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Message #: 27543
So the Jays had a 4-game lead entering the week, eh? Now let us read for the umpteenth time, the story of "NOBODY, but NOBODY, Chokes Away A Pennant Like the Blue Jays".... Chapter 1, "The Slaughter": Toronto ace Juan Guzman was cruising along for 2 entire innings and had a 2-0 lead courtesy of Joe Carter's 35th home run. An error by Gold Glove 3B Kelly Gruber cut our lead in half and then disaster struck in the 4th inning (2 gophers, 4 runs). And again in the 5th (triple, gopher, single, single, single, single, single, single). Guzman's successors on the mound (Macdonald, Ward) were every bit as surgically dismembered as the starter. Gruber's unearned run was rendered as pointless as his 2-run 9th inning home run that made up for it. Final score: 11-4, as the Jays were battered for 17 hits & 29 total bases. Jim Abbott went the distance for the Orioles, having an easy time against a Toronto lineup that was no more effective than our pitching, as he fanned *13* while walking no one. ============================================= Chapter 2, "Another Swing And A Miss": Although we used three "real" starters during this series, the depleted Blue Jay rotation caused Tony Castillo (it was either him or -- you gotta be kidding -- Jason Grimsley). Castillo was bad, but no worse than Chapter One's fiasco, and today HAL added an element of Sabotage Defense to his destruction of the Jays. The TOA offense was once again producing nothing except a mighty breeze -- ***SIXTEEN*** strikeouts today against not-exactly-power-pitchers Nagy, Williamson and Candelaria -- and Castillo received a whopping zero in terms of offensive support; he got less than zero support from his defense. Castillo allowed a pair of runs in the 2nd before Manny Lee made his daily 2-base error, but we got the final out to let Lee off the hook; Castillo wasn't quite as "fortunate" in the 6th when what turned out to be the losing runs crossed the plate due to another timely flub by our '1' at third base that helped plate 3 runs while still nobody was out. Mike Timlin came on and averted further damage by fanning 3 Baltimore batters on 9 pitches (with a single sandwiched in between). Timlin would later be charged with a couple of runs on yet ANOTHER sabotage defense event. It wasn't until the 8th that the visitors finally broke the shutout when Candelaria donated a pair of doubles off his card, good for 3 irrelevant runs. Final score: 7-3. ============================================= Chapter 3, "One And Done For The Jays": Orioles got the 1's; the Jays are done. We finally put the brakes on the all the strikeouts (4) and errors (0) but the batters otherwise fared no better against Baltimore mediocrity Bob Milacki than they had in the first two alleged contests of this nightmare series. We did score a run in the first, then David Wells gave it right back, but Lee's second inning single put us back on top 2-1. The TOA offense managed 4 hits in those first two frames -- and then just 2 more over the final 7 innings. Mike Devereaux's RBI triple in the 6th tied the score and sent Wells off. Duane Ward got Randy Milligan on a short fly ball for the second out of the frame. Concerned that Ward wouldn't complete the choke, HAL bypassed the need for a 2-out RBI by having Ward simply wild-pitch Devereaux home; HAL needn't have worried -- Cal Ripken came through with a double anyway. Moments later Ed Sprague rescued the Jays temporarily and tied the game with a leadoff homer in the Toronto 7th, our first BASERUNNER since the second inning, requiring Ward to choke again. No problem. In the Baltimore 8th, Devereaux singled (split card: 1) after a leadoff walk, and Ripken followed Milligan's RBI with an RBI single (split card: 1) of his own to ice the 5-3 loss. Those split cards didn't really need to be 1's, but the message was received loud and clear. And in case it wasn't, there was always.... ============================================= Chapter 4, "The Master Shows How It's Done": Todd Stottlemyre has become the Blue Jay ace lately (how sad is *that*?) and today he pitched extremely well again after giving up a 2-out RBI double in the first. But of course the Toronto offense was its typical comatose self, even though the Orioles used Jeff Ballard as their starting pitcher. The Jays managed nary a baserunner against Cy Ballard until we strung together a game's worth of hits (3, to be exact) with 2 outs in the fifth, and two of them actually scored to give Toronto a 2-1 lead! We were unable to take advantage of some rare Baltimore defensive generosity in the 8th and LOBbed 2, but Stottlemyre retired the O's with ease in the bottom of the frame and the score remained 2-1. There is a very good reason why the Jays dread the Bottom Of The Ninth and those fears would be realized for about the millionth time again today. Craig Biggio flew out to begin the inning that would finally seal Toronto's fate for 1991, and no Oriole batter would roll on his own card again; he wouldn't need to -- Toronto pitchers know all too well what to do in this situation. Ripken immediately drew a walk and was doubled to third by Milligan. Stottlemyre exited and was replaced by a man whose card consists of over 90% outs against both lefties and righties. Besides, Joe Sambito was not available. Pinch-hitter Craig Worthington hung tough against Tom Henke, but struck out on 6 pitches. With Baltimore down to their final out and still trailing by a run, in stepped Devereaux and Henke could no longer resist the inevitable. Two more pitches followed, and then came one more in a long list of game-losing gophers. Final score: 4-2. The Blue Jays' season could hardly have ended any more appropriately. Alan |
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