Friday 1 July 2016

Toronto Blue Jays 1, Cleveland Indians 2, Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON

It's Canada Day.  It's a tradition that the Toronto Blue Jays have a home game and Gord and I like to go to the game.  We bought our tickets as soon as they were available in the spring as the game always sells out.

There were Canada Day festivities outside the Rogers Centre.


The first 20,000 fans received a bath towel as we entered.


Gord and I got there early enough to each get one.  Sweet!


The Blue Jays were playing the Cleveland Indians.


Canadian Indy driver James Hinchcliffe was there to present a cheque to a charity.


We watched the Blue Jays players warm up.


The opening ceremonies celebrating Canada were nice.


Some Canadian athletes who will be in the Rio Olympics were honoured.


The Blue Jays presented them with a signed flag, wishing them luck.


It was cool to see the armed forces bring in the Canadian flag.


Sgt. Cindy Scott sang the national anthems.


The Canadian flag was rolled out as she sang the anthems.


James Hinchcliffe threw out the first pitch.


The coaches met with the umpires to discuss the rules.


Marcus Stroman threw out the first pitch.  Game on!

The dome was closed because it was raining

In the first inning, Blue Jay Edwin Encarnación had an issue with some of the calls the umpire made and had words with him ... who then threw him out of the game.  Coach John Gibbons had an issue with that so had some words of his own with the umpires ... he too was thrown out of the game.

See ya, Edwin!

Junior Ace and Ace entertained the crowd.


About the fifth inning, I noticed this guy in our section having a snooze during the game with a beer in his hand.


Minutes later, the police arrived to wake him up (it took a while) and escort him out.


The prize for the 50/50 draw was over $71,000!  It would have taken a huge chunk out of our mortgage.


Alas, we didn't win it :(


The game was tied 1 - 1 after the ninth inning and went into overtime.  Russell Martin had an issue with the calls the umpire made ... and he too had words and got thrown out of the game.  He was more passionate about it than Edwin.


In the 17th inning with the score still tied at 1 - 1, it was a surprise to see second baseman/shortstop Ryan Goins, who hadn't been in today's game, warming up to pitch.  He got through the 18th inning with no runs.


In the 19th inning, second baseman/shortstop Darwin Barney, who had been in the game, took the mound to pitch.  Alas, a home run was hit and the Blue Jays couldn't come back with a run or two of their own.



After 19 innings and more than six hours, the final score was  2 - 1 for the Indians.

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