Wakefield Whacks Jays

Wednesday, May 20 2009 @ 11:52 AM EDT

Brian Tallet and the Jays came out on the wrong end of a pitcher's duel at Fenway Park as they lost 2-1 to Tim Wakefield and the Red Sox Tuesday night. 

The first indication it was not going to be the Jays night came in the first inning when Alex Rios was caught stealing against the knuckleballing Wakefield as he was thrown out by Scarborough native George Kottaras at second.  The Red Sox got all the offence they would need in the second when they made Tallet throw 31 pitches.  Mike Lowell singled and J.D. Drew got aboard by drawing a nine-pitch walk.  They were driven in by the number eight and nine hitters in the Red Sox lineup.  Jeff "Beetle" Bailey sent a 1-2 pitch to left-centre to plate Lowell and Kottaras' sac fly scored Drew after a seven-pitch duel.  After that, Tallet shut down the Sox and got through six innings, giving up just four hits and two walks while whiffing five.  Jason Frasor worked a scoreless seventh with one strikeout and B.J. Ryan fought through a double and single to hold down the Sox in the eighth thanks to Raul Chavez throwing out Jacoby Ellsbury trying to steal third.

The Jays only managed five hits and two walks in this one.  Kevin Millar accounted for the only run by lifting one over the Green Monster against Wakefield in the fifth.  Their best chances to score came in the third and eighth.  They stranded a pair of one-out singles by Rod Barajas and Marco Scutaro in the third and had another two runners aboard on a Barajas walk and Aaron Hill pop up single to first.  "B.A." was the only Jay to get aboard twice on the evening.  The number four through seven hitters (Wells, Adam Lind, Lyle Overbay and Scott Rolen) were a combined 0-for-15 with Rolen drawing a second inning walk.

Toronto will turn to rookie lefty Brett Cecil as he takes on Brad Penny in another 7:10 p.m. first pitch at the Fens.  The game can be seen on TSN2 again if you're a Rogers customer after finally adding the channel this week!  Last night's game marked the TSN2 debut for the Jays but they decided to carry the NESN feed from Boston instead.   I just wish Jerry Remy was with Don Orsillo last night because they're a terrific broadcasting tandem.  Maybe the best in the bigs!  Hopefully, the Remdawg makes a speedy recovery in his battle with cancer.  Because my favourite number is two, here's the snazzy TSN2 logo for your viewing enjoyment.

  In other TDIB notes........

*  The Yankees pound the O's 9-1 to win their seventh straight.

*  The "D-Train" is back on track as the Tigers beat the Rangers 4-0 at Comerica Park.

*  The Royals score four in the ninth to trip up the Tribe 6-5.

*  Todd Helton gets his 2,000th hit but the Rockies get crushed by the Braves 9-1.

*   On the former Jays injury front, the Mets Carlos Delgado is out for 10 weeks with a hip problem and the Dodgers Orlando Hudson is day-to-day with a sore shoulder.

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