Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Swing And A Miss...And A Miss...And A...

I remember watching the movie Fever Pitch, a comedy about the Red Sox. It was made before the Sox won the World Series a few years ago, so there were lots of funny lines about what losers they were. I remember one of the characters saying, "They've elevated losing to an art form."

Move over Rembrandt, hello Blue Jays.

Tonight, they blew it in magnificent style. Nobody out. Bottom of the 9th. Game tied 2-2. Eckstein on first. Rios at the plate.

Whoops. Eckstein is thrown out at first base, caught leaning. The odds of seeing a man picked off at first are worse than 1 in 100, but the Jays manage to do it with nobody out in the bottom of the 9th.

Rios walks.

Next batter comes up, gets called on a dumb check swing while Rios steals second. Two out.

Wild pitch. Rios to third.

Rollen grounds out.

Next inning, Seattle scores, game over. Ah, but how did the Mariners score, you ask? Simple: Blue Jays pitcher Jason Frasor walked the bases loaded, and the Mariners put on a safety squeeze.

That's the Jays. Bottom of the 9th heroics that involve runners caught leaning, and check-swing strikeouts. Then the very next inning, their relief staff walks 'em loaded.

But wait, it gets better. Believe or not, the Jays still had a chance to win after the Mariners went ahead 3-2. That's right, the Blue Jays loaded the bases twice in the bottom of the tenth, and still did not bring home a run. That is not easy to do in professional baseball, but the Jays, like the Red Sox of old, have turned losing into an art form.

Makes me wish hockey season was back already.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's depressing. The pitching is solid. the line-up SHOULD be solid...Overbay, Hill, Rolen, Rios, Wells,...even the left field platoon is pretty good.

I can't figure out why they're losing because, on paper, they should be contending for first place.

At this point you have to wonder if it's the manager, or the coaches. Maybe Ernie Whitt should be running the squad.

I dunno.