Laying an Egg at Disney World

Oh how I love it when the Jays play the Rays. The history, the drama, the heated rivlary. All right I'm kidding.  Usually a trip to Tampa results in frustration for Jays fans as the team somehow will lose the series to the perennial American League punching bags. 

I thought this time it might be different as the Jays have played well on the road so far this season and they weren't flying to Tampa to play the Rays but were flying to Orlando to play at Disney World's Wide World of Sports.  Isn't there something wrong when a major league baseball team has to play a regular season game in a Class A ballpark?  How can this team survive in Tampa? 

Well the change of scenary didn't help as the Jays dropped the first game of the series 6-4.  From the outset, it appeared Mickey Mouse took over as manager. It was clear John Gibbons was mailing this one in as he thought last night was a great time to rest one of his best hitters in Alex Rios.  You know this is a wise move when your offence is sputtering and you have your fifth starter on the hill against the opposing team's number one guy.  I may have only played for the East Mountain Cobras in Hamilton and not the New York Mets and I may not have ever managed in the big leagues (or any league for that matter) but I don't think John Gibbons gave his team the best chance to win.  Yes I'm well aware that not all players can play all 162 games but resting Rios with Litsch on the mound last night was ridiculous.  I have a hard time thinking this team can be a contender when they have Joe Inglett and Marco Scutaro in the starting lineup. 

Why did the team release Frank Thomas if they weren't going to use this lineup flexibility to their advantage? I thought the idea was to use the DH spot to get Stairs in the lineup more and allow guys like Rios and Wells to get a night off in the field?  Why didn't Gibbons start Stairs in left, have Rios DH and plug Inglett into right.  I'd take Stairs and Rios in my lineup over Stairs and Stewart.    This is where the release of Reed Johnson hurts the team.  Stewart can't play right field.  Johnson could play all three outfield positions.  If Stewart could play right (his throwing arm is horrendous), you could have plugged him in right with Stairs in left and had Rios in the DH spot.  Joe Inglett would have never needed to see the field!  Sorry for beating up on Joe but there is a reason he has found trouble staying in the show. 

I'm not saying that having Rios in the lineup last night would have changed the outcome, I just think as a manager, Gibbons has to pick his spots better when resting his starters.

What hurt last night the most is that Eric Hinske almost beat the Blue Jays single handedly.  Hinske was a single short of a cycle. and had two RBIs.  In fact, he even contributed to the Jays offense as well by making an error in the second inning that resulted in the Jays scoring two runs that inning. 

Jesse Litsch had a bad start and didn't get through the fourth inning before yielding to the bullpen.  He said he wasn't locating his pitches well and as a result, they were getting hit hard.  Hopefully Jesse can get his sinker working again before his next start.

Some good news is that Scott Rolen is nearing his return to the Jays.  It looks as if he'll be in the lineup come this weekend against the Royals.  I'm eagerly anticipating seeing Rolen slip into the sixth spot in the batting order (my best guess as to where Gibby will put him).  Hopefully we'll see Adam Lind get called up in the next few days as well and we should see the following lineup against righties:

1. Eckstein

2. Hill

3. Rios

4. Wells

5. Stairs

6. Rolen

7. Overbay

8. Lind

9. Zaun

Against lefties, you'll likely see Stewart playing in place of Lind and possibly Barajas instead of Stairs.  All of this is speculation of course.

Well regardless of last night's display, I'm looking forward to watching tonight's game.  The Jays will have the pitching edge tonight with Halladay on the mound against Jason Hammel who is 1-0 with a 5.14 ERA in three starts.