Toronto Blue Jays: Encarnacion continues to swing a hot bat

As I watched the early innings of the first game against the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night, I thought the Toronto Blue Jays were going to lose the same way they lost on Sunday (Aug. 19) against the Texas Rangers.  By a huge margin.

I had good reason to think that way.  Jay’s starting pitcher, Ricky Romero had a terrible start in the early innings.  He would end the night giving up seven hits, five earned runs, eight walks and absolutely no strikeouts in 5.1 innings pitched.

By the sixth inning, the Tigers had a 5-1 lead.

To my surprise, though, the Jays rallied in the eighth a scored two runs to closed the gap 5-3.

Yet again, the Jays clutch hitting problems hurt them in the ninth inning as they had two on base and were unable to get them in and Romero suffered his 10th straight loss.

The second game started out okay for the Jays as they managed to contain the Tigers until the fourth inning when Omar Infante scored on a wild pitch.

 Down 2-0 at the top of the sixth inning, Edwin Encarnacion drove in Rajai Davis with a double.  At this point I thought the Jays had a chance.

The very next inning, down 3-1, Adieny Hechavarra drove  in Yorvit Torrealba with a sacrifice fly to cut the Tigers lead to 3-2.

In the eighth inning, though, the same problem that has been hampering the Jays this season, plagued them again.  The lack of clutch hitting.  They had two men on base and were unable to cash them in.  You have to score runs to beat teams like Detroit. 

What made it worse for the Jays, the game ended with Omar Vizquel being tagged out at second base when trying to steal from first base with two out in the ninth inning.  What in the world was he thinking?

The Jays also had problems at the plate.  They struckout eight times in this game and they are fifth in the American League in strikeouts this season.

Some more bad news for the Blue Jays, their hottest hitter, David Cooper had to leave the game early with a jammed neck.

 As for starting pitcher, Aaron Laffey, he had a pretty good night, giving up five hits, three earned runs, three walks, and struck out two batters in six innings pitched.

They Jays looked good in this afternoon’s game.  Edwin Encarnacion opened the scoring in the fourth inning by hitting a two run

Edwin Encarnacion

shot.  It was his 33rd home run of the season.  This guy has really improved his game this year at the plate.  Last year at this time he only had 12 homers under his belt.

Starting pitcher, J.A. Happ had another quality start, giving up only four hits, one earned run, three walks, and struck out seven batters in 7.1 innings pitched.

It looked as if it was going to be smooth sailing for the Jays until they got to the bottom of the eighth inning when they surrendered two runs to the Tigers and made it a 2-2 game.  I can’t tell you how disappointed I was when I saw that second run come to the plate.

There was no scoring in the ninth inning, so the game was pushed into extra innings.

To my dismay, Alex Avila drove in Quintin Berry in the bottom of the 11th inning for the winning run and the Tigers completed the sweep.

The Jays the  now head off to Baltimore for a three game stint startingf tomorrow night.

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