Kris Benson did it again, but alas, Scott Downs didn't. At the
intersection of these two unfortunate events was an uninspiring, writer's block-inducing 7-2 loss
that puts the Jays squarely between Daniel Cabrera and a hard place.
Boxscore: Maximum Terpitude
Star of the Game: Melvin Mora keyed both early Baltimore rallies with clutch hits. He turned on a fastball and roped it to left for a two-run homer in the first, and knocked in two more runs with a groundball single to left in the second.
Defensive Play of the Game: There were a few contenders. Brian Roberts denied Lyle Overbay a base hit to right on a ground ball deep in the 3-4 hole. Aaron Hill tracked down a sharp 3-2 grounder up the middle off the bat of Davis Romero's first hitter, Jeff Conine. He fielded it, stepped on second to force the head-started Miguel Tejada and threw off balance to first to complete the double play. Mora made a slick glove save on a sharp one-hopper from Vernon Wells to lead off the fourth, and threw over for the easy putout. Two innings later, Roberts followed suit on a short hop to his left, denying Overbay another potential hit.
I'm giving it to Hill for picking up Romero and making him feel at ease, setting the tone for his 2.2 shutout innings.
Unsung Hero: Wells and Glaus crushed back-to-back homers to center off Benson. Jason Frasor looked excellent in two spotless innings with three strikeouts. But on principle, today's award has to go to Davis Romero, who was in prime Infuriating Finesse Lefty form in his debut.
Romero entered with runners on first and second, one out and Jeff Conine up. He missed with a couple of sharp-breaking changeups on the way to a full count, but was poised enough to throw a low fastball and induce a grounder up the middle. Hill made the Defensive Play of the Game to get Romero a good start on the road to the Brian "Wolverine" Tallet Memorial Award for Stranding Runners as a Mop-Up Guy.
After an uneventful third, Romero recorded his first major-league strikeout in the fourth, backdooring Ramon Hernandez with a 1-2 slider to get off the schneid. With one out, Romero made his lone egregious mistake, leaving a high fastball middle-in to Brian Roberts, who happily crushed it to the deepest part of the park. Luckily for Romero, Vernon Wells made the catch right in front of the 410 sign in left center. After Nick Markakis doubled on a grounder to Overbay that took a brutal hop and handcuffed him, Romero settled down and whiffed Melvin Mora on three pitches, jumping ahead 0-2 and enticing Mora to wave at a slider that bounced in the dirt.
Romero battled the opening-day jitters fairly well. He fell behind a few too many hitters for my liking, mostly in that uneventful third, but that's a minor quibble given the results. 2.2 innings, 2 strikeouts, no walks and 1 hit is a perfectly solid way to kick off a major-league career.
Today: Shaun Marcum and Daniel Cabrera reprise their pitchers' duel from 11 days ago. If you don't remember that matchup, Marcum didn't have his A game, but he battled and took a 2-1 lead into the seventh inning. With one out and Scott Schoeneweis throwing in the Jays' bullpen, Marcum was (rightly, I thought) entrusted with handling the always-dangerous Corey Patterson. Patterson doubled and advanced to third on the second out of the inning, bringing up Nick Markakis on Greek night. Understandably worried about letting a rookie face Markakis in his powered-up Greek night state, John Gibbons called on Schoeneweis. Unfortunately, the SS LOOGY was no match for Markakis, who scored with a cheap grounder up the middle to tie the game. From there, Schoeneweis' command vanished, the bullpen imploded, and the Orioles ended up coasting to an 8-4 victory.
Cabrera did have his A game, and he was impressively efficient in blowing away the Jays over seven innings. The Blue Jays produced some timely hits to coax two runs out of Cabrera on a good night, no small feat, but Cabrera still finished with seven strikeouts, a walk, five hits, only 92 pitches and, most importantly, a W.
