Jays 2, Mariners 0
It was one of the nights. Simply put. A night that opponents of the greatest pitchers in the game know all too well. A night when your ace is on. Even in the pregame warmup Jays Manager Cito Gaston thought one run scored for his team would be enough. Well…Cito, you were right.
Roy Halliday (w 9-6) pitched a complete game four hitter, his sixth of the season. He struck out six, and walked zero. Out of his 115 pitches, 84 were for strikes. With that type of control of the pitch count he blew through the lineup only allowing two singles by Richie Sexson, and singles by Willie Bloomquist, and Jeremy Reed. Thats it.
R.A. Dickey (L 2-4) pitched well enough to keep his team in the game, but getting no run support finally caught up with him. David Eckstein ripped a double in the fifth, and eventually scored on a Marco Scutaro single to finally get the Jays on the board against Dickey. A Rob Barajas tapper in the sixth with the bases loaded, scored Vernon Wells to make it 2-0. That was all the run support that Halliday needed.
The loss snapped the teams three-game win streak, and was the Jays third in a row. The Mariners returned to regular league play going with Jeff Clement in DH spot. Clement continued to struggle as he struck out three times on the night. The good thing for Clement is that the team is going to let him ride out his slump this time. I think before the end of the year he will turn it around.
In some other team news, the team placed Felix Hernandez on the 15 day DL. I’m sure Felix wants to go, but with a last place team, and him being a key component to their future, i doubt the M’s want to take any chances with his ankle.
The team also announced Ryan Rowland-Smith would get the start Tuesday night. It will be his first start since pitching for Double A San Antonio in 2006. I’m sure the team will monitor his pitch count and I expect him to maybe go 3 to 4 innings. Opposing the Mariners at Safeco for game two, will be righty Jesse Litsch (8-4). Gametime is at 7:10 PT.
