Marcum, Blue Jays no match for Athletics

Last Updated: Monday, August 20, 2007 | 11:45 PM ET

CBC Sports

Shawn Marcum, one of Toronto's best starters the past month, lasted only three innings Monday night as the Blue Jays lost 6-4 to the Oakland Athletics. 

Marcum (10-5) entered the contest on a five-game winning streak, but was raked for six runs on nine hits and a walk with four strikeouts in front of 27,193 fans at the Rogers Centre.

Nick Swisher, right, celebrates his two-run homer with Shannon Stewart.
(Aaron Harris/Canadian Press)

"I was terrible," he said. "I didn't locate very well."

Marcum had posted a 5-0 record since losing 8-1 to the New York Yankees on July 18, permitting just eight runs in 33 2/3 innings.

"It was weird because [warming up] down in the bullpen, I didn't miss a spot," he said. "It was weird to be out there and not be able to throw one pitch where I wanted to."

"He is a command guy and the key for him is getting ahead," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "That's what he's been doing all year and he just couldn't get it there tonight."

Rookie Jack Hannahan homered, doubled and drove in three runs for the Athletics (62-64), who cranked out 12 hits.

"It has been a huge whirlwind, but I'm having a blast," he said.

Hannahan's homer was his first in 10 major-league games, prompting his teammates to hide the keepsake ball and replace it with a fake memento.

"The date was wrong and everything was spelled differently," he said. "I was kind of looking at it like 'Geez, Louise. Wow.'

"I looked behind me and everyone was laughing at me. They got me."

"I will definitely put it up in the collection," Hannahan said of the actual ball.

"I've got [balls from] my first hit and my first RBI. This one will go right next to them."

Nick Swisher had a two-run homer among his three hits, and Marco Scutaro had the other RBI.

"They did a good job of putting the wood on the ball," Marcum said. "But otherwise, it was just bad."

Vernon Wells, Frank Thomas and Troy Glaus drove in a run apiece for the Blue Jays (63-61).

After Marcum's departure, Jason Frasor, Josh Towers, Scott Downs and Casey Janssen combined to pitch six innings of scoreless relief.

"They held us right there," Gibbons said.

Oakland starter Joe Blanton notched his second win over Toronto this season, scattering six hits and striking out six batters over seven innings.

Blanton (11-8) beat the Blue Jays 3-1 with a complete-game four-hitter on July 3.

"I threw some good change-ups and some pretty good sliders," he said. "It was probably the best curveball I've had all year."

"It seemed like he could drop that curveball in any count," Athletics manager Bob Geren observed. "He painted the down and away pretty good, too."

Huston Street tossed a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 11th save in 13 opportunities.

Terrible start for Marcum

Marcum struggled from the outset, giving up a game-opening single to Shannon Stewart and a two-run home run to Swisher in the next at-bat.

It was Swisher's 16th homer of the season.

"We called a fastball away [and] I missed in," Marcum said.

Toronto trimmed it to 2-1 in the bottom of the first inning as Alex Rios singled and scored on an RBI double from Wells, only to watch Oakland explode for four runs on five hits in the third.

Jack Cust and Mark Ellis singled to put runners aboard for Scutaro, who singled in Cust to make it 3-1.

That brought Hannahan to the plate and he hammered his first major-league homer, a three-run jolt off Marcum that upped it to 6-1.

"It was supposed to be a backdoor slider down and away and it was more middle in," Marcum said.

Reliever Andrew Brown replaced Blanton in the eighth inning and promptly hit leadoff batter Reed Johnson with a pitch.

Overbay delivered Johnson with a double that was later switched to a two-base error credited to Scutaro at first base.

Overbay scored on an RBI double from Thomas, who was lifted in favour of pinch-runner Dustin McGowan, and Glaus's RBI double cut the deficit to 6-4 before reliever Alan Embree ended the threat by retiring pinch-hitter Aaron Hill on a fly out.

"We were stringing together a pretty good rally and Hillie ended up having a great at-bat, just missing on that first pitch," Johnson said. "It's a positive we made it tough on them."

With files from Sports Network