Blue Jays lose the season finale to the Rays 12-3

39. Final. 12. 21. 3

Well, I did not think it would come down to this. Last weekend I thought maybe Mark Buehrle made his last start of the season. He has struggled through the last few months of the season but still pitched fairly well. He made a start on Friday and picked up 6.2 innings of work. That meant that he only needed 2 innings to reach his goal of 200. On only a single day of rest Mark wanted to go out and complete his goal. It turned out that John Gibbons was all for this idea. So, today marked Marks 32 start of the season and potentially his last of his career.

The fairly tale ending did not happen for Mark though. The Rays piled on top of Mark quickly. Ryan Goins committed a rare fielding error to open up the game as Brandon Guyer reached on the play. Mikie Mahtook reached base on a fielder’s choice for the 1st out. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a single to put 2 runners on base. Steven Souza reached on an Edwin Encarnacion fielding error to allow another run to cross. James Loney hit a fly ball for the 2nd out of the inning with the bases still loaded. Tim Beckham walked for a free RBI keeping the bases loaded with two outs. Joey Butler smashed the 1st grand slam of the season for the Rays. Luke Maile and Brandon Guyer had back to back hits to mark the end of the quest for 200 for Buehrle. Ryan Tepera entered the game to pitch for the Blue Jays. Mike Mahtook smashed the 2nd home run of the inning for the Rays to deep left field. Evan Longoria ground out to mercifully bring the inning to an end.

Drew Hutchison entered the 3rd inning to pitch for the Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays got on the board in the top of the 4th with a lead off solo home run by Chris Colabello.

In the bottom of the 5th inning Steven Souza led off with a single and advanced to 2nd on a wild pitch. James Loney singled putting runners on the corners. Another wild pitch allowed a run to score. Tim Beckham struck out for the first out of the inning. Joey Butler blasted his 2nd home run of the game to score 2 more runs. Liam Hendriks came in and picked up the next two outs.

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In the 6th inning the Blue Jays made a myriad of defensive changes. Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista, Ben Revere, and Russell Martin were all replaced by Jonathan Diaz, Cliff Pennington, Ezequiel Carrera, Justin Smoak, and Josh Thole. Aaron Loup came in to pitch for the Blue Jays and picked up a clean inning.

Matt Andriese entered the game to pitch the 7th inning for the Rays. Troy Tulowitzki hit a lead off double but was stranded after the next 3 batters were retired in order.

In the bottom of the 7th inning the Blue Jays made more defensive changes. Troy Toluwitzki, Ryan Goins, and Kevin Pillar were replaced by Munenori Kawasaki, Dalton Pompey, and Darwin Barney. Aaron Loup picked up his 4th out of the game before Aaron Sanchez came in to pitch the rest of the inning.

Jeff Francis came in to pitch the 8th inning for the Blue Jays and was able to retire the side in order.

Enny Romero came in to pitch the top of the 9th for the Rays. Dalton Pompey hit a lead off double. Darwin Barney smashed a two run shot to deep left center field. Munenori Kawasaki followed that up with a single to left field. Jonathan Diaz picked up an infield single to put runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. Cliff Pennington popped up to right field for the 1st out. Ezequiel Carrera reached on a fielder’s choice but Justin Smoak lined out to end the game.

Game Notes:

• The obvious bullet here is Mark Buehrle. He failed in his bid for 200 IP. He only recorded 2 outs and was shellacked for 8 runs. The score card says none were earned but that may change. With already a huge lead and the AL East secured I personally would have left Mark in. He didn’t have much help with 2 error committed in the inning. Home field advantage in the post season was at stake but it seemed like a long shot with how quickly the Rays piled on the runs.
• Edwin Encarnacion finished shy of the 40 HR mark by just a single blast. He picked up 39 HR, 111 RBI, and 94 R on the season. Not too shabby.
• Jose Bautista was able to hit the 40 HR plateau though. He finished the season with 40 HR, 114 RBI, and 108 R. Jose was also able to pick up 110 total walks on the season which is good for 3rd in MLB.
• Last of the mashers is Josh Donaldson who reached 40 HR earlier in the season and was able to reach 41 in total. He also picked up 123 RBI and 122 R.

Grades:

Chris Colabello. OFFENSE . A+. Today was not meant to be I guess. After the 8 runs were piled on top of Buerhle it felt like the wind was sucked out of the Blue Jays sails. Chris Colabello was the only starter to really get anything going. After the 6th inning all of the top dogs were pulled out of the game. In the 9th they put up a couple runs but it was far too late. I will grade the offense instead on the season (excluding todays game on these stats), the picked up an MLB leading 5.52 runs per game. They were 6th with 9.14 hits per game. They were tied for 1st with 1.14 home runs per game. They were 1st with 3.51 walks per game. They were 1st with 0.39 sacrifice flies per game and they were 2nd with a team 0.269 batting average. This team was elite all season despite some individual struggles and injuries all around. . Game Ball

A+. Today is not a grade of how Mark pitched in this game. Today was just a hope that maybe Mark could hit the 200 IP for the 15th straight season. The grade is for his season, his tenure with the Blue Jays, and his career. Mark has had a career most kids growing up can only dream of. He picked up a world series ring in 2005 with the White Sox, was awarded 4 gold gloves, and notched 214 career wins. While I did not think he would stay long in Toronto I’m glad he stayed for his whole contract. I’m glad he was here this year to pick up 15 huge wins and help push the Blue Jays into the post season. Mark Buehrle is a class act and deserves nothing less than an A+, no matter how today ended.  . . Mark Buehrle. STARTING PITCHER

Aaron Sanchez. BULLPEN . A+. Mark was unable to complete the 1st inning today. So the pen was needed for 7.2 IP. It was actually nice for some of the players, as the roster is about to shrink and they got to play one last time before the end of their season. The pen started out rocky at the start of the season but rounded out to one of the best in the game. It was nice to see the transition happen over the last 100 games. <strong><a href=. Game Ball

Next: Blue Jays pitchers lock down the run game

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