In a game that lasted over three and a half hours and saw twenty-two runs on over thirty hits, the Blue Jays hope they didn’t use up all the runs in their bats to win tonight’s game against the Seattle Mariners.
Although the Blue Jays prevailed in the end, it would be the Mariners to jump out in front against Ted Lilly in the second inning with a trio of runs. Adrian Beltre would get things started with a solo blast to straight-away center, which was followed by an RBI single by former Blue Jays World Series MVP Pat Borders and sacrifice-fly by Ichiro Suzuki.
Toronto would have some catching up to do and would get it started in their half of the second against Aaron Sele. With the bases loaded and one out, Russ Adams would bring home the Jays first run with a sac-fly. Frank Catalanotto would single home Alex Rios and Vernon Wells would lace a double down the line in left field, scoring two more to give the Jays a 4-3 lead.
Long ridiculed for much of the past two months, Eric Hinske would give the Toronto faithful something to cheer about by belting a two-run home run off the facing of the fourth deck in right, extending the lead to 6-3.
The Mariners would get one back in the fifth on a Randy Winn lead off home run to deep left field cutting the Jays lead to 6-4.
Toronto would begin to pull away in their half of the fifth where they would score four times. Catalanotto and Wells would both hit RBI doubles sandwiched by run scoring singles from Russ Adams and Shea Hillenbrand making it 10-4 Blue Jays.
The game would get interesting in the sixth where Seattle would knock Ted Lilly out of the game after a triple by Jeremy Reed and a sac-fly by Jose Lopez. Jason Frasor would replace Lilly and surrender an RBI double to Suzuki and a Raul Ibanez RBI single making it 10-7. Seattle slugger Richie Sexson would bring his club within one run by pounding out a two-run opposite field home run to right field.
Eric Hinske would calm the Toronto crowd with his second home run of the game, another two-run shot, giving the Jays a small three-run cushion.
Seattle would add one more run in the eighth, a Richie Sexson RBI single, before Miguel Batista would retire the final five outs of the game for his sixteenth save of the season, putting the final touches on a wild 12-10 game.
Ted Lilly (8-9) would pick up his eighth win of the season after pitching five and one-third innings, allowing five runs on seven hits. Aaron Sele (6-10) would be tagged with the loss, surrendering six runs, all earned, on six hits in only three innings of work.
Both clubs will be back at it Wednesday night with Gustavo Chacin (8-5) taking the mound against Mariners right-hander Ryan Franklin (5-10).
The game on Wednesday can be seen on TSN starting at 7pm EST with radio coverage on The FAN 590am.
InsideTheDome’s Game Notes: Of the Blue Jays seventeen hits, seven of them went for extra bases…Toronto rookie Aaron Hill was the only Blue Jay not to record a hit, going 0-for-4, dropping his average to .333…Ryan Franklin hopes to have a better outing versus the Jays Wednesday night after being stung for seven runs and ten hits in two and two-third innings pitched back on May 31st.
|