The Toronto Blue Jays finally took an interleague game from a National League opponent last night in Philadelphia, albeit one of the strangest Jays wins I’ve witnessed of recent times.

The Jays travelled into Citizens Bank Park with an awful 0-6 record against the National League this season playing interleague.

Ricky Romero easily outpitched last year’s World Series MVP Cole “The Beast” Hamels.

Romero went seven strong innings allowing six hits, three earned runs, while striking out a career best nine.

Romero, however, received a no decision when the Jays offense left sixteen men on base, and were four for nineteen with runners in scoring position.

That’s fifteen possible more runs the Jays offense could have scored. Imagine if that occurred. The final score of this game could have been 23 – 3. The Jays had the bases loaded on four separate occasions in this game, every scenario came with one out or less, and the Jays couldn’t cash in on most of those scenarios.

Ricky Romero (who has a career batting average of .000 as an American League pitcher) had the unfortunate luck of having to come to the plate twice with the bases loaded, and proceeded to blindly hack at breaking balls.

That can be excusable.

What is not excusable is that of Rod Barajas, who somehow managed to pop the ball up in the infield on three separate occasions with the bases loaded.

All Toronto Blue Jays fans know that Barajas is a fly ball hitter; his upper cut swing normally makes him the perfect hitter to have at the plate with a man at third, as he normally comes through with a sacrifice fly. Barajas was not that man last night. Every time the ball was popped up in the infield I thought to myself that the Jays were going to walk away with yet another interleague loss.

With the Jays down 3 – 2 in the 8th inning the blunder of the night occurs.

Alex Rios. No more blunders. Get your head in the game.

My least favorite Blue Jay of all time (even though I did recently praise his play in our last series against Florida) Alex Rios stands on third base with one out, and proceeds to watch Marco Scutaro (who if not elected to his first All Star game is being ripped off) drill a fly ball into left centre. Rios does not tag up, for some strange reason, and runs halfway down the line. The ball is caught by Phillies left fielder Raul Ibanez, and Rios does not have enough time to get back to third to proceed home.

Aaron Hill ended up grounding out to end the inning, and at this point in time I proceeded to flip my lid (as I’m sure all Blue Jays fans were) while calling Alex Rios every name in the book.

When I was 5 years old, and first learning the game of baseball, I was taught that when there are less than two outs and you’re the runner on third you tag up, no matter where in the outfield the ball is hit, no matter whether you think it’s going to be caught or not. This is a fundamental rule of baseball that players are taught at a very young age. It’s a rule to ensure that in crucial situations (such as the one Rios was in) the run will score no matter what.

It boggles my mind that a player such as Alex Rios, who is making $6,400,000 this season to play a game, cannot grasp simple baseball rules such as base running.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. Base running blunders and routine fly balls being dropped are a regular occurrence for Rios. I’ve personally been in attendance at three games this season where Rios has dropped routine fly balls.

This has to stop. Rios needs to get his head in the game, and start playing like a real ballplayer, and it’s up to Cito Gaston to make sure he does this. We can’t let Rios get away with mistakes like this anymore, no matter if he’s one of the faces of our franchise or not.

Rios’ blunder aside, the Jays actually managed to tie up the game on a bases loaded walk of Lyle Overbay, by fill in Philadelphia closer Ryan Madson. The Jays went on to win the game in extra innings by scoring five times in the top of the 10th inning, but alas, one final blunder had to occur.

How serious is Scott Downs ankle injury?

With Blue Jays closer Scott Downs scheduled to hit third in the top of the 10th inning, after pitching a perfect 9th, Cito Gaston opts to send Downs to the plate rather than use his one remaining bench player Raul Chavez. It’s apparent that Gaston wanted Downs to finish out the game. Downs proceeds to watch two strikes and hack at what looks to be strike three. Downs sprints out of the batters box, turns his ankle, and gingerly limps down to first.

Scott Downs has a history of ankle problems having his season shut down last year due to this. Downs has easily been our most reliable reliever all year, so let’s hope the injury is nothing too severe, as we really need Downs in our bullpen.

In order for the Jays to catch Boston and New York in the AL East standings we need to absolutely dominate Philadelphia, Washington and Cincinnati over the next eleven days.

This is possible, but the Jays need to stop with the blunders, and start with the ball playing.