Watching Marcum's performance in that game again on the brilliant archive service that is MLB TV, I noticed a few patterns. He insisted on pounding the Orioles' contact hitters with a steady diet of fastballs early, going for jam shots and soft flyballs. However, he made a conscious effort to avoid letting Mora and Tejada beat him, showcasing his off-speed stuff early and often. Even if you pitch those guys well, there's still a good chance they hurt you - Marcum fell behind 1-nil in the fourth when Tejada golfed a perfectly-placed fastball into the Jays' bullpen - but Marcum threw Mora nothing but off-speed stuff his first time up and had him guessing wrong the whole night, swinging on top of a pitch in the dirt for a K his second time and barely rolling over a 1-2 slider for a groundout his third time. Tejada was a different story; he got ahead 3-0 and lined out his first time, homered his second, and drew one of the easiest unintentional four-pitch walks you'll ever see his third. Whether Mora adjusts this time or Marcum devises a new plan of attack for Tejada are two interesting subplots heading into today's affair.
Marcum was quite efficient in that game, only needing 98 pitches to come within one out of getting through seven. He only pitched out of one jam, loading the bases around a Jay Gibbons one-out double in the second but inducing a harmless Markakis grounder to escape it. He'll need to be similarly efficient, since the Blue Jays' bullpen is quite tired; Downs threw 45 pitches, Romero 31, Frasor 27, Tallet 25 and Accardo 6. Fortunately, thanks to the modern miracle of 13-man bullpens, it's not an awful situation - League, McGowan and Ryan are all rested and ready, and Accardo's probably fair game to get a lefty in a tough spot. With the knowledge that the Doctor pitches tomorrow, John Gibbons can probably be liberal in his usage of League; if Marcum carries a small lead into the seventh, I'd expect a League sighting at the first sign of trouble, if not at the start of the inning altogether.
Elsewhere, after sweeping yesterday's doubleheader, the Yankees throw Randy Johnson at the Red Sox, who counter with 2003 World Series hero Josh Beckett. That's your east-coast Fox game of the week. The real question is, can Eric Hinske bash three doubles again, or is that just something he does in his first home game with a new team?
Game time in Baltimore is 4:35.
Boxscore: Maximum Terpitude
Star of the Game: Melvin Mora keyed both early Baltimore rallies with clutch hits. He turned on a fastball and roped it to left for a two-run homer in the first, and knocked in two more runs with a groundball single to left in the second.
Defensive Play of the Game: There were a few contenders. Brian Roberts denied Lyle Overbay a base hit to right on a ground ball deep in the 3-4 hole. Aaron Hill tracked down a sharp 3-2 grounder up the middle off the bat of Davis Romero's first hitter, Jeff Conine. He fielded it, stepped on second to force the head-started Miguel Tejada and threw off balance to first to complete the double play. Mora made a slick glove save on a sharp one-hopper from Vernon Wells to lead off the fourth, and threw over for the easy putout. Two innings later, Roberts followed suit on a short hop to his left, denying Overbay another potential hit.
I'm giving it to Hill for picking up Romero and making him feel at ease, setting the tone for his 2.2 shutout innings.
Unsung Hero: Wells and Glaus crushed back-to-back homers to center off Benson. Jason Frasor looked excellent in two spotless innings with three strikeouts. But on principle, today's award has to go to Davis Romero, who was in prime Infuriating Finesse Lefty form in his debut.
Romero entered with runners on first and second, one out and Jeff Conine up. He missed with a couple of sharp-breaking changeups on the way to a full count, but was poised enough to throw a low fastball and induce a grounder up the middle. Hill made the Defensive Play of the Game to get Romero a good start on the road to the Brian "Wolverine" Tallet Memorial Award for Stranding Runners as a Mop-Up Guy.
