12:50 AM Eastern

It was as though the last week didn’t happen.

The Blue Jays came home riding a streak of six wins in the last seven games, having scored 32 runs in those seven games (averaging 4.6 per), and it was as if the off-day sapped out all the good that that run did.

Tonight’s performance was as abysmal as this offense has looked at any point in what’s been an incredibly frustrating season.  The Jays got a monster home run from Brad Wilkerson to lead off the game, which was lovely.  From that point on, they managed eight hits and drew seven walks and didn’t score.

Fifteen baserunners and zero runs!  It defies reason, logic and all that is good and right in the world.

Granted, the Angels did need a few very nice defensive plays to keep it that way, from John Lackey’s self-preservation grab of a Matt Stairs liner in the first to a nice dispy-doodley footwork move by Maicer Izturis to turn a double play in the fourth to a tremendous Sean Rodriguez grab of a shot by Wilkerson in the 7th to start another double play.  The Blue Jays were hitting in terrible luck again, but of course, the standouts had nothing to do with the defense:

Stairs struck out looking with the bases loaded and nobody out in the 8th, and Alex Rios ended the game with the bat on his shoulders, taking strike three with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th.

Those are the things that drive fans nuts, as evidenced by tonight’s JaysTalk session.  Stairs went down on three pitches, fouling off a Scot Shields curveball then taking two fastballs.  Rios was ahead 3-0, then took two strikes and fouled off another two before looking at strike three on the inside black.  To his credit, Rios said all the right things after the game.  He was fooled, he didn’t make excuses, but he knows that the season is long and that he’s going to come out of this.

He is, but I’d like him to come out of it in somewhere other than the 3rd spot in the line-up.  Rios is 13 for his last 79 (.165) and not hitting the ball with much authority, though he did have several good at-bats in Philadelphia with little payoff.  It’s tough to demand a move down in the line-up, though – this team had just won six of seven with him hitting third in all seven games, and going .129/.156/.161.  So they can still win with no contribution whatsoever from the 3-hole.  Still, they can’t do much worse in that spot, and there’s nothing wrong with knocking Rios down to a place where he’ll do less damage until he comes out of it.

To hear the JaysTalkerites tonight, it was as though this game was just another in a long line of missed opportunities, hitters not producing, nobody getting big hits and so on and so on, which I guess didn’t surprise me, but it’s just simply not the case.  The fact that this game seemed like a lot of those ugly losses in April (and ugly wins in early May) where the bats would have had trouble knocking their way out of the proverbial paper bag doesn’t mean that’s what this team is again.

Honest, they did win six of seven games going into this one.  They scored runs – not a ton, but more than enough – and they actually got hits with runners in scoring position.  Over the last seven games (before tonight), the Jays hit .319 with RISP.  And those games did count.  You’d just never know it to hear the people tonight.

I was trying to be nice, honest I was, but that’s not going to last if I get more people calling in asking if John Gibbons actually put the take sign on with two strikes, or if people demand more grit in order to win games, or talk about the team needing a “sparkplug” to get the offense going.  They didn’t even need a sparkplug tonight – they had 16 baserunners!

A couple more things before I go:

-Dustin McGowan did a great job of damage control, holding the Angels to just one earned run (when he left) over 6 1/3 despite struggling badly for the first three innings.  This was his fourth subpar start in the last five games, but this time he kept things together enough that he could easily have earned a win with even a little help.

-Scott Rolen continues to earn his title of the Best Blue Jay ever.  I’m not sure if this showed up on the telecast (for those of you who could see it), but when Shannon Stewart hit into the double play to end the 8th, Rolen was on first, and he absolutely laid waste to Maicer Izturis making the DP turn.  Izturis got the throw off, but he paid for it.  By the time he made it to his feet, he had rolled at least a third of the way to first base.

You can hear tonight’s JaysTalk right here – and decide for yourself if my trying to be nice worked:

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Shaun Marcum pitches tomorrow as the Jays look to improve to 15-6 at home against the Halos since 2003.

Comments are welcome, as always – The JaysTalk goes 24/7!

12:45 PM Eastern

A crazy road trip wrapped up with a crazy game, and the Blue Jays headed home a .500 club, almost unimaginable given how the trip started.

The Chicken Littles were out in full force just a week ago after the trip started with Vernon Wells breaking his wrist in an eventual 6-1 loss in Cleveland and the Jays going 30 innings without scoring a run after Wells came out of that first game.

While I have never been a member of the “sky is falling, season is over” contigent, I did feel that had the Jays lost that last game in Cleveland, and done so without scoring a run, that would have been it for John Gibbons’ tenure with the club, fair or not (and it wouldn’t have been fair). But after the offensive struggles reached the point of utter hilarity in the ninth inning of the nightcap at The Prog, the Jays scored three in the 10th and really haven’t looked back since. They’ve won six of seven, they’re scoring runs, they’ve climbed out of last place and hit the break-even mark, and things are looking swell as they come home for a week’s stay against the Angels and Royals.

Even yesterday’s road trip finale summed up just how much the worm has turned for this club over the course of the last week. Down 3-0 after four innings a week ago was a death sentence, even more so in a get-away day game that had already been delayed two hours by rain, but they managed to come back. Not only did they come back, but the comeback rally started with two out and nobody on! The Captain doubled, Marco Scutaro worked a walk, and then that power-free first baseman who doesn’t deserve to play because he doesn’t hit home runs came off the bench and hit a mammoth shot to deep right to tie the game.

The Jays took the lead in the next inning thanks mostly to doubles by the revitalized Aaron Hill and Shannon Stewart, and managed to hold onto the lead thanks to their ace, Roy Halladay, who played the part of the cavalry.

