Results tagged ‘ Shaun Marcum ’
Royals 4, Blue Jays 3
The Blue Jays failed to sweep their home series against Kansas City yesterday, with a 4-3 loss in 10 innings. After trailing until the eighth inning, the Jays tied the score at three to push for extras. But Scott Downs gave up a two-out, solo home run to Royals third baseman Alex Gordon in the 10th and the Jays failed to equal things in the home half of the inning. All in all, it was a sub-.500 homestand, but not bad considering the absence of Aaron Hill and Edwin Encarnacion.
Hill will rejoin the club tomorrow in Tampa, while Encarnacion and Brian Tallet were added to the 15 day DL yesterday, retroactive back to the day after their last games.
The Good:
Fred Lewis: The speedy fielder had perhaps his best game as a Jay, with a hit, and RBI, a steal and a run scored.
Alex Gonzalez: After cooling off a bit, the shortstop swung a hot bat again in the loss, hitting his fifth home run of the season in the fourth inning (a two-run shot).
Shaun Marcum: He’s still looking for that elusive first win, but in seven innings of work, was strong with six hits allowed and only three runs against, while fanning six batters and only walking one.
The Bad:
Lyle Overbay: Went 0-for-4 again, with three strikeouts.
Vernon Wells: See Overbay’s line.
Buck Watch: N/A. This one wasn’t on TV, so I caught a wonderful radio broadcast by Jerry Howarth and Alan Ashby. You can’t beat baseball on the radio!
Let’s go Marcum!
In honour of Shaun Marcum starting tonight, and hopefully getting his first win of the season, here’s a card I got signed of him way back in 2006. Marcum has pitched well this season, with an ERA of 3.46, but that elusive first win still escapes him. Let’s hope the offence is on track tonight and can help Marcum get it done.
Game 1 notes
Final score:
Rangers 5, Blue Jays 4
This was a game of ups and downs, just as the Blue Jays season will likely be. But given the loss, were there more downs in this one? Not really. The late innings were frustrating, but Toronto did a lot of things well and despite moving to 17-17 all-time on Opening Day, this was a good showing.
The good:
Shaun Marcum: With a no-no into the seventh, Marcum left little doubt he’s no longer feeling the affects of his Tommy John surgery. He looked in control with six strikeouts and
Vernon Wells: V-Dub was clutch with a first-inning two-run home run with two outs. In the eighth, he added a clutch RBI to restore Toronto’s lead after Texas had made it 3-3.
Adam Lind: 3-for-3 with a home run. About as good an Opening Day as you can ask for.
The bad:
Travis Snider: 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Yikes.
John Buck: 0-for-4, but the real problem was his leaving four runners on base.
Jason Frasor: He gets the loss after his blown save, but I thought his pitch selection was good. He battled well in the ninth and will hopefully be better next outing.
Numbers Game: Frasor’s ERA on the day ends up the same as his jersey number: 54, ugh.
Buck Watch: What did anyone think of the debut of Buck Martinez? I didn’t understand Sportsnet’s decision to “reassign” Jamie Campbell, as I always thought Campbell made for a good call and had a natural play-by-play voice. Martinez, on the other hand, has a grating voice that gets under my skin. Sure, he’s got great knowledge of the game, but his mispronounciation (“Jason Frazier?”) and head-scratching comments (“Marcum had a Tommy John injury?”) make me wonder if it’ll be a long season. I don’t know what the over/under on me muting my TV and tuning into the Jays’ radio broadcast is, but it might be before long.
Watchability: This game was exciting, with a potential no-hitter going into the seventh inning and late-game heroics. I give this four baseballs out of five.
Opening Day 2010
Less than four hours from now, the 2010 edition of the Toronto Blue Jays will take to the field behind Shaun Marcum to kick off the season in Texas. We’ll get into predictions for 2010 later on, but in honour of today, let’s look back at two of the best performances in Blue Jays Opening Day history.
The first came on the team’s first Opening Day, way back in 1977. At old, snowy Exhibition Stadium, against the Chicago White Sox, players waited, waited, and waited some more during a lengthy snow delay.
When things finally got underway, the hero was Doug Ault, an unheralded 1B/DH the team had acquired during its expansion draft. Ault hit just 17 career home runs in the Big Leagues, but launched two blasts on Opening Day to endear himself to frozen Jays fans and give the team a 9-5 win. Even more impressive was the fact that his two homers came in his first two at-bats; the first, a solo shot in the first inning, and the second, a two-run shot in the third. Ault retired from playing following the 1980 season, but managed for several years at various levels of the Blue Jays farm system.
I had the opportunity to meet Ault and get his autograph early in the 2001 season. I had tickets for a game that spring that was cancelled shortly before the gates were to open after a panel of the SkyDome roof fell onto the field. As I waited in line for a ticket refund with several thousand other annoyed fans, the Jays sent out Ault to sign autographs and smooth things over. (It sort of makes you wonder if the Jays were keeping Ault somewhere in the ballpark in case they needed to do crowd control. It was a case of, “We’re sorry that you won’t see the Jays in action tonight … but here’s Doug Ault!” Very odd.) Anyway, I got two autographs from him and shook his hand. Very cool.
But Ault’s 1977 Opening Day wasn’t the best in team history. Slugger George Bell topped Ault’s feat during the first game of the 1988 season against Kansas City. With Royals ace Bret Saberhagen on the mound, Bell launched three jacks to become the first player in MLB history with a trio of home runs on Opening Day.
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