The Toronto Blue Jays closed out their west coast road trip on Wednesday night as they completed game three of a three game set against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Angels Field.

With the series split one game a piece, game three would decide the series winner.

The Jays sent the struggling Brandon Morrow to the mound to pitch against the Angels off-season free agent acquisition Joel Pineiro.

Morrow pitched much better than in his previous road starts in 2010 lasting five innings, allowing three earned runs on three hits, walking four and striking out six.

Morrow’s early entrance from the contest was due to an inflated pitch count, which will come when you walk as many men as he does. Combine the walks with numerous deep counts and it signaled an early night for the flame thrower.

Pineiro was pretty much on par with Morrow’s performance pitching six innings, allowing three earned runs on two hits, walking four and striking out six.

The Angels and Mike Scioscia were most certainly expecting a longer outing from their starter as the Angels bullpen has been dreadful throughout the season.

Pineiro would exit the game after six innings with a lead thanks to a Hideki Matsui two run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning off of Jays reliever Rommie Lewis.

However, the Jays would battle back against the Angels bullpen scoring a run off reliever Kevin Jepsen in the top of the seventh inning on an Edwin Encarnacion RBI double and tying the game in the top of the ninth inning thanks to a botched play courtesy of Bobby Abreu in right field and a John Buck RBI double.

In the bottom of the ninth inning the Jays seemed to have the momentum on their side, but coughed up the game on poor management decisions in my opinion.

Mike Napoli would begin the inning with a double off reliever Scott Downs, advancing to third base on a Maicer Izturis groundball. Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston would than make the decision to intentionally walk both pinch hitter Juan Rivera and lead off hitter Erick Aybar to load the bases for Howie Kendrick. Kendrick would almost end the game on a hard hit ball to shortstop, but Alex Gonzalez would make a sensational fielding play gunning the ball to home from one knee to get the runner. With the bases still loaded Bobby Abreu would make up for his top of the inning error lining a shot between shortstop and third base for an Angels walk off win.

What boggled my mind was the decision by Gaston, who seemed to be getting advice from bench coach Nick Leyva, to walk both Rivera and Aybar to load the bases setting up for a possible double play situation. Walking just Rivera would still put you in that situation. I understand that Aybar would be tough to double up due to his speed, but I would much rather take a chance with his weak bat with a base open than pitch to both Kendrick and Abreu with the bases loaded. The bases loaded situation in my opinion put more pressure on Downs to make pitches for strikes and it was an eventual curveball in the heart of the plate that cost the Jays the game. If Downs had a base open he could pitch on the edge of the plate rather than have to rely on the middle of the plate if he got himself into a hitters count.

Who knows what would have happened if Gaston went the other way, but in my opinion the decision was the wrong one.

Offensively for the Jays, John Buck had a nice day going two for four with an RBI, a run scored and the game tying double in the ninth inning. Edwin Encarnacion added two more RBI’s to his total on a walk with the bases loaded and a double in a one for three performance. Jeremy Reed had a one for five day recording two RBI’s and Jose Bautista scored twice going one for three with a walk.

Despite the loss Toronto’s bullpen was decent aside from the poor outing from Rommie Lewis who allowed two earned runs on two hits, one being the home run to Matsui, against the only two batters he faced. Shawn Camp pitched another solid inning of work allowing one hit and striking out one. Jason Frasor was also impressive striking out one in a spotless inning of work and despite the loss Scott Downs pitched well in his inning and two thirds. His blemishes were the two intentional walks, not his doing and the two hits from Napoli and the game winner from Abreu.

The Jays completed their west coast road trip with a 3-5 record. The trip could have turned out differently if not for a late inning implosion by Kevin Gregg in Seattle as well as last night’s late inning managerial mistake by Gaston.

With last night’s loss and the recent resurgence of the Boston Red Sox the Jays slipped into fourth place in the American League East, half a game behind Boston, two and a half behind the New York Yankees and six behind the first place Tampa Bay Rays.

The Jays have an off-day today as the travel back to the Rogers Centre for a three game series beginning Friday night against the Baltimore Orioles.

Shaun Marcum (4-1, 2.82ERA) who always seems to be the man to stop the bleeding for the Jays will square off against the Orioles Kevin Millwood (0-4, 3.71ERA).

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