Red Sox 8, Blue Jays 1: I used to be like, "Cut Juan Rivera some slack," but now I am like, "Cut Juan Rivera."

Don't let this awesome picture fool you: Juan Rivera is not awesome.

I am pretty much fine with the Blue Jays getting pounded 8-1 yesterday. Jon Lester was really good, and Jesse Litsch got touched up early and often. OK, fine. The lone Blue Jays run came on a pretty cool play, at least: with Juan Rivera on first and Aaron Hill on third with two outs, Rivera broke for second with the pitch, and on the throw to second Hill broke for home and scored while the Sox trapped Rivera in a rundown to end the inning. Strategically, it was almost like a sac fly with two outs, and kind of neat. There wasn't anything else to cheer about yesterday, but that's alright: Ricky Romero takes the mound today, and the Blue Jays can still salvage the series with a win today to get the split. But there is nothing Juan Rivera can do to salvage not being an asshole.


It has nothing to do with his part in the play I have described above. That was solid. But remember in the Seattle series, when Rivera grounded to short and just kind of ambled out of the box, only to see a moment later that the shortstop was having serious trouble with it, so Rivera picked up the pace, but was still thrown out by a step anyway, because he sucks? Yesterday, the fielding equivalent of that shit show occurred in the bottom of the second, when Jed Lowrie flared one into left that Rivera, using his incredible baseball sense and instincts, was pretty sure was going to land foul, so he just sort of jogged towards the general area just so you couldn't say he didn't. Then it fell fair for a hit, and Jesse Litsch had this oh COME ON look about him, and rightly so, because that was nonsense in the first degree.


I want Juan Rivera gone. Because I hate him.


KS