-able - batter-runner is out, the ball is dead LO Ball caught that was hit so hard it appears like the vector was a straight line GO Ball hit on the ground, fielded and the batter-runner is put out at 1B FO A high arching hit ball caught on the fly by a fielder E The defence allows runners to advance because of less than stallar play Eth The defence allows runners to advance because of less than stallar throw WP Wild Pitch - a pitched ball that bounces in and is not caught by the catcher and that results in a runner advancing PB Passed Ball - a pitched ball that doesn't bounce and is not caught by the catcher and that results in a runner advancing

pop A ball hit in a high arch such that the distance travelled up is greater than the distance travelled from the plate GR To prevent injury, "Ground Rules" define what hit or thrown balls are in, and out of play - announced before each game by the home team manager f Hit ball caught in foul territory - for example "FO3f" - Fly Ball caught by First Base, foul op Out of Play - for example "FO5op", Fly ball caught by Third Base across the railing in the stands, or in the camera bay... BRIF Base runner is out for interfering with the defence while they're making a play on a batted ball Kf2 Foul tip with 2 strikes, caught by catcher - strike three - - - - - - - - - - - -

Box Score - Final	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	Runs	Hits	Errors	LOB
Baltimore Orioles	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	5	13	1	10
Toronto Blue Jays	1	0	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	6	14	1	13

Baltimore Orioles	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	AB R H BB SAC RBI SO HBP LOB 2BH 3BH HR AVG PO A E
1.  J Hardy SS	C 7:07 BBBX RS BH		BCBF FBX 2BH7 deep		CBFB S Ks		CFBF BFX RBI 2BH9 deep #8 3,H		CFBF S Rauch + Ks		CX Camp + FO8
2.  N Markakis RF	CBFB X caught in a run-down CS BH8 8-4-3-6-4 #1 1,3		BCCB FBFB BB		CBFF C K		BBBC F GB3 3UA #1 2,3		CX 2BH7		BCBX DP BH9
3.  A Jones CF	BSX SAC RBI FO8		BFX FO9		BBFF FFS Ks /		SBSX 4-3 /		FSS Ks		CX GB1 DP 1-4-3 #2 out /
4.  V Guerrero DH	CBX FC #5 BH9		X pop FO2f /			SBX 5-3		BFBB B Rzepchinski RS BB	BBX Kf2 /
5.  M Wieters C	CFB >FBX GB6 FC 6UA #4 out /			CFX FO8		BX 4-3		BBFX RS 2RBI HR7 #4 1,H		CBBB SX FO8
6.  D Lee 1B		X FO9		BFBX FO9		X FO8 /		BSFB FS Janssen + Ks		FBFB BB BB
7.  L Scott LF 8th PR F Pie - LF		CCX 5-3		bX Bunt5 1-3 safe IF-BH1			BF shift> bX RS Bunt5 1-3 safe IF-BH1	shift (less of a shift) BX BH8		BBFB X BH9 #6 1,2
8.  M Reynolds 3B		X 1-3 /		BBSF X FC BH7 short #7 1,2			FBBB SB RS BB #7 1,2	BF1B SC E1th 1-3(8) #7 1,3 Ks		BCSC K
9.  R Andino 2B			BCSB X FO9	BX GB5 FC #8 out /			CCB (wp) FFFX Frasor + SAC RBI WP #7,#8 1b FO9 #7 3,H #8 2,3	CFFS Ks /		BCBX FO8 /
Per-Inning Totals	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	Totals
Runs Hits Errors LOB	1 3 0 1	0 0 0 0	0 1 1 2	0 2 0 2	0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0	2 2 0 1	2 2 0 1	0 1 0 1	0 1 0 2	0 1 0 0	5 13 1 10

Orioles' Pitching Totals	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	P/S	ERA
Chris Jakubauskas	5.1	7	4	4	4	2	0	101/57	5.09
Michael Gonzalez	0.2	0	0	0	1	1	0	12/8	6.75
Jeremy Accardo	1.0	3	1	1	0	1	1	21/13	4.50
Jim Johnson	2.0	2	0	0	1	1	0	31/20	2.54
Koji Uehara (L 1-1)	1.0	1	1	1	0	2	1	13/10	2.43

Toronto Blue Jays	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	AB R H BB SAC RBI SO HBP LOB 2BH 3BH HR AVG PO A E
1.  Y Escobar SS	CBBB X 5-3		CX RS BH8	FX RBI BH8 #7 2,H #9 1,3		CB(wp) BBFB WP #9 1,2 BB		CBX Johnson + running E thought he was home free FC #2 IF-BH4		BSB Uehara + pop FO4
2.  C Patterson LF	CX 1-3		bX pass bunt BH4 #1 1,2	BX SAC RBI GB5 5-3 #9 3,H #1 1,2		FCS Gonzalez + Ks		bFBb FC #4 Bunt1 FC 1-6 #1 out		CSFC K
3.  J Bautista RF	FBBB B RS BB		BCFF FBBX GB5 DP FC 5-4 #2 out #1 2,3 E4th #1 3,H	BBBB IBB		BCBC FBB BB #9 2,3 #1 1,2		FBBX IF-BH6 #2 1,2		CFS Ks /
4.  A Lind 1B	BBCS BX RBI 2BH9 #3 1,H		CFBB BFFB FC BB #3 1,2	BSFX 3UA /		CX 4-3 /		CBBF BB BB #2 2,3 #3 1,2			BX RS RBI HR9 /
5.  J Arencibia C	X FO9 /		FBCX GB4 FC #4 out #3 2,3		CBX FO8		SX Accardo + ball get away at the plate FC 2-5 2BH8	X GB5 FC 5-2 #2 out #3 2,3 #4 1,2
6.  E Encarnacion DH		BBX FO9	FBX 6-3 /		BBBC X 6-3		BFB 2-5 FFX 5-3	FCX FO9 /
7.  A Hill 2B		CBX GR-2BH9		CX RS IF-BH6	BX LO6 /		FBBC X RS RBI HR		FFBX LO4
8.  R Davis CF		CBFC K		FX FO9		CFBF S Ks	BX BH8		CX 6-3
9.  J Nix 3B		BX 6-3 /		FBB RS HBP #7 1,2		BCX WP BH8	BBFS  BS Ks /		BBCC C K /
Per-Inning Totals	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	Totals
Runs Hits Errors LOB	1 1 0 1	0 1 0 1	1 2 0 2	2 3 0 2	0 0 0 0	0 1 0 3	1 3 0 1	0 2 1 3	0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0	1 1 0 0	6 14 1 13

Jays' Pitching Totals	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	P/S	ERA
Carlos Villanueva	6.0	7	3	3	2	3	0	98/62	3.25
Jason Frasor	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	24/17	2.96
Marc Rzepczynski	0.0	1	2	2	1	0	1	9/3	3.58
Casey Janssen	1.0	1	0	0	0	3	0	18/13	2.93
Jon Rauch	2.0	2	0	0	1	3	0	38/22	3.86
Shawn Camp (W 1-1)	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	8/6	4.31