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KANSAS CITY — It was messy, and questions were and will be asked about the way John Gibbons handled his bullpen in Friday night's 8-4 loss to the Kansas City Royals as they usually are when a team gives up six runs in the eighth inning of a game and sees the other team send 11 men to the plate.
Yet the Toronto Blue Jays manager patiently answered the second-guessing in his post-game interview session - saying he left right-hander A.J. Burnett in to face lefty-swinging Mark Teahen instead of playing the percentages and bringing in lefty Scott Downs because there was one out, a man on and his team was leading 4-2 at the time and the real object of his concern was right-hand hitting Billy Butler, who hits behind Teahen.
Besides, he says the only relievers he had available were Downs and Jeremy Accardo and the words "two-inning save," kept crossing his mind. Why did he intentionally walk banjo-hitting No. 9 hitter Tony Pena, Jr.? To set the force at every base, now that his team was down 5-4. "Plus," he added, "he's a tough guy to double up."
Gibbons had one more thing he wanted to say, too. "It's all good baseball thought," he said, after a back and forth about the use of Downs. "But one thing you have to give me: we got the ground ball we needed."
Blue Jays third baseman Scott Rolen started for the first time since breaking his finger in spring training and cashed in a pair of runs with a double in the eighth against the Royals Friday night. The Jays couldn't hold the lead and lost 8-4. (REUTERS/Dave Kaup)
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And so they did. It just didn't matter - or, at least, didn't work out. And that's pretty much par for the course for the Blue Jays these days - last place in the American League East, in the middle of a five-game losing streak and 0-4 now on this nine-game, 10-day road trip. Full measure for their agony.
For all that eighth-inning mess - the two-run single by David DeJesus and run-scoring single by Albert Callaspo - it was David Eckstein's second error of the game that torched a potential inning-ending double play. Ross Gload hit a ball back to the mound and Downs looked home but made the right play, throwing a strike to second base.
And Eckstein dropped the ball. Just dropped it.
"I just missed it," Eckstein said later, fully dressed and ready to leave the clubhouse while his teammates sat in various stages of undress. "That ... that shouldn't happen right there."
The night was supposed to mark Scott Rolen's 2008 debut after a month off to repair a fractured finger and for a while it looked like it would be a magical one - steady, assured defence and a two-run gap double that brought the Blue Jays dugout to its feet. But then it was gone. Phhht! Like the air out of a balloon.
"It was definitely great to see him healthy and he got a big hit," said Eckstein. "Yeah ... if I just catch that ball, we would have been all right."
The win allowed the Royals to snap a seven-game losing streak, which included a double-header loss to the Cleveland Indians on Thursday.
For a while it looked like that would be eight games, as Lyle Overbay - hurrah! - slugged his first home run of the season and his first in 132 at bats, the first run allowed at Kauffman Stadium by Royals starter Zack Greinke in 15 innings.
Leo Nunez (2-0) picked up the win for Royals despite giving up Rolen's double. A.J. Burnett (2-2) took the loss allowing eight hits in 7 1/3 innings, striking out six and walking three. He also unleashed two wild pitches and was charged with two balks, one of them occuring when he threw to first base without seeming to realize that Overbay was not holding the runner. Vernon Wells was also charged with an error in the eighth and looked tentative both at the plate and in the field.
Burnett said later it was the best he'd felt all year. His curveball was biting and he went out of his way to laud catcher Rod Barajas, who started the game because Gregg Zaun hurt the thumb on his catching hand Thursday in Orlando. Zaun refused to have x-rays taken, saying the thumb was "just a little sore."
What's it going to take to turn this around? Burnett thought. "I hate to say it, but sometimes shit happens," Burnett said matter-of-factly.
