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.
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