Fifth-Inning Fusillade
Twenty-nine year old Mike McCoy is the Blue Jays’ attempt to build a Bill Hall of their own. The utility man has played every outfield position and every infield spot except catcher and first baseman. Results are at times spectacular; his third inning web gem had him sliding on the warning track in left, snaring Yamaico Navarro’s fly ball on the backhand, and turning in time to stop his momentum with his back against the wall perpendicular to the Green Monster.
Navarro got the better of McCoy in the fifth inning when his grounder slipped by the defender’s glove. The Red Sox shortstop reached third on McCoy’s gaffe and a run scored.
The shaky defense unnerved Shaun Marcum. He threw three consecutive balls to Ryan Kalish and likely would have walked him if Kalish hadn’t gotten under a low and away fastball. J.D. Drew exploited Marcum’s weakness with a two-run jack over the Red Sox bullpen.
While Boston is still mathematically alive, tagging Toronto with their 74th loss has eliminated the Blue Jays from the playoff picture. Jon Lester had four each of hits, walks, and strikeouts over seven innings. His pitching was not dominant but when Lester needed a pivotal out he bore down.
In the third and fifth innings Jose Bautista took the box with the bases loaded and two down. Both times he grounded out to the infield. Bautista was equally ineffective with the bases clean, grounding out to third to end the first and flying out to right to lead off the eighth.
In the battle between the almost-MVP candidate and the near-Cy Young caliber pitcher, Lester prevailed. Such is the lot of AL East also-rans.
| Game 149: September 19, 2010 | ||
| Blue Jays 75-74 | 0 | L: Shaun Marcum (12-8) |
| No extra base hits. | ||
 Red Sox83-66 | 6 | W: Jon Lester (18-8) |
| 2B: Daniel Nava (13), Bill Hall (12) HR: Victor Martinez (18), J.D. Drew (19) | ||