After an uneventful third, Romero recorded his first major-league strikeout in the fourth, backdooring Ramon Hernandez with a 1-2 slider to get off the schneid. With one out, Romero made his lone egregious mistake, leaving a high fastball middle-in to Brian Roberts, who happily crushed it to the deepest part of the park. Luckily for Romero, Vernon Wells made the catch right in front of the 410 sign in left center. After Nick Markakis doubled on a grounder to Overbay that took a brutal hop and handcuffed him, Romero settled down and whiffed Melvin Mora on three pitches, jumping ahead 0-2 and enticing Mora to wave at a slider that bounced in the dirt.
Romero battled the opening-day jitters fairly well. He fell behind a few too many hitters for my liking, mostly in that uneventful third, but that's a minor quibble given the results. 2.2 innings, 2 strikeouts, no walks and 1 hit is a perfectly solid way to kick off a major-league career.
Today: Shaun Marcum and Daniel Cabrera reprise their pitchers' duel from 11 days ago. If you don't remember that matchup, Marcum didn't have his A game, but he battled and took a 2-1 lead into the seventh inning. With one out and Scott Schoeneweis throwing in the Jays' bullpen, Marcum was (rightly, I thought) entrusted with handling the always-dangerous Corey Patterson. Patterson doubled and advanced to third on the second out of the inning, bringing up Nick Markakis on Greek night. Understandably worried about letting a rookie face Markakis in his powered-up Greek night state, John Gibbons called on Schoeneweis. Unfortunately, the SS LOOGY was no match for Markakis, who scored with a cheap grounder up the middle to tie the game. From there, Schoeneweis' command vanished, the bullpen imploded, and the Orioles ended up coasting to an 8-4 victory.
Cabrera did have his A game, and he was impressively efficient in blowing away the Jays over seven innings. The Blue Jays produced some timely hits to coax two runs out of Cabrera on a good night, no small feat, but Cabrera still finished with seven strikeouts, a walk, five hits, only 92 pitches and, most importantly, a W.
Watching Marcum's performance in that game again on the brilliant archive service that is MLB TV, I noticed a few patterns. He insisted on pounding the Orioles' contact hitters with a steady diet of fastballs early, going for jam shots and soft flyballs. However, he made a conscious effort to avoid letting Mora and Tejada beat him, showcasing his off-speed stuff early and often. Even if you pitch those guys well, there's still a good chance they hurt you - Marcum fell behind 1-nil in the fourth when Tejada golfed a perfectly-placed fastball into the Jays' bullpen - but Marcum threw Mora nothing but off-speed stuff his first time up and had him guessing wrong the whole night, swinging on top of a pitch in the dirt for a K his second time and barely rolling over a 1-2 slider for a groundout his third time. Tejada was a different story; he got ahead 3-0 and lined out his first time, homered his second, and drew one of the easiest unintentional four-pitch walks you'll ever see his third. Whether Mora adjusts this time or Marcum devises a new plan of attack for Tejada are two interesting subplots heading into today's affair.
Marcum was quite efficient in that game, only needing 98 pitches to come within one out of getting through seven. He only pitched out of one jam, loading the bases around a Jay Gibbons one-out double in the second but inducing a harmless Markakis grounder to escape it. He'll need to be similarly efficient, since the Blue Jays' bullpen is quite tired; Downs threw 45 pitches, Romero 31, Frasor 27, Tallet 25 and Accardo 6. Fortunately, thanks to the modern miracle of 13-man bullpens, it's not an awful situation - League, McGowan and Ryan are all rested and ready, and Accardo's probably fair game to get a lefty in a tough spot. With the knowledge that the Doctor pitches tomorrow, John Gibbons can probably be liberal in his usage of League; if Marcum carries a small lead into the seventh, I'd expect a League sighting at the first sign of trouble, if not at the start of the inning altogether.
Elsewhere, after sweeping yesterday's doubleheader, the Yankees throw Randy Johnson at the Red Sox, who counter with 2003 World Series hero Josh Beckett. That's your east-coast Fox game of the week. The real question is, can Eric Hinske bash three doubles again, or is that just something he does in his first home game with a new team?
Game time in Baltimore is 4:35.
