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DUNEDIN, FLORIDA –  Baseball Canada’s national senior team lost its first tune-up to the World Baseball Classic, today, 9-4 to the Toronto Blue Jays.

The match-up, says Team Canada manager Ernie Whitt, was an excellent opportunity to get most of his players into the game and in many instances, try a variety of players at different positions.

“I think it’s very important to play as many games as you can before going into a tournament like this,” said Whitt. “First of all you want the players on the team to get a feel for each other and secondly, a lot of these players have not been to spring training yet, so they need these game situations.”

“I thought we did very well today,” added Whitt. “We didn’t make any errors and we had some really good at-bats. We didn’t drive in the runs when we had runners in scoring position, which was a little disappointing, but that’s why we have these games.”

Having his pitchers face a line-up that has been the talk of the off-season in the American League and having his offensive players face Toronto starter A.J. Burnett gave Whitt’s squad a chance to play against top-notch competition – something that can only help the club as it prepares for its first game at the World Baseball Classic March 7 against South Africa.

“There’s no question it was a great test for us today and we’ll use this as a building block as we get ready for the tournament,” said Whitt. “We’re just trying to get the guys as many at-bats as we can and have the pitchers get a good feel for the strike zone.  Ultimately, you don’t like to lose, but I’m very pleased with our result today because this is a good building process for us.”

Toronto jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to a double down the first base line by designated hitter Lyle Overbay that scored  Aaron Hilll and Shea Hillenbrand.

After a quick second inning, the Jays made it 4-0 as Overbay was at it again, smashing a line drive double off the wall in straight-away centre to score Hillenbrand and Troy Glaus.

The Blue Jays padded their lead to 7-0 in the bottom of the fourth with a three-run inning highlighted by an RBI triple by Aaron Hill that took one hop off the warning track and bounced off the wall behind Canadian center fielder Jason Bay.

Blue Jays centre fielder Wayne Lydon hit a two-out, two-run homerun over the wall in right field in the bottom of the fifth for a 9-0 Blue Jays lead.

Canada got on the board in the top of the sixth inning. After Sebastien Boucher singled to left in his first at bat of the game, Justin Morneau sent him over to third on a double to left field and Adam Stern drove him in on a ground out to the right side.

Canada scored a second time in the inning as catcher Pierre Luc Laforest hit a one-out double to right-center to score Morneau from third base to make it 9-2 for the Blue Jays.

Kevin Nicholson then drew a full-count walk to load the bases with two out and Peter Orr beat out a slow roller to third base for an RBI infield single to score Laforest to cut the Jays’ lead to 9-3.

Orr’s speed not only kept the Canadian rally alive, but also chased pitcher Ben Webber from the game. Coming in from the bullpen, Josh Banks gave up a fly to Canadian second baseman Stubby Clapp.  With the wind pushing out to left field, the ball carried all the way to the warning track but was caught to end the threat.

With no outs, Canada loaded the bases for a third time in the top half of the eighth inning. However, Canada failed to fully capitalize, scoring one run as Kevin Nicholson sacrificed himself with a ground out to second base to drive in catcher Chris Robinson to make it  9-4.

Burnett took the win for the Blue Jays while Canadian starter Mike Meyers was charged with the loss.  Canada’s next game is scheduled for Saturday when they’ll face the Kia Tigers, a professional Korean team, at 1:30 p.m. at the Bobby Mattick Training Centre in Dunedin.