11:48 PM Eastern

On the heels of the four-game win streak, the Jays’ bats were shut down by the cellar-dwelling Cleveland Indians, and the chance for a 7-0 homestand went up in smoke.

David Purcey pitched very well, save for the 4th inning, during which he faced six hitters and all of them hit rockets.  Luckily for Purcey, Jamey Carroll’s line drive was snared by Scott Rolen, Brad Wilkerson ran down a Jhonny Peralta blast at the warning track and Franklin Gutierrez got greedy and tried to stretch his single to left-centre into a double.  That was all that stood between the Tribe and maybe a seven-plus run inning.  Aside from that one hiccup, though, Purcey was terrific.  He struck out a career-high eight and walked only two, leaving after six innings down 3-1.

I’ve always really liked Anthony Reyes, who the Indians picked up in a trade with St. Louis last month.  I thought he was extraordinarily unlucky to go 2-14 with the Cards last season, and that really his only big problem was an inability to keep the ball in the park (a very big problem, I’ll grant you).  He didn’t have a problem with that tonight, though.  The Jays really only threatened once – when they tried to do the same thing they did in the 4th inning last night.

Down 3-0 to the A’s, they rallied with two out and nobody on, picking up five straight hits, with John McDonald ending the inning getting caught in a rundown as the go-ahead run scored on his two-run double.

This time, they were also down 3-0 (to Cleveland), and in the same spot in the line-up, and again started a rally with two out and nobody on.  This time it was three straight hits and a hit batsman, and once again Johnny Mac came to the plate with two out and the game dying to be changed.  This time, though, Mac hit a fly ball to deepish centre which was easily run down by Grady Sizemore.  The Jays didn’t threaten again before the Tribe tacked on two insurance runs in the 8th.

So the great Johnny Mac debate resumes.  Would the Jays have been better suited having David Eckstein at bat in that situation in the 4th tonight?  Definitely.  Would Eckstein have come through?  Probably not – the odds are against him doing something productive with two out , as they are against any hitter, but he gives them a better shot than McDonald.  Does that mean Mac should sit?  What about his glove?  Truth is, his glove gives the Jays a better shot at preventing runs than anyone else on the team.  They’re now 15-9 when he starts.

I’m still on the fence.  I think that if the hitters were performing to their capabilities and if Vernon Wells and Aaron Hill were healthy, it’d be a no-brainer to have McDonald in there every night.  But what I’ve said many times this year still holds true – the Jays have lost MANY more games because of a lack of offense than because of shoddy defense.  It’s mind-bottling, I don’t even know which way I’m leaning.  For sheer entertainment value, though, there’s nothing like watching John McDonald make magic out at shortstop.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk, extendo and all, for your listening pleasure:

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Reasonable, rational comments are encouraged – with the day-game-after-a-night-game caveat.

Remember, the pre-pre-game show goes at noon Eastern Saturday on The Fan590 and on this very website.  Scott Richmond will be joining us live, maybe I’ll see if we can get him to take some phone calls!

10:55 AM Eastern

Sorry for the lack of bloggage on last night’s win, but here’s last night’s edition of The JaysTalk:

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I have time to say one thing:  How bizarro is it, relative to the Jays’ season as a whole, that not only could they come back from 3-0 down against the league’s ERA leader with five straight two-out hits to take a 4-3 lead, but then that after Oakland came back to tie, the Jays put the winning two-run rally together without getting even one hit?  Losing pitcher Jerry Blevins faced five hitters, four of whom reached, and not a single one put the ball in play.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.

1:50 AM Eastern

Sorry for the late post, but I had to rush home after The Wednesdays with J.P. to get a Fat Elvis game in (complete game for Roy Halladay, 3-1 win to push the ol’ ballclub to 30-11) and then cook up some lunch for the girlies for tomorrow before sitting down to do this.

I had thought that Shaun Marcum had been improving start-to-start since coming off the disabled list, but tonight he sent the improvement curve into the stratosphere.  He looked just like the old Marcum we knew and loved, taking a no-hitter into the 6th, making hitters look silly with his change-up, throwing the fastball right where he wanted it.  It was great to see – hopefully he’s got his stuff together for the rest of the season.  If Marcum can join Halladay and Burnett to form a big three the rest of the way, the Jays will be a handful for whomsoever they face.  Remember, when Marcum got hurt (the day before Gibby’s last game), Burnett hadn’t yet taken off.  He went out the next day and got hammered, and since then has the 3.28 ERA and 1.26 WHIP and more than a strikeout an inning and opponents’ OPS of .700.  So the Jays have never had three starters clicking on all cylinders at any point this season.  It seems as though they finally may.

Stunningly, the Jays didn’t roll over against a lefty making his major-league debut, although the game was eerily reminiscent of the last time the same scenario happened against Oakland.  This time, Gio Gonzalez (who had been involved in trades for Jim Thome, Freddy Garcia and Nick Swisher) retired the first two hitters before giving up a ringing double to Alex Rios down the left-field line.  After walking Lyle Overbay, Rod Barajas took Gonzalez to the proverbial Powder River, destroying a 90 mph heater into the 200-level in left.  Adam Lind followed with a single, and then Gonzalez didn’t give up another hit until the 7th inning.

The last time a lefty A’s starter made his major-league debut in Toronto was back on April 9th, when Greg Smith gave up a three-spot in the first, then allowed just one more hit until leaving going into the 7th.  That night, though, the Jays didn’t add on, and the A’s torched the bullpen for four runs in the 9th and won 6-3.  Tonight, there were a couple of add-on runs, and the bullpen threw two hitless innings behind Marcum.

John McDonald flashed the leather again – what else is new? – with two terrific plays in the 7th.  With the bases loaded and none out, Mark Ellis hit a grounder to Mac, who charged in for it as Carlos Gonzalez was passing in front of him on the way to third.  Unfazed, Mac picked up the grounder and fired home on the run to nail Frank Thomas.  Barajas, not having to worry about making a tag, put the squeeze on the short-hop for the inning’s first out.  Next up was Jack Hannahan, who grