CLEVELAND — The first thing Vernon Wells noticed was that he couldn't breath.
Then his left wrist started to throb, along with his right leg.
As for the rest of the Toronto Blue Jays, they just felt crummy, period, having squandered yet another solid pitching performance from ace Roy Halladay as the Cleveland Indians rode one big inning to a 6-1 victory last night.
"Good thing we picked up a couple of outfielders today," Toronto manager John Gibbons mused, trying to make the best of what is obviously trying times in Blue Jays land.
The Blue Jays' Vernon Wells, left, leaves the game with a trainer after making a diving catch against the Indians on Friday in Cleveland. The Indians won 6-1. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
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It was the first game of a 10-day, 10-game trip for the short-handed Jays, who limped into Cleveland for the first of a four-game series without both of their shortstops.
David Eckstein (hip) and John McDonald (ankle) were hurt during Tuesday's 5-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays and have been placed on the 15-day disabled list.
Before yesterday's game, the Jays announced they had signed free-agent outfielder Brad Wilkerson and acquired outfielder Kevin Mench in a deal with the Texas Rangers. Both players were in the starting lineup last night.
Now the Jays are facing the possibility of having to soldier on without Wells, their star centre fielder, who leads the team in home runs (five) and runs batted in (24).
Wells left the game in the sixth inning as the Jays were nursing a 1-0 lead. He suffered a jammed left wrist and a tightening of his right hamstring.
He injured himself making a great tumbling grab of a shallow fly ball struck by Cleveland's Franklin Gutierrez. Wells, who had off-season shoulder surgery, landed heavily on his left wrist and came up wincing.
"I knocked the wind out of myself," he said afterward in the Jays' clubhouse. "From top to bottom, I didn't feel too good."
Wells said he will be seeing a doctor today for further tests, but Gibbons said Wells won't be in the lineup tonight.
"Sore, really sore," Wells said, declining to specify whether his wrist or leg was more serious.
On the field, it was a matchup of two Cy Young Award winners in Halladay and C.C. Sabathia, with Sabathia gaining the upper hand, going seven strong innings to improve to 2-5.
As has been the running theme on the season for hard-luck Halladay, the Jays could muster only seven hits and once again came up flat when it mattered most, going 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Toronto also left a total of nine runners on base.
Still, Halladay kept the Jays afloat and ahead 1-0 after a Marco Scutaro single scored Rod Barajas from third base in the fifth inning.
But it was in the bat-around seventh inning in which the Indians inflicted all their damage, striking for six runs — four of them charged to Halladay — on four hits.
Cleveland started the inning with two weak hits to the outfield by Travis Hafner and Ryan Garko, which brought Asdrubal Cabrera to the plate looking to bunt.
Three times in that key at-bat Cabrera turned to make a sacrifice bunt, and three times an overanxious Halladay fired pitches for balls en route to a four-pitch walk to load the bases with none out.
"[That] walk killed me," said Halladay, who struck out nine batters in his six-plus innings of work, but still lost for the fourth time in his past five outings to fall to 3-5. "It was just one of those dumb mistakes."
The next batter, Casey Blake, doubled to centre field, scoring two to move the Indians in front 2-1.
Gibbons then went to the bullpen, summoning left-hander Jesse Carlson for some damage control. Carlson got Grady Sizemore to pop out and then issued an intentional walk to Gutierrez to load the bases again and set up a double-play possibility.
When Cleveland manager Eric Wedge inserted Ben Francisco into the game as a pinch hitter, Gibbons went to his bullpen once again for right-hander Jeremy Accardo.
Accardo gave up a double to left field that scored two more runs, and the rout was on.
