A’s Complete Three Game Sweep Over Jays

All the good accomplished during an impressive opening week for the Toronto Blue Jays is a distant memory now, undone by a miserable sweep at the hands of the Oakland Athletics.

Travis Buck — who arrived in town mired in an 0-for-22 drought — capped a torrid three games by ripping a two-run double in the 12th inning to secure a 3-2 victory.

The A’s watched the Blue Jays squander chances to win the game in the ninth, 10th and 11th innings before Chris Denorfia opened the 12th with single off Brandon League (0-1) and advanced to second on Bobby Crosby’s groundout.

Following an intentional walk to Jack Hannahan and Kurt Suzuki’s pegging, Emil Brown hit into a fielder’s choice for the second out. But Buck wouldn’t let League off the hook, ripping one into left-centre to bring home a pair for a 3-1 lead that silenced a crowd of 16,521.

Keith Foulke came on in the bottom of the inning and gave up an RBI single to Vernon Wells before closing things out for his first save. That made a winner of Joey Devine (1-0), who escaped jams in the 10th and 11th to give his team a chance.

It was an especially painful way to lose for the Blue Jays (4-5), ending a most unpleasant visit from the Athletics (6-4), who have won seven straight games in Toronto. The Jays now head off for three games in Texas — a black hole for them in recent seasons — with their bullpen chewed up and their offence in a rut.

The game only got to extra innings when the Blue Jays ended a scoring drought of 15 straight innings in the eighth to tie the game 1-1. Marco Scutaro led off with a triple against Alan Embree and came around to score on Shannon Stewart’s drive to deep right.

That erased the only run Oakland managed off a strong Shaun Marcum, on a fifth-inning RBI double by the suddenly hot Buck — 7-for-16 in the series with six doubles.

For most of the game the Blue Jays were handcuffed by Dana Eveland, another left-hander who stymied them the way the soft-tossing Greg Smith stymied them a night earlier.

Their effectiveness was somewhat surprising, considering that the Blue Jays were 26-17 and batted .296 as a team versus left-handed starters in 2007. But they both picked apart the corners, giving Toronto’s right-handed sluggers little to work with.

The finale was, at least, a well-played ballgame, especially when compared to the slop the teams offered up in Wednesday’s 6-3 Oakland win, a three-hour 31-minute affair that was about as much fun as an algebra exam.

Marcum was terrific in taking a no-decision, getting burned only on Buck’s double. He struck out eight in seven innings, allowing six hits and a run.

Eveland, who like Smith was obtained in the Dan Haren deal with Arizona, gave up three hits and three runs in 6 1-3 innings and had to escape trouble on a few occasions. In the second he retired the side after Wells’ leadoff double and in the sixth, he sat down Stewart, Alex Rios and Wells after the first two batters reached.

He left with two on and one out in the seventh, but Santiago Casilla came on and got pinch-hitter Matt Stairs to hit into a double play.