As the story goes, during the second rain delay Gibbons walked past Halladay and Doc pointed to his cleats. Gibbons told him that he wasn’t going to send Halladay in to pinch-run at any point, and Halladay then pointed to the bullpen. Cool story, very John Wayney – without a word, Harry Leroy Halladay III tells his skipper that he’ll win him a ballgame.

Whether or not that’s the way it really happened, Halladay did go out and win the Jays a ballgame. Because of the first rain-out, Shaun Marcum lasted just one inning, so by the time the rains hit a second time, Shawn Camp, Brian Tallet, Jason Frasor and Jesse Carlson had all been used, which left just Armando Benitez, B.J. Ryan and Snakeface, who had thrown an inning and a third the night before. Carlson could probably have come back out, because the second delay was only 39 minutes long, but lefty-masher Pat Burrell was at the plate with the tying run on first.

So out rode Halladay on his white horse to pop up Burrell and face the minimum through his 2 1/3 innings of relief, handing the same two-run lead to Ryan that he had been given. It was a tremendous performance by a tremendous pitcher, and Halladay should be lauded for being willing to do it and then for going out and getting the job done. It’s a difficult thing to do, as we saw from A.J. Burnett back in the 14th inning of the Texas game, but that’s why Halladay is who he is.

Ryan came in to close it out and finally gave up a run for the first time this season, when Pat Burrell took him deep with two out on the 10th pitch of the at-bat. Ryan couldn’t put away Chris Coste either and had a hard time with Eric Bruntlett before striking him out on an 8th pitch to finally end the game. The off-day comes at a perfect time for everyone, with the all-hands-on-deck relief work and The Beej working on a second straight day and flagging a bit. Still, though, Ryan is 9-for-9 in his save opportunities and has only given up the one run all season.

The day off allows the Jays a great opportunity to re-jig the entire starting rotation, because theoretically any of Halladay, Marcum or Dustin McGowan could start tomorrow. If it were up to me, I’d go Marcum Tuesday, Halladay Wednesday (because Halladay threw more than Marcum did yesterday), A.J. Burnett on his regular day Thursday and then fill it out with McGowan and Jesse Litsch. Marcum and Halladay are the best the Jays have, and I want them out there at every possible opportunity.

That’s the way I would do it, but that’s not the way the Jays will. McGowan is going to get the start tomorrow on his normal 5th day and Marcum will slot in on Wednesday. Halladay, for some strange reason, is being pushed back all the way to Friday. That means he’ll get the full four days off after having thrown just 23 pitches yesterday, which boggles the mind.

We had a long rain-delay show, and Jerry Howarth was kind enough to hop on for nearly an hour and take calls, but The JaysTalk was abbreviated so that we could get the network to the Yankees loss in time for the first pitch. Here’s the abbreviated JaysTalk for your listening pleasure:

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Comments are welcome, as always, hope you’re enjoying the long weekend!

11:50 PM Eastern

To quote Joe Chill, “This’ll shut you up.”

So said Rod Barajas to the Philly faithful, who went so far as to boo him in Spring Training this year, disappointed with his performance as a free agent signee last season.  The Philly fans didn’t like that Barajas hit just .230 with four homers for them and only played 48 games.  They also didn’t like what they saw as some lackadaisical blocking of the plate a couple of times, and he has been in their doghouse ever since.  I couldn’t believe that they booed him at a Jays’ home game in Spring Training, but there they were.

Barajas let his bat do the talking, with an opposite-field Grand Slam in the second inning that was all the Jays would need, but he threw in a solo job in the 9th for good measure anyway.  He also did a fine job handling A.J. Burnett, who turned in a very solid start.  Burnett went 6 1/3 and only got into real trouble once, in the third inning.  Burnett retired the first eight Phillies he faced but then WALKED THE PITCHER, then gave up a single and another walk to load the bases, bringing up Chase Utley and his 14 home runs.  A.J. bent, but he didn’t break, getting Mr. Ottley on a first-pitch grounder to first.

Snakeface was fantabulous again, saving the game in the 7th inning having come in to clean up Armando Benitez’ mess.  Downs hit Utley with a two-strike pitch, putting the go-ahead run on base, but then got Ryan Howard to hit a laser beam right into Matt Stairs’ glove.  That ball was hit right at Stairs because of the intimidation factor that has come with Downs’ relatively new tattoo.  He then went out and got the Phils in order in the 8th, leaving the table nicely set for The Beej.

John Gibbons got himself thrown out of the ballgame on that hit batsman by Downs, for those of you who want to see the manager exude more passion to make you think he wants to win.  Gibbons argued that Utley went around on his check-swing attempt on the ball that hit him.  If it had been ruled a swing, it would have been strike three, but the umps said no, and the replays confirmed they were right.

I do have one issue with how Gibby handled this game, and that was that he called for Benitez before the Phillies had announced the pinch-hitter for pitcher Ryan Madson.  I believe that Benitez should face as few left-handed hitters as possible, preferably none.  Lefties hit .273/.402/.432 against him last year, and .270/.413/.429 the year before.  He came in, and so did pinch-hitter Shane Victorino, who Benitez walked, which brought up another lefty in Jimmy Rollins, who doubled in a pair.  When a righty, Jayson Werth, finally got to the plate, Benitez struck him out, then handed things over to Snakeface.  If you’re just going to use Nando against righties, that’s beautiful.  That’s what Gibby did Thursday afternoon in Minny and it worked out perfectly.  He’s not a guy you want in there against all comers.

