Mistakes and Poor Offense Plague Jersey; Fall Behind in Series 2-1

On a day that featured 4 errors, 11 pitchers and 11 innings of baseball the Titans of Toronto ended up on top to take a 3-2 win and a 2-1 advantage in this best of 7 Divisional Series.  Though Titans starter Gonzales only pitched 4.2 innings, the Titans bullpen combined throwing 6 arms, giving up only 1 run on 3 hits in 6.1 innings, limiting the powerful Jersey offense to just 2 runs on 5 hits.

Jose Lara, making only his 2nd start since coming off his rehab assignment was sharp pitching 6.2 innings giving up 6 hits, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.  The last batter he faced reached on an error when 1B John Warner bobbled a throw, a play that should have ended the inning.  Instead reliever Angel Lara would come in and promptly give up a double to German Rivas followed by a single from Luis Gonzalez which would score two runs and give Toronto a late 2-1 lead.

Jersey would come back in top of the 8th and tie the game on back to back doubles by Alberto Perez and Matthieu Vancini, but Bryant would end up stranding Vancini on 3rd with a lazy fly ball to center field two batters later.  Toronto would strand a runner on 2nd in the bottom half and John Warner nor Warren Goyer could knock in Fransisco Ibarra from 2nd base in the Top of the 9th.

Jersey would get a real chance to pull ahead in the 11th when Ignacio Rios would hit Jersey shortstop Lawrence Schroeder with a pitch on a 2-2 count and walk Mike Bryant to put two runners on with none out.  Toronto would get the force out at 2nd on Ibarra' fielder choice putting runners at the corners for David Dodd.  The mistake came when Ibarra lazily was caught leaning off of 1st base on a pick off throw which wasn't even close.  Dodd would eventually strike out which would be Jersey's last chance to take the lead in the game.  

Toronto would start the 11th with a bloop since from Zaragoza followed by a walk from Overbeek to give the Titans life.  Reliever Gerald Johnson would get Ayala to hit a slow chopper where 3B Perez's only play was 1st base giving the Titans 2 runners in scoring position with only 1 out.  Catcher Gonzalez would be intentionally walked to set up the double play for 9th hitter Lucero.  Johnson wouldn't even give him a chance to win the game with a hit by walking him on 4 pitches and forcing in Zaragoza from 3rd for the winning run to end a frustrating and error filled game for the D-Bags and putting them in a 2-1 series hole.

This is not a position the D-Bags wanted to get into, especially with 2 more games in Toronto.  Game 4 both teams will bring back their Game 1 starters on short rest as Jose Ramos looks to even the series with another dominate performance.  Meanwhile Lebel tries to avoid losing to the D-Bags for the 5th time this season while putting team on the brink of their 3rd trip to the League Championship Series for the 3rd time in 4 season.

GO D-BAGS