Bellroll33
Do陰czy: 16 Lut 2019 Posty: 243
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Wys豉ny: Sro Lip 17, 2019 05:54 Temat postu: He had gone winless in his first four starts for the first t |
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TORONTO -- The Toronto Blue Jays dug themselves a massive hole, then almost managed to climb out Saturday against the Boston Red Sox. But when it was all over they had wasted another lead, seen another pitcher flame out on the mound and lost their fourth straight at home. After roughing up Clay Buchholz for three runs in the first inning, Toronto (11-13) found itself behind 6-3 after three innings as starter Brandon Morrow literally lost control. A late comeback by the Jays fell short as Boston (12-13) hung on for a 7-6 win. Morrow (1-2) walked a career-high eight of the 14 batters he faced before being pulled after 2 2/3 shocking innings before an announced crowd of 40,322 under the roof at the Rogers Centre. "Its not a good feeling when you can take the blame for the game and put it squarely on your shoulders," said Morrow, who made no excuses as he threw himself on his sword. "I came in with one goal and that was to pitch late in the game and keep us in it. I let down the team in a big way today." Twice he was rescued by double plays before the bottom fell out in a six-run Boston third that saw Toronto pitching coach Pete Walker ejected for back-chat to home-plate umpire Jeff Kellogg. "Its embarrassing to not be able to command your fastball," said Morrow, who said physically he was fine. "I had decent command of the other stuff." The first walk of the afternoon, to Red Sox leadoff batter Dustin Pedroia, was the 100th Jays free pass this season. Toronto pitchers issued nine walks on the day, with David Ortiz the recipient of three. "Weve been walking way too many guys all year," said manager John Gibbons. "Thats unlike us. Weve got some strike-throwers." A.J. Pierzynski hit his eighth career grand slam to power the Red Sox offence before Toronto staged a nail-biting late comeback. The Jays sent eight men to the plate and scored twice in the eighth before leaving the bases loaded. Jose Bautista, facing closer Koji Uehara, then opened the ninth with his seventh homer of the year -- and 175th as a Jay -- to cut the lead to 7-6. Dioner Navarro and Brett Lawrie singled, around a Colby Rasmus strikeout, to keep the drive alive. But Edwin Encarnacion flied out to end the rally and give Uehara his fifth save. "All year long those guys have been battling," said Gibbons. "Thats all you can ask for as a manager, that they dont pack it in." Over the last four losses, Toronto has given up 36 runs on 47 hits and 22 walks. The Jays allowed their opponents off the hook in three of those games, with the Orioles staging comebacks Wednesday and Thursday. Buchholz (1-2) survived a three-run first to help Boston to its seventh win in 11 games. He gave up three runs in seven innings on six hits, three strikeouts and two walks. Buchholz threw 105 pitches, 67 for strikes. Juan Francisco homered for Toronto, his second blast in as many days, to greet Boston reliever Junichi Tazawa in the eighth. Pinch-hitter Encarnacion then singled home Navarro to make it 7-5 as Tazawa gave up his first runs of the season. Chris Capuano came on with men on first and third and one out. He struck out Jonathan Diaz but walked Jose Reyes after a 10-pitch showdown to load the bases. Uehara then induced Cabrera to pop up to shallow left field. On a strange day Toronto outhit Boston 13-5, left 11 men on base to the Red Soxs four, and lost. "Weve been struggling in certain areas, its no secret," said Gibbons, refusing to point the finger at one element of his team. "But were going to get better." Morrow has failed to last six innings in four of his five starts this season, as well as nine of his last 14 dating back to last season. His descent into the pitching mire was swift Saturday. Only five of Morrows 14 pitches in the first were strikes. He was 11-for-31 after two innings and 25-for-66 when he was removed in favour of Chad Jenkins in the third. Morrow wouldve been living only marginally more dangerously if he was juggling chainsaws on the mound. With two out in the third Morrow walked four straight and was removed, with the Jays somewhat amazingly still leading 3-1. Two balls later, Pierzynski slammed the grand slam homer off the newly recalled Jenkins, who promptly gave up a solo shot to Will Middlebrooks for a 6-3 Boston lead. It was the second homer of the season for both. "We took advantage of a high number of walks," said Red Sox manager John Farrell. "One of the things we do well is not expand the strike zone and that was the case again today." Morrows outing marked the 11th time a Jays pitcher has given up eight or more walks in a game. The club record is nine, by four different pitchers (Pat Hentgen, Jim Clancy, Chris Carpenter and Jesse Jefferson). Consecutive doubles by Mike Carp and Grady Sizemore in the fifth extended the Boston lead to 7-3 and chased Jenkins in favour of Aaron Loup. Buchholz also had trouble finding the strike zone in the first and paid for it after issuing a leadoff walk to Reyes. The Jays shortstop was running on Cabreras single and came home on Bautistas deep single to left-centre. Cabrera scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0 with no outs. Bautista, who extended his on-base streak 24 games, came home on Navarros deep single to right to make it 3-0. The Red Sox starter threw 26 pitches in the first, with just 13 for strikes. He faced just three batters in the second but needed a successful challenge to remove Reyes, who had been called safe on an infield hit. Buchholz walked two with two out in the third but escaped damage and ended up blanking the Jays for six straight innings. He had gone winless in his first four starts for the first time of his career. But, despite the rocky opening the trip to Toronto proved to be a tonic for the 29-year-old right-hander. Buchholz arrived with a 9-5 career mark and 2.44 earned-run average against Toronto and was 7-2 with a 1.09 ERA in 10 starts at the Rogers Centre. Toronto used six pitchers, with Loup, Brett Cecil, Steve Delabar and Sergio Santos helping douse the fire set by Morrow and Jenkins. Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, on his bobblehead day, is scheduled to pitch Sunday against Boston left-hander Jon Lester in the series finale. Kirk Cousins Jersey . Mired in an offensive slump, Lowry - the NBAs leader in taking charges this season - did what he has learned to do best, standing his ground and drawing a crucial offensive foul on the Cavaliers all-star point guard. 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Sources tell TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun the international tournament will likely return in September 2016 rather than 2015.BALTIMORE – The Blue Jays entered play Sunday with a team batting average of .209, a team on-base percentage of .283 and a team on-base plus slugging percentage of .643. Make what you will of a small sample size, the market will surely correct itself, but slugger Jose Bautista acknowledges that change must come soon and he identifies one stat in particular: the teams .157 batting average with runners in scoring position, entering Sundays game. "I think, obviously, you can not necessarily get on base a whole lot and not out-hit the other team but if you get the timely hits when you need them, youre still going to win as long as youre getting good pitching and defence, which we have been getting," Bautista told TSN.ca on Sunday morning. Bautista points the finger at himself. Through a dozen games, hes been up nine times with runners in scoring position. He has one hit, a home run, two RBI, has walked three times and struck out on three occasions. "Ive gotten my fair chances of driving in runs in different situations and I havent been able to come through so Ive got to focus a little bit better, I think, and just figure out a way to execute no matter what the circumstances are," he said. While Bautista is willing to first look at himself, which is admirable, its difficult to point the finger at him. While his batting average was only .200 entering Sunday, his on-base percentage of .451 (attributable to his major league-leading 16 walks) and slugging percentage of .571 (four of his seven hits have been home runs) constitutes significant production in a dry lineup. The problem is Bautistas getting on base and nobodys taking advantage of it. Hes scored only six times so far on plays that arent a result of his home runs. The main culprit is Edwin Encarnacion, who entered Sunday with a .174/.240/.261 slash line, no home runs and he was still looking for his first RBBI.dddddddddddd. The consensus on Encarnacion is that its merely a timing issue. Hes not been a slow starter in either 2012 or 2013, his two breakout years, hitting eight and nine home runs, respectively, in the opening month of those seasons. "I dont know if he feels that way but it certainly seems that way from my perspective where he just hasnt found his rhythm yet," said Bautista of Encarnacion. "That being coupled with the way they pitch to us, being so different and so difficult, its easy to kind of get back into rhythm when you see a 2-0 fastball and you can place your bet on that but he doesnt see that very often." Bautista wonders if, maybe, theres something about the way Encarnacion is being pitched. Encarnacion, with two straight big seasons, now is an established superstar. Its similar to what Bautista went through a couple of years ago. "I saw a huge difference after 2011," said Bautista. "Not so much after 2012 but after 2011 it was just a night and day difference on how people were pitching to me. The amount of breaking balls in hitters counts and Ive seen pitches in hitters counts, first pitches, even in 3-0 counts, I was seeing some stuff that Im like, Im not even swinging and Im getting sliders and changeups." The great hitters learn to be patient. They have to be. "Can you lay off of those borderline and bad pitches consistently?" said Bautista of the question that plagues the games elite hitters. Toronto entered Sundays play with a 3.88 starting staff ERA, on track for a great improvement over 2013, and a .993 team fielding percentage, which tied the club for second in baseball. "Were more concerned about more consistently putting a good effort forward and weve done that with every aspect of the game except for the offence," said Bautista. "Were obviously working to get better at that." ' ' ' |
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