There were some more adventures on the basepaths tonight, with Marco Scutaro falling just short in his attempt to get thrown out for the cycle.  Scutaro was nailed at the plate in the fourth, at second in the sixth, and a first, in a more routine way, in the eighth.  Each time, he did the right thing.

In the 4th, Scoot tried to score from second on an infield single by Brad Wilkerson that kicked off Howard’s glove.  It didn’t look as though Scutaro avoided Chris Coste’s original tag as he leapt around the Philly catcher, but the home plate ump called “no tag”, and Scutaro and Coste dove at each other.  It looked to me like Scoot got the plate before Coste got him, but he was called out.  He was probably out the first time, anyway.

In the 6th, Scutaro decided to tag up from first on a Barajas fly to deep centre.  Good thought, and he was thrown out by a whisker, if at all.  Nothing wrong with a good, aggressive gamble like that that loses.  It would have been cool if he had found a way to get thrown out at third, too, though.

I have had some issues with Marty Pevey’s coaching at third base at times this season, but I’m squarely behind him in his decision to send Joe Inglett home on Scott Rolen’s first-inning double.  Two out, the ball is hit down the third-base line, and Inglett is a decent baserunner.  The Phillies have to make two perfect throws, one from a left fielder in Pat Burrell who isn’t exactly the greatest coverer of ground out there.  With two out, you make them make that play.  They did.

I’m not sure I’m a big fan of the double steal of second and home that the Jays tried in the 9th that wound up seeing Hector Luna getting nailed at the plate but hey, up three with two out in the 9th, that’s when I want a team trying a not-so-good gamble.

I have to mention Alex Rios again before I go, he had two more very good at-bats tonight: One a hit, the other a line-out to second on which Utley made a sensational diving catch.  He’s coming out of it.

Despite the fact that the Captain had a huge night at the dish, he made another lazy play behind it that shows up that much more when you put him beside Gregg Zaun.  In the 7th inning, Benitez threw a pitch low to Werth and Barajas didn’t get down on it.  He tried to pick it off the dirt with the backhand and it squirted through his legs, moving the tying run to third with just one out.  That happened with Dustin McGowan pitching in Minnesota, too.  It’s fine tonight because he drove in five runs, but that’s going to cost the Jays down the line, and all he has to do is get dirty.

Finally:  Yes Shannon Stewart asked Gary Matthews for some help with his hitting woes, yes Matthews told him to get his foot down more quietly to aid his weight transfer, and yes Stewart did just that in his only at-bat of the game and doubled off the left-field wall.  It doesn’t mean the Jays should fire Gary Denbo and re-hire The Sarge, what it means is that sometimes people who know you well can see things that others might not, and when a hitter has motivation to apply the advice a coach (or ex-coach) gives him in an attempt to get back to what he was, a hitting coach can be a great help.

Remember, you get a double dose of Jays Sunday!  The ballgame, with the pre-game starting at 1:00 PM Eastern – Shaun Marcum vs. Kyle Kendrick, and then The Blue Jays This Week at 7:05 PM Eastern along most of the Fan Radio Network as well as right here on the website!

Speaking of right here on the website, here’s tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk:

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Comments are encouraged, as always!  Let’s keep The JaysTalk going 24/7.

11:40 PM Eastern

The “heat” in question being the temperature of the bat of one Jayson Richard Werth, former Blue Jay catcher/outfielder and nephew of former Blue Jay shortstop Dick Schofield.

I don’t know how much of Werth’s big night to attribute to David Purcey’s rough night, but it was probably closer to 50-50 than it was to 100% Werth.  I liked Jayson when he was here, even though he big-leagued me and a few other reporters in Spring Training before he’d ever made the team – someone must have said something to him about that, because he was terrific from that point on.  It’s nice to see him finally having some success in the majors after years of injury and part-time duty, but it would have been nice for him to wait until after the weekend.

Two opposite field shots – the Grand Slam an absolute bomb off the facing of the second deck (did someone in Philly win a car for that?) – and the solo shot off Jesse Litsch was simply destroyed to deep left.  I was hoping for Pat Burrell to reach in front of Werth in the 7th so that he’d have a chance to homer for the cycle and we could see history being made twice in a week, but no dice.  Good for Brian Tallet, in a 10-3 game, for giving him a shot for four and not walking him.

As good as Werth was, Purcey was awful.  Can we call a moratorium on the “trade A.J. Burnett to make room for Purcey” talk for now, please?  I still think he’s going to be fine, but he’s very obviously not ready for prime time just yet.  Four walks, three of which came around to score, two homers, two line singles and four other shots that were turned into outs – and that was just in his last two innings of work!  The first inning was a breeze by comparison, when he retired the Philbos in order, though he needed some fancy glovework from Scott Rolen, who was booed lustily by the Phillies fans, as expected.

How about that bottom of the third inning?  As K-Rod said after it was over, that was both the best and the worst inning for the defense, probably ever.  Werth hits his Slam as part of a five-run frame that featured three other Philly hits and two walks, but each of the three outs were on outstanding defensive plays.

First, Shane Victorino is the only one in the ballpark who buys Jimmy Rollins’ bluff towards stealing third.  Sadly for the Phils, Victorino happens to be on first, and puts his head down and sprints for second.  When he got within two feet of the bag, he looked up and saw Rollins standing there.  Uh-oh.  Gregg Zaun sprinted out from behind the plate nearly all the way to second base, as he should have, and put the tag on a bewildered Victorino.  After the Slam, Rolen made an incredible play to corral a grounder by Pedro Feliz – maybe 15 feet behind the third base bag on the foul line, and sent a two-hopper to the bag for the out, and then Kevin Mench made yet another spectacular catch, slamming into the wall to rob Chris Coste of extra bases and knocking himself out of the game with a bruised knee.

