Jays shut out by Cardinals
TORONTO -- Forget what the scoreboard says. The Blue Jays played their most lopsided game of the season on Tuesday night, a fact reflected in the hits column, if not the final score.The Jays notched just one hit in their 7-0 loss to St. Louis, and the game was rarely even that close. The Cardinals got 15 hits, but they also got a spectacular pitching performance from former Blue Jay Chris Carpenter. Larry Walker blasted two homers, knocking in four runs in support, but the night was clearly all about the road team's starting pitcher.
"It was the Carpenter/Walker show," said John Gibbons, Toronto's manager. "Larry's been doing that his whole career. Any time he's swinging the bat, he's got a chance to burn you. He got a hold of a couple, and that was the difference early. But when a guy pitches like that, there's not a whole lot you're going to do."
Carpenter (9-4) came out steaming and didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning. In fact, eight of his first 15 outs came on strikeouts, and four more came on ground balls. The Jays couldn't solve him until the sixth, when Russ Adams nailed a double up the right-field line to break up the potential no-hit bid.
"I was thinking about it, no question about it. I thought I had a chance," said Carpenter. "My stuff was good, and I thought that I kept them off balance pretty good. It just seemed like it was one of those nights where some of the mistakes I made, they swung and missed or popped it up. And besides that, I was making good pitches."
Toronto (32-33) has been one-hit just 13 times in franchise history, and the last one came four years ago, at the hands of Hideo Nomo. The last time the Jays were one-hit at home was all the way back in 1992, when Boston's Frank Viola did the trick.
Everyone in attendance on Tuesday could appreciate Carpenter's feat -- even his opponents.
"He just kept us off balance, threw all his pitches for strikes," said Adams, Toronto's rookie shortstop. "He didn't hit the middle of the plate very often. ... It was just a heck of a performance on his part."
"You could tell right away he was on -- from the get-go," said Gibbons. "He maintained it. Sometimes, as the game wears on, guys might lose it a little bit. He never lost anything. He's a pretty darn good pitcher."
By the time Adams broke up the no-hitter, the Cardinals (40-24) had 11 hits and five of their runs. Seven of the road team's starters had a hit before the Jays notched their first one. That goes double for Walker, who had both of his homers before Toronto even entered the hit column. The first round-tripper came in the first inning, giving St. Louis a 2-0 lead just four batters into the game.
"I think this was my first hit in Toronto, and I was just told I moved into third place on the Canadian home run list in Toronto," said Walker, a native of British Columbia. "I've got to catch [Matt] Stairs and [Corey] Koskie. I've got some work to do. I've got to hit, like, seven home runs tomorrow to catch up to those guys."
Reggie Sanders followed Walker's first shot with a solo homer of his own, but Toronto starter Chad Gaudin temporarily settled down after that. The Cardinals loaded the bases with no outs in the third frame, but Gaudin (1-2) emerged unscathed and didn't allow another run until the fifth.
That's when Walker came back for more, smashing his seventh homer of the season into the right-center bleachers.
"If you're going to make mistakes on guys like Larry Walker and Reggie Sanders, you're going to pay for it," said Gaudin, who was pitching on nine days' rest. "If I would've gone out there every fifth day, I probably would've been a little crisper. But you can't make excuses, and you've got to do what's asked of you. No matter what, you've got to get the job done."
The score stayed the same until the ninth, when Albert Pujols added two runs by mashing a homer off Toronto closer Miguel Batista. The Jays then went quietly in their half, continuing a recent trend. Toronto has been shut out five times this season, and four of those shutouts have come in the last two weeks.
"The last three or four games we've played, we've had some [darn] good pitching against us," said Gibbons. "You go back to [Roger] Clemens, [Roy] Oswalt and [Carpenter] -- dominating efforts. I don't care what team's facing them. When guys pitch like that, they're going to win or they're going to shut you down."
"Obviously, we haven't been playing very good baseball, and we haven't been getting our pitchers too many runs," said Adams. "You go through periods like that throughout the year, and hopefully, this one won't last very long. We'll get back out there tomorrow."
Source: http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/
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