Blue Jays Bullpen Costs Villanueva; Lose Late To Phillies
The Blue Jays had a glimpse of what it might have been like to beat the great Roy Halladay at home this afternoon, but the success was fleeting. For the 2nd straight game – and more times than I can count myself having to write over the last month – the bullpen couldn’t hold a 1-run lead, as the bluebirds and Carlos Villanueva dropped a close 3-5 contest in Doc’s homecoming.
None of it was really the fault of Villanueva, though; after getting off to a rough start that saw a pair of walks to leadoff the 1st inning, Villanueva settled down, and was – for the most part – step for step with the best pitcher in baseball though the better part of the game. Villanueva allowed 3 runs on 5 hits over his 6.2 innings, while walking 4 and striking out 3 – the walks aren’t pretty, but 2 of them came in the first inning when he was struggling with his command. At one point, the converted long-reliever turned starter retired 12 Phillies in a row, and if it wasn’t the the bullpen, he might be looking at a win over Halladay right now.
Today, the goat horns go from Frank Francisco to rookie Luis Perez, who came on in the 7th inning, tasked to hold a 1-run lead with a runner at third. Needless to say, it didn’t happen that way, as Perez waste no time in allowing a 2-run shot to Chase Utley to give the Phillies a 4-3 lead. Jon Rauch gave up another run in the 9th for good measure, but he was squeezed in the strike zone by home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez, particularly during an at-bat with Ryan Howard that resulted in the run.
Let’s just say that Rauch wasn’t too pleased about it – in fact, he flipped out on the umpire, channeling his inner Hulk, and it took no less than John Farrell (who also flipped out and was rejected), JPA and another coach to stop him from taking Marquez’s head off. You can experience the craziness here, courtesy of our friends on Twitter. Throw in a streaker who didn’t quite get his clothes off, and disgruntled fans stupidly throwing debris all over the field, and overall, I guess you could say Halladay had an eventful homecoming.
As for our offense, it was a bit of a surprise to me that we were able to get 3 runs on the board against Doc. In fact, the Jays bats managed 8 hits off the Phillies ace, and Jose Bautista crushed his 26th home run deep into centre field for a solo shot during their 2nd encounter. When Eric Thames got the Jays their go-ahead run with a 2-out RBI single in the 5th, it looked like we had a chance to pull off the upset; however, it wasn’t quite enough, and Halladay only got better as the game went along – once he had the lead in the 7th, it might as well have ended. Doc got yet another complete game win against the Jays, striking out 8 and recording his 11th victory.
It won’t get any easier from here, as the Blue Jays will have to rely on Jo-Jo Reyes to avoid the sweep – that in itself would be an accomplishment against the Phillies, but they also have to do it against Cliff Lee, who will bring his 3 CG shutout streak to the Rogers Centre tomorrow to close out the interleague series.
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I for one was very happy to see Rauch blow his top like that. Not because it shows passion, but because it will get him suspended. That will be about 6 blown save/hold opportunities we won’t have to worry about. Geez, what’s happened to the bullpen? I have zero faith in it. The starters should all be begging to pitch complete games. Maybe they need to send JoJo in there to clean things up?
I think you’re right with the bullpen – the team just hasn’t really been in sync like that this year. When the bullpen was doing well in April, the starting pitching was so-so. Now the starting pitching is doing well, but the bullpen is falling apart.
Sounds like the Jays are just going to ride it out and see if someone steps up to solidify things eventually. As for Jo-Jo, I think his time with the team is going to be up pretty soon, with all the housecleaning going on. When he finally gets DFA’d, it’ll have been several months too late.