At least the end was exciting: Jays lose again

Rays 4 Blue Jays 3

Well, at least it was exciting at the end.

In the bottom of the 9th, Josh Thole walked, Brett Lawrie hit an infield single (with a error by Evan Longoria to put runners on the corners) and Jose Reyes doubled home both of them to make it a 1-run game and sit second as the tying run at second with our best hitters due up.

But Jose Bautista chased a pitch well high out of the zone to strikeout. Edwin Encarnacion waited until he had a 3-1 count to ground out to third (nice bit of base running by Reyes to get to third on the play). After Adam Lind did a nice job to take a walk, Melky Cabrera ground out to end the game.

Once again we could get base runners, we had 8 hits and 5 walks, but we couldn't score them. 2 for 13 with RISP for the day, 9 left on base. The 9 left on game wouldn't have been bad with we had score a few. Bautista and Encarnacion, in particular, had a bad game. Between them they were 0 for 10 with 7 left on base. Why weren't they allowed to take part in the home run contest?

On the plus side, Reyes went 2 for 3 with 2 walks, a steal and 2 RBI. And Jose Thole was 1 for 2, with 2 walks. The hit was nice, a ground rule double, Sam Fuld was playing too far in against Thole, that scored Melky Cabrera in the 2nd.

R.A. Dickey wasn't bad, if you ignore the 3 solo home runs (insert Titantic joke here). In total 6 innings, 7 hits, 4 earned (only one that wasn't scored on a home run), 1 walk and 8 strikeouts. He is throwing harder. I don't know what to think about him.

Other moments of note:

• Juan Perez pitched 1.1 innings, which brings him to 21 innings of work without an earned run, though he left the game with runners on the corners and just one out in the 8th. Aaron Loup worked out of the jam to keep Juan's streak alive. Loup pitched 1.2 scoreless, with just a hit batter against him, with two strikeouts.
• Brett Lawrie made a great play on a ground ball in the second, saving a run. No chance Maicer Izturis would have been able to make the same play. On the flip of that, Izturis turned a double play that I'm not sure Lawrie would have turned.
• Oh, and Jose Reyes took a pick off throw in the ummmm unmentionables. Time to wear a can Jose.

It was just another of those crappy games. I don't know what the answer is but I'm starting to think Chad Mottola isn't the genius batting coach we were hoping he'd be, or perhaps it isn't a good idea to have him and Dwayne Murphy working with the batters.

Jays of the Day is Reyes (.347 WPA) and Thole (.157).

Suckage goes to Bautista (-.346), Cabrera (-.219), Encarnacion (-.206), Dickey (-.167) and Izturis (-.157).

Considering how bad the team has been, we had a pretty nice GameThread, 25 of us totaled 502 comments. After missing a couple of games, I led the way. I think my Paul McCartney concert was a lot more fun than watching the Jays lose. And Dave Grohl and the other former members of Nirvana joined into the encores, so that made it more special.