Music: {allcanada} Jays open homestand with loss to Rays

Monday, May 14, 2012

{allcanada} Jays open homestand with loss to Rays

TORONTO - A Toronto Blue Jays defence that has been pretty good at taking away runs this season was rather generous in giving them away Monday night.

The donations came in the form of five unearned runs during a six-run fifth that squandered the makings of another decent outing from Brandon Morrow and handed the Tampa Bay Rays a 7-1 victory.

Most pivotal in the mess were a harshly scored error to a diving Adam Lind on a grounder that deflected off his glove to second baseman Kelly Johnson but was beat out by Matt Joyce, allowing the go-ahead run to score, and a wild pitch strikeout that bounced away from catcher J.P. Arencibia and let Carlos Pena reach to load the bases.

Both would have ended the inning with minimal damage, but instead allowed the floodgates to open on Morrow (4-2), who proceeded to allow a two-run single to Luke Scott and two-run double to Sean Rodriguez to effectively decide things and end his win streak at four straight starts.

The Blue Jays (19-17), back home for a seven-game homestand after a disappointing 5-5 road trip, had only surrendered eight unearned runs all season before Monday's gong show, and weren't nearly locked in enough at the plate to make up the difference.

They managed to scratch out only a single run off reliever Cesar Ramos (1-0), who took over from injured starter Jeff Niemann in the second and was one of five relievers for the Rays (22-14) to keep things in check before a crowd of 15,289.

Kelly Johnson opened the scoring with a two-out RBI single in the second inning but Toronto hitters didn't manage another hit after Eric Thames' infield single in the third inning until the ninth. That gave Morrow little margin for error and it caught up with him in the fifth.

Will Rhymes opened the frame with a double and an out later came around on Elliot Johnson's single through a drawn-in infield. Ben Zobrist followed with a fielder's choice grounder the Blue Jays couldn't turn two on, and after a walk to B.J. Upton, Joyce stroked his grounder to Lind's right that he narrowly beat out on a call that could have gone either way.

The Rays led 2-1 at that point but Pena made it to first when Arencibia couldn't contain a ball in the dirt that should have ended the inning a second time but didn't.

Lind was back batting cleanup for the first time since being pushed down to eighth last Wednesday and responded with an 0-for-3 night that included a walk. One of the reasons Farrell moved him back was his success against Niemann (13-for-28 with three homers and two doubles), but the only damage he did to the right-hander was to his ankle, sending a shot off the pitcher's right foot in the first.

The Rays threw Lind out on the play and Niemann finished the frame, but left after warming for the second. He was taken to hospital for precautionary X-rays.

Adding to his rough night, Lind also made an error in the first when Upton's pop up by the first base dugout popped out of his glove. Upton later walked, extending Morrow's first.

Morrow allowed all six runs, only one earned, on four hits and four walks with seven strikeouts.

Zobrist added a solo shot in the ninth on the first pitch from reliever Carlos Villanueva.