‘05 Jays play spoiler by taking 2 of 3 from ‘57 Tigers

GAME 1 – Tiger Stadium – TOR 9, DET 1

Roy “Doc” Halladay (4-2, 1.15) finally got some run support as the floodgates opened for Toronto in a 7 run 6th.  Up until that point “Doc” was back in familiar territory, nursing a 1 run lead.  Duke Maas (2-2, 2.96) was going pitch for pitch with Halladay until he was ambushed in the 6th.  Eric Hinske (4-5, 2RBI, 2R) was the hitting star as he increased his season average to .364.  Hinske also had 18 putouts at first on what turned out to be a busy day on both sides of the ledger.

GAME 2 – DET 5, TOR 4

The top of the 9th saw the Blue Jays rally back from a 2 run deficit  to tie the game at 4.  Tiger reliever Harry Byrd (2-2, 3.74)  started the inning off on the wrong foot by walking Toronto catcher Greg Zaun.  Pinch hitter Reed Johnson singled to put runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out.  Aaron Hill sliced a single to right to score Russ Adams, who pinch ran for Zaun.  Frank Catalanotto had a great 8 pitch AB that culminated in a long sac fly out to Charlie Maxwell in left to score Johnson with the tying run.  Fame is fleeting and so is success.  Just like that Toronto’s effort was for naught as HOF’er Al Kaline hit an upper deck homer with one out in the botoom of the 9th off of Jason Frasor to win the game in walk off fashion.

GAME 3 – TOR 11, DET 8

Detroit had a huge 6 run fourth inning off Jays’ starter Pete Walker to take a 6-4 lead.  Unfortunately for them their starter Billy Hoeft was equally as inept as Walker, who could also lay some blame on his porous defense.  Toronto made 3 huge errors, but all was not lost.  By the middle of the 7th the Jays actually had a 2 run lead, but Detroit rallied for solo runs in both the 7th and 8th innings to tie it and force extra frames.  Toronto left no doubt in the top of the 10th when they posted 3 big runs off of Tiger reliever Frank Larry (2-4, 7.67).  The deciding blow was a 2 RBI double by Alex Rios that scored Hinske and Vernon Wells.  Frasor came on to notch the save in the bottom of the 10th and got 2 quick outs before PH Johnny Groth singled to center.  Catcher Frank House hit a hot smash off of Orlando Hudson’s glove at 2nd to reach on an error.  This brought the tying run to the plate in the name of Frank Bolling.  Bolling batted Frasor to a full count before flying out to Wells in center to end the marathon.