By the way, I’m amazed that over the course of his 10 1/2 seasons in the minors, Coste never learned how to run the bases.  What the hell was he doing having rounded third by the time Shannon Stewart caught Jamie Moyer’s shallow liner in the 6th? 

Congrats to Jesse Litsch for restoring order (relatively), coming out and throwing three innings on two days’ rest – again without issuing a walk.  Litsch is going to be skipped with Monday’s off-day, his next start won’t be until next Saturday, I don’t think, so we may see him out of the ‘pen again on Sunday or maybe Tuesday if they need him.

Also, Alex Rios may be coming out of it.  Two hits tonight, both hard-hit line drives, and a fly out to the track the other way.  He’s 3-for-his-last-8, which is something.  However, Rios had no business whatsoever being thrown out by Pat Burrell in the first inning trying to stretch his single into a double.  Not that he shouldn’t have tried for second, but that he should have been in there standing up.  Rios hit a liner that Burrell had to move towards the line to cut off, stop his momentum, then turn and throw to second.  He has a good arm, but not a great one.  With Rios’ speed, he should be at second without even breathing hard, but that only works if you take off out of the batters’ box, which Mr. Rios tends not to do.

And what would a JaysTalk be without callers taking shots at A.J. Burnett and J.P. Ricciardi?  I can’t fathom why someone would have wanted Burnett to pitch this game on short rest, like I said on the show, which you can hear right here!

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People will take any opportunity they can to slag Burnett because he accepted the Blue Jays’ offer of a lot of money and then got hurt a few times, which he always has.  He’s not Roy Halladay, but who is, really?  He has been a disappointment because he hasn’t been healthy, but for the most part he has pitched well when he has been able to pitch.  There should never be ANY discussion ever about having Burnett go out and throw on three days’ rest, regardless of how much money he makes. 

We also had a caller dispute the fact that I believe that Gregg Zaun is a superior catcher to Bengie Molina, which is fine.  But he discounted on-base percentage in favour of RBIs to make his claim that Molina is better, which is nuts.  He also completely discounted defense, which is a whole other issue, but you’ll never convince me that the fact that Molina has 20 RBIs while Zaun has five means Bengie is a better hitter.  Molina gets out 70% of the time, which is abysmal for a major-league hitter.  Sure, Zaun has been failing a lot with runners in scoring position this season, while Molina has only been slightly worse than he has been the rest of the time, but all that means for Zaun is that he’s keeping a LOT of his teammates company.

Please, if I teach you anything, let one of the lessons be just how much RBIs have to do with the people who are on base in front of a hitter, as opposed to how much they have to do with the hitter himself.  Bengie Molina is hitting .250/.289/.350 with runners in scoring position this season.  That’s horrendous, and yet he has 20 RBIs.  Edgar Renteria is hitting .302/.340/.395 with runners in scoring position and has 18 RBIs.

Saturday we have a pre-pre-game show for your listening enjoyment on the Fan590 and this very website at 6:00 pm Eastern, and Casey Janssen is scheduled to join me to give us an update on his progress from shoulder surgery and perhaps also to chat about the yellow lab that he’s picking up tomorrow afternoon.

Comments are welcome, as always – let’s keep The JaysTalk going 24/7!

1:25 AM Eastern

Sorry for the late bloggage (even though this seems to be the usual time I post).  When the game finished, I had to hightail it up to Thornhill for my first old-guy-softball league game of the season (I went 2-for-4 with a two-run double, made two errors and struck out looking in the last inning – on a pitch that was WAY high and outside, damnit), then headed off to Scarborough to open the season in my sim league (www.wmorose.ca/THROW) – my boys went 1-1, both games going into extras.

So, I just got home and here I am – blogging about the fourth-place Blue Jays for the first time in a while.

Look back three days, didn’t I mention that the last time the Jays had faced a team that was first in the AL Central by a game and a half that they’d swept them?  Call it two in a row now that the Twins have fallen by the wayside.  I never expected it to happen, but again, it just shows how quickly things can get yanked out of the abyss.  The Jays are now within a game of the elusive .500 mark that they haven’t seen since they woke up 10-10 about three and a half weeks ago, and they’ve hopped over the now-last place Yankees.  I’m going to write that again, because it has such a nice ring to it:  The last-place Yankees.

Even though I hang on every word that Jerry and Alan have to say 162 games a year, I have to tell you that it was pretty frustrating that this afternoon’s game wasn’t televised.  I always feel more comfortable commenting on a game when I’ve actually seen it.

I will say that I wasn’t impressed by Dustin McGowan’s wildness – he walked five in his five innings of work, and needed 101 pitches to get through it.  McGowan has only had one good start in his last four – if he’s not walking seven Rays, he’s giving up six runs in the first in Cleveland.  He broke through beautifully last year, and when he’s been good, he’s been outstanding, but these sorts of lengthy downturns aren’t a lot of fun to watch (or listen to).  Is there concern that he might not be fit to be the # 3 starter (behind Halladay and Marcum)?  Not to this point, I don’t think, but he’s got to fix whatever it is that’s going wrong, and soon.

Luck certainly appears as though it’s continuing to turn the Jays’ way – among the things that fell in the your heroes’ favour today were Jason Kubel running through a stop sign in the 7th, trying to score from first on a bloop single to left and Kevin Mench making a spectactular (so I heard) game-saving catch on Carlos Gomez to end the 10th.  It’s long past time that things start to go the Blue Jays’ way, and it’s nice to see things turning around.

This game felt more like the previous few weeks, before the win streak, in that the offense was wanting more often than not.  They were 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, but this time both hits scored runs and they got another on a groundout by the Best Blue Jay Ever.  I’m telling you, the tongue is being planted less and less firmly in the cheek on that with each passing day.  Today, Scott Rolen had a pair of hits outside that RBI fielder’s choice, including a double off the baggie in right to start the game-winning rally in the 11th.  And how about this for more proof that the worst could very well be over?  Rolen was still standing on second with two out in the 11th, and the Jays managed to score him anyway.  Last week and the couple of weeks before, that just plain didn’t happen.

Rolen also made, according to Jerry, as good a catch on a line drive as you’re ever going to see (I didn’t), robbing Matt Tolbert of a two-out hit in the bottom of the ninth.

Armando Benitez retired all four batters he faced – all righties, but that’s cool, that’s what he’s good at now.  And Jesse Carlson – that had to be it for him, right?  There’s no way he pitches on Friday, is there?  It was his 7th appearance in the last 8 games, and already his 11th day of work in the month of May alone!  And today he faced five hitters (retiring four) – his longest stint out of all 11 appearances.  He’s pitching great, but enough is enough!

Friday night, it’s the Jays’ long-standing interleague rivals from Philadelphia.  Rivals because of the six extremely meaningful games they played back 15 years ago, or maybe because their Spring Training ballparks are about 10 minutes away from each other.  Regardless, we get to see Shaun Marcum swing the bat on Sunday afternoon, and I for one can’t wait!  David Purcey makes his second big-league start in the opener – Jorge Velandia was farmed out in order to make room.

Comments are encouraged, as always – there was no JaysTalk after the game today, so we have a lot up for which to make!

12:45 AM Eastern

Matt Stairs couldn’t have come up with a better 31st birthday gift for Roy Halladay if he’d tried.  Never mind that Halladay wound up giving all the runs of Stairs’ first-inning slam back, it’s the thought that counts.

The Blue Jays team that has played the last two nights in Minnesota looks not a thing like the crew that dropped three of four in Cleveland.  They’re scoring early runs, taking advantage of breaks, clinging to late leads instead of desperately trying to overcome one-run deficits.  Right now they actually look like a very good baseball team.  That just shows to go you, as they say (and if they don’t, they should).

A team is never as bad as it looks when it’s playing poorly, nor is it ever as good as it looks when it’s playing well.  I’d say let that be a lesson to those of you who spout ridiculosities like “there’s no way this team is good enough to string three straight wins together” or “the Jays will never be able to get back in the playoff race” or “they can’t get back to .500 until the middle of June, at least” or “there’s no way they’ll be able to do better than 2-8 on this road trip”.  I’d say that, but it wouldn’t work.  All it will take is a three-game losing streak for those people to think (and say) that again.  I guess that goes with the passion of being a fan, but honestly, think about what you’re saying before you open your mouth (or hit your keyboard).

Is this a championship team?  Want the honest answer?  Because here comes some more TRUTH, coming right at you from the studios of The FAN590.  The honest answer is NO ONE HAS A CLUE.  And no one will until they’re either eliminated from contention or they win the World Series.  Can they get back in a playoff race?  I’m not sure – seeing as they’re four games out of first place with 120 games to play.  I’m thinking maybe they’re in a playoff race right now, despite the fact that they’re in last place.

They just won three games in a row.  Can they win three more games in a row?  Of course they can!  Can they just as easily lose four of the next five?  Absolutely!  That’s why they call it baseball.

Still, how great is it to see the Jays actually catching some breaks?  Gregg Zaun hustles down the first-base line to cover the bag on Delmon Young’s 4th-inning looper to shallow right, and Brad Wilkerson nails Young having rounded too hard with a terrific throw on the run and a great block of the bag by Zaun.  Textbook 9-2 at first base, just like they drew it up.

Jesse Crain remembers his home and native land and gives the Jays a gift run on  Halladay’s birthday, having Scott Rolen dead to rights when the Best Blue Jay Ever took off too early from second, but throwing the ball past Mike Lamb and down the left-field line.  Rolen looked all Mosebyic going for third, turning around, falling, and turning back around.  At least (for Marty Pevey’s sake) he didn’t look all Kenny Williamsish, though judging from some of the comments, some of you wouldn’t have minded that – which is not nice.

Halladay helped himself out as well, being aware enough to go to third in the 7th when Carlos Gomez took off from second on Matt Tolbert’s one-out comebacker.  That was the last hitter Halladay would face, and the bullpen picked him up enough to get him back to within a game of .500 at 4-5.  At one game under .500, Halladay has worked himself into a position where he’s now the same pitcher as the 3-4 A.J. Burnett.  Maybe, if they both work really hard, someday one or both could be as good as Jesse Litsch, who is 5-1.

Is it time for Jesse Carlson to get a day off?  He has now pitched in six of the Jays’ last seven games, and the only day he didn’t work was the rainout in Cleveland on Sunday.  He got Joe Mauer on one pitch to get out of the 7th, but gave up a single to Justin Morneau on the 9th pitch of a terrific battle in which Morneau fouled off three straight two-strike pitches.  I mean, he’s no Rolen, but it was close.

And yes, there’s that Rolen fellow again.  A 15-pitch at-bat preceding a Matt Stairs homer last night, an 11-pitch at-bat preceding the Stairs slam tonight.  Man, he’s really good and stuff.

Big ups to the Jays’ last two lefties, too, on a night when B.J. Ryan was unavailable after having pitched Monday and Tuesday – Brian Tallet struck out Brendan Harris looking to end the 8th with the tying run on third, and then Snakeface came in and didn’t miss a beat, getting the Twins in order in a pretty anti-climactic ninth inning.  Kevin Mench played that 9th, coming in defensively for Shannon Stewart – honestly, I didn’t get that.  I think that even when you factor in the difference in their arms, Mench isn’t a better defender than Shannon.

It’s Wednesday, so J.P. Ricciardi stopped by on his way back to the hotel, and other than him almost getting run over by a car midway through the show (good save, Manager of Team Travel Mike Shaw!), it wasn’t terribly controversial.  You can hear the whole show by clicking on the link on the front page of this very website, but here are some things that stood out to me:

-Ricciardi agreed with me about the Jays hitting rock bottom in the 9th inning of the nightcap in Cleveland on Monday, which I thought was nice.

-The Jays have no interest in going after Mike Piazza – which is to say they’re happy with Mench as the right-handed half of the DH platoon with Stairs.

-Ricciardi bristled at the notion that his living in Worcester has any sort of detrimental effect on the team (and I think he’s right).  He mentioned Pat Gillick, who lived in Toronto while he was the GM of the Mariners and who now is the GM of the Phillies and lives in Seattle.  Also Kenny Williams, the White Sox’ GM, lives in Arizona.  Ricciardi added that he has never missed a Jays’ home game throughout his tenure, and travels to many more road games than the average GM.

-Despite the release of the Mitchell Report in the off-season, J.P. thought that no one could have prepared for the downturn in offense this season – even if teams had thought it might happen, they would have had to guess at who the guys who would fall back would be, which is a pretty unenviable position.  He added that the drop-off is going to make it hard to evaluate players going forward, because track record won’t necessarily mean as much.

-Ricciardi thinks that Alex Rios belongs in the three-hole for now, and that his last couple of at-bats looked very good (I thought the last three, but he pulled the first one, and J.P. likes him going up the middle and the other way).  He also mentioned that because Rios is pulling off everything and not staying through the ball, he’s totally eliminating the outer half of the plate, which is suicide for a hitter.

-Yes,  Ricciardi wishes he had drafted Troy Tulowitzki.

It’s a quick turnaround, so make sure you’re back in front of your radio Thursday afternoon for the finale – Dustin McGowan against lefty Glen Perkins – we’re on  at 1:00 PM Eastern and no, the line-up won’t be the same as it’s been the last two nights.

Comments are always welcome, let’s keep the JaysTalk going 24/7! 

12:55 AM Eastern

So it turns out the Blue Jays don’t have to make every one of their games eye-bleedingly frustrating to watch.  They can actually play, and win, a regular-type baseball game.  Who knew?

It appeared as though the black cloud that has been following this team around for the better part of a month had gone away, or at least hadn’t been able to seep through the inflated-roof wonderworld that is the Metrodome, as early as the first inning, when the Jays caught a massive break. 

First, Aaron Hill gets a hit – a swell achievement seeing how he was hitting just .189 over his last 74 at-bats going into the nightcap of last night’s doubleheader (when he went 2-for-3, he’s coming out of it!).  It was just an ordinary single to centre, Hill didn’t even make a big turn at first, but Carlos Gomez came up firing somewhere in the general direction of second base, over one cut-off man, past another and all the way into the Twins’ dugout.  Massive break for the Jays.  Now, just push the free run across and you’re off to the races.

It didn’t quite work out that way, as both Alex Rios and Scott Rolen struck out with Hill at third to end the inning.  You could be forgiven for thinking that getting out of this funk might be a lot harder than we anticipated (or just as hard, depending on your level of anticipatoritude).

How about the trough that Rios is in, by the way?  He’s 0-for-his-last-11 and 5-for-his-last-42.  Yuck.  Still didn’t stop Ron Gardenhire from intentionally walking him to pitch to Rolen in the 7th, though.

So the Jays gag on their first opportunity to get the lead, and the Twins open the scoring with a solo shot by Gomez (seriously?)  – and a no-doubter at that, with two out in the 3rd.

But then, what’s this?  The Jays actually responded!  And had some luck along the way.  With two out and nobody on, Matt Stairs drew a walk – his second of the night and only the second given up by Kevin Slowey all season.  Lyle Overbay (I told you so) then ripped one of his patented shots into the gap in left-centre to score Stairs, his 5th double in the last eight games.  Shannon Stewart was next, and he hit a fly ball to deepish right field.  Michael Cuddyer gently glided back on it, put up his glove, and didn’t catch it.  He had needed to add a little sprint to his glide, and didn’t get back quite far enough, by inches.  RBI double for Stewart, and the Jays had the lead.

In all, the Jays scored four of their runs with two out, and the fifth came on a sac fly with the bases loaded and none out.  That’s something rarely, if ever, seen from the 2008 Jays, and yet it was their second straight game with a bases-loaded sac fly.  Things are starting to turn around.

In case I haven’t mentioned this before, Scott Rolen is the Best Blue Jay Ever.  It’s a title well-earned, illustrated once more by his at-bat in the 6th inning.  With Slowey on the ropes, Rolen delivered the set-up for the knockout punch.  It wasn’t the lay-him-out uppercut to the jaw, but it was a series of good, hard jabs.  Rolen fouled off NINE two-strike offerings in that at-bat, and finally grounded to shortstop on the 15TH pitch of the sequence!  Two pitches later, Stairs put one in the seats, and Slowey was done.  Tree-freakin’-mendous job by Rolen.  He goes 0-for-5, and still makes a huge contribution at the plate, never mind with the glove, which is peerless at third base.

The questions came on The JaysTalk – why did John Gibbons take Jesse Litsch out so early?  Litsch had only thrown 70 pitches when, with two out in the 6th and the tying run at the plate, Gibbons went and got him for Jesse Carlson.  Of course Litsch had enough gas in the tank to pitch to Justin Morneau, and even if Morneau had taken him deep, the game would only be tied.  For those reasons, if it were up to me, I would have let Litsch keep going.

But when you have four lefties in the bullpen, you can play the match-up game that early.  It didn’t work out, because Carlson gave up an RBI triple off the baggie in right-centre, but so far this season has it ever been a mistake to bring in Jesse Carlson?  He hadn’t given up a hit to a lefty since Eric Hinske took him deep back at DisneyWorld on April 22nd – three weeks and 12 appearances ago.  Since when did Carlson become a LOOGY, though?

We got to see Armando Benitez make his Jays’ debut, and we got to see Jason Kubel hit his first-ever pitch as a Jay about a hundred miles into the upper deck in right.  He rebounded by striking out Gomez on a nasty slider before walking Brendan Harris and giving way to Snakeface, who REALLY earned the save by retiring both Joe Mauer and Morneau on ground balls.  It was a nice spot for Benitez’ debut.  Three-run lead, three righties in a row, and even as he has slid into mediocrity (or worse) over the latter stages of his career, he’s still been a guy who can get righties out.  Downs was ready for the bailout, and up to a very tough task.

In the 9th, we saw B.J. Ryan pitching on a second straight day for the first time this season, and but for one pitch to Mike Lamb, he looked great.  Lamb came within about eight feet of taking Ryan deep down the right-field line for a game-tying homer with two out, but he wound up getting him on a grounder to third on which Rolen made a particularily pretty play.  Best Blue Jay ever, after all.

Side note – does anyone else remember that game a few years back when the Rangers ran out of catchers against the Jays and they had to stick Lamb back there for the first time in his career?  I don’t have the inclination to Retrosheet it up, but hilarity ensued, that’s for sure.  Poor guy.

Remember, there’s another pre-pre-game show Wednesday, and some late night J.P. action as well, though with Roy Halladay pitching, the game might well be over around the usual 7:07 PM Eastern start time time.

Comments are welcome, as always, let’s keep The JaysTalk going 24/7!

11:40 PM Eastern

I’m sure if you look back in the archives of this fine blog you might find that I’ve written more than once that the Blue Jays had hit rock bottom.  The 1-0 loss to the Red Sox at Fenway and Saturday night’s 12-0 pounding in Cleveland spring to mind immediately.  I think, though, that both those instances were passed tonight in the nightcap of the double-dip in Cleveland, first in the 5th inning, and then in the 9th.

In the 5th, I don’t know that it was so much “rock bottom” as it was summing up the Jays’ season so far in a nutshell.  Kevin Mench and Marco Scutaro lead off with line singles, bringing Lyle Overbay to the plate.  With the runners going, Overbay squares up a tough lefty in Cliff Lee and hits a rope back up the middle.  In a normal baseball world with a normal baseball team, it’s an RBI single to centre, runners at first and third, here we go on the way to a big inning.  With your 2008 Toronto Blue Jays, the best-hitting team ever to not be able to score at all, it’s the 14th unassisted triple play in major-league history.

The beauty of the unassisted triple play, the rarest event in the game, is that it only takes a split-second, and sometimes you don’t even realize it’s jaw-droppingness until a few beats after it’s done.  Asdrubal Cabrera made a nice diving catch to his right, and the rest was cake.  Doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but man oh man.  And how cool was it that a guy who had turned the trick 40 years ago was sitting in the stands watching?  Way more eerie than Kelly Gruber hanging out at SkyDome the night Jeff Frye hit for the cycle.

So the UTP gets turned, folks marvel, and the Jays go back to their requisite offensive flaccitude until the 9th inning (excepting a Scott Rolen ballboy-aided double), all the while watching Shaun Marcum pitch his best game of what’s been an eye-poppingly terrific season – 8 innings of two-hitter without a walk, retiring the last 15 hitters he faced.  As every Jays pitcher does, Marcum pitched with absolutely no margin for error, and pitched brilliantly.

In the 9th, the Jays’ bats spring to life.  They’d been shut out for an incredible 30 straight innings, and had gone a total of 39 having scored only one run.  But Shannon Stewart walks and is bunted to second by Aaron Hill (solid move, because Hill had hardly hit a thing for a couple of weeks).  Alex Rios follows with a blistering line drive down the first-base line for a go-ahead RBI double.  In the real world, anyway.  In bizarro Blue Jay-land, he’s robbed by a fantastic leaping grab to his left by Victor Martinez, the first baseman who HAPPENS TO BE A FREAKING CATCHER and has no business whatsoever making that play.

Still, all is not lost because Stewart is smart enough not to get doubled up.  The inning stays alive for Rolen, who hits a grounder into the 5-6 hole that Jhonny Peralta can’t get over to first in time.  Once again, right out of the 2008 Blue Jays playbook – a hit with a runner in scoring position that doesn’t actually score a run.  Kevin Mench is next, and he rips a line shot of his own, a laser beam to right field, and Franklin Gutierrez lays out to make a fantastic diving catch, stunningly not breaking his wrist in the bargain.

That, ladies and gentlemen, was absolute rock-flippin’-bottom.  Twice robbed of a go-ahead hit, each time by an amazing defensive play.  It simply cannot get any worse.  And after B.J. Ryan gets the meat of the Indian order in order in the 9th, good things start to happen.

A pinch-single by Matt Stairs starts it, then a grounder up the middle that’s usually a Blue-Jays-Special 6-4-3 double play instead goes off the left elbow of pitcher Rafael Betancourt and ricochets towards third, but not fast enough to get anybody out.  A sacrifice bunt, properly executed by Gregg Zaun.  After an intentional walk to load the bases, Stewart refuses to look at strike three with a runner at third in extra innings again, and gets into one for a sac fly deep enough to advance all three baserunners!  Hill, with the pressure off, blows the game wide open with a hard single to centre to plate two more.

Snakeface comes in to work the 10th, and just like that, a Blue Jays’ win.

Could it be over?  Could this team now begin hitting to even slightly below its capabilities with runners in scoring position as opposed to slightly below mine?  We won’t know until tomorrow, but any sign is a good sign, especially after plunging to the depths they hit in the top of the 9th.

I have long said that John Gibbons doesn’t deserve to lose his job, and that firing him wouldn’t be the right thing to do, but I believe that had the Jays not scored at all today, and been swept by the Indians having scored just one run over four games, Gibbons would not have been running the show tomorrow.  It would neither have been right nor fair, but I think it would have been done.  Now, if the Jays win four out of the next five, everything will be back on the path to fine, and a good man won’t be looking for work.

There’s lots of work to do yet, but as I said on a JaysTalk in which I didn’t yell at anyone (what’s wrong with me?), the Jays are one game behind the Yankees and Indians and a game and a half ahead of the Tigers as we speak.  This thing isn’t even close to being close to being over.  Still, this is a team that has only scored in three out of the last FIFTY INNINGS it has played.  That takes the definition of craptacular to new heights.

But they scored three in the last one.  It’s got to end sometime, and there’s no time like right now.

Remember, there’ll be pre-pre-game shows Tuesday and Wednesday with the Jays off to the Central Time Zone!  7:00 pm Eastern on the Fan590 and on this very website.

Comments are welcome, as always, let’s keep The JaysTalk going 24/7!

6:15 PM Eastern

Mother Nature had the biggest effect on Mother’s Day, and now we get a doubleheader tomorrow starting at 4:00 PM Eastern on the Fan Radio Network.

Catch the  Mother’s Day Spectacular on The Blue Jays This Week tonight at 7:05 PM Eastern!

11:30 PM Eastern

For the first time this season, the Jays had a game that they were never in.  They got their heads handed to them in a 12-0 loss, it was over after the first inning.  You can kind of understand it, though.  After a couple of tough losses and then finding out that Vernon Wells was lost for six to eight weeks -it’s never an excuse, but it’s an excuse to drag your tail into the ballpark and be emotionally down.

Nevertheless, this was just the second time this season that the Jays had trailed by more than TWO runs entering the 7th inning.  Yes, they’re 17-21, but that’s still an achievement.  And that stands even though they’ve lost the last three games by a combined score of 26-4.

I was only going to post that the top of 7th inning was the Blue Jays’ season in a nutshell – four hits, no runs and a hit with runners in scoring position that didn’t score a run.  Ladies and gentlemen, your 2008 Toronto Blue Jays!

But then we had The JaysTalk, and there were some interesting callers, mostly accusing me of being an optimist at least, and a homer/shill/apologist at worst.  I defended myself on the air, and I’ll restate it here:  I am a teller of truths.

If you want to see that as being an apologist, that’s your prerogative.  Everybody’s talking all this stuff about me, but they don’t understand me, they really don’t know the deal.

Among the truths I tell:

-With 124 games remaining, the Blue Jays’ season is not over.

-The Blue Jays are performing at an historically poor level with runners in scoring position, and without even invoking the law of regression to the mean, it can’t continue.

-Despite how horrible the offense has been, the team is four games under .500.

-At close of business tonight, the Blue Jays are two games behind the Indians and Yankees, and one game ahead of the Tigers – the three teams likeliest to be the main competition for the wild card spot in the American League.

Say what you will, but those facts are indisputable (unless you buy the starts of the White Sox, Twins, Orioles, A’s and Rays).  And fine, if you really want to buy the Rays (don’t) – the Jays are four games behind them.  With 124 to play.

Longing for the days of Pat Gillick is a fool’s errand.  He left this team (in terrible shape, I might add) fourteen years ago, and he’s not coming back.  Comparing J.P. Ricciardi to Gillick is equally ridiculous.  Gillick is one of the most successful GM’s in history, and almost every other GM working in the game today pales in comparison.  The fact that Ricciardi isn’t Gillick isn’t reason to dislike him.

The caller who longed for the days of 1998 when Gord Ash showed “guts” by bringing in Jose Canseco, who hit 46 homers to propel the Jays into a playoff race was misguided, to say the least.  First, remember that no one wanted Canseco, coming off a season in which he’d hit .235/.325/.461 with 122 strikeouts in 108 games and having not played more than 119 games in six years, which is why Ash was able to get him to sign a one-year deal.

Second, remember that in 1998, the year in which the Jays compiled their best record in the last 15 years under the great Tim Johnson, the team was TEN games out of the wild card on the first of September.  They finished that season four games back (26 out of first), but it was illusorilly close because of their 17-8 run in September – they would have had to go 22-3 to win the wild card outright, and only the Colorado Rockies can do that.

Let’s not revise history, folks.  Memories are fallible, facts is facts.  I state facts.

Remember to call your Mom!  After you leave a comment on this blerg, of course.