Blue Jays 9 at Tigers 10

For someone who wants to compete for a starting job with the Blue Jays Shaun Marcum looks like he is ready to compete for a starting job with Syracuse.

On a cold and blustery day when snow flakes fell periodically througout Comerica Park the Tigers were able to win their first game of the season.  After strong starting pitching from Nate Robertson in which he scattered singles to the potent Jays lineup he had to sweat in out in the freezing dugout when the normally solid Tigers ‘pen was almost stuck with another loss.

On the case for pitching, AJ Burnett took the loss to the Jays.  He was unable to find the strikezone after the second inning.  The Jays were able to get some breaks in the third when twice the Tigers had singles with runners at first and second and couldn’t score despite bobbles by Reed Johnson and Gregg Zaun.  One of my concerns about the Jays from last year carried over this year when Curtis Granderson got a hesitation and a bad start from first but was easily safe at second.  It seemed last year that Jays catchers could only throw each other out stealing.  It wasn’t Zaun’s fault that Burnett was unable to retire a single Tiger and gave up six earned runs before calling it a afternoon.

Shaun Marcum was unable to bail Burnett out and probably help the Jays bleeding in giving up his own runs.  The Tigers scored 8 runs in the third and took a commanding 9-0 lead before Marcum was done.   

The uneventful middle innings were capped with an Aaron Hill two- run shot. The Jays were threatening in the sixth with Thomas and Glaus on when Rios hit into a double play only to be followed by an Aaron Hill line drive homer into the Tigers bullpen breaking the shutout and closing the Tiger lead to a mere touchdown. 

Jays were able to put up seven runs in the 8th but with Wells on second and one out the heart of the lineup was not able to score. 

With Todd Jones in to close it out the Jays again had two on and one out and couldn’t put the tying run across giving the Tigers their first win of ’07.

The Jays had 16 hits, with everyone contributing except Royce Clayton who was PH for in the 8th by Jason Smith.  Accardo and Jason Frasor both had solid outings combining for three innings without putting a runner on.  Frasor bailed out Zambrano who walked two to start his second inning with the Jays. 

Anyways, good game to watch on a cold afternoon.  The announced attendance was 25,000 but I feel it was under 20,000.  I was expecting to do a review of today’s game (Apr 5) but that will have to wait until September when the game will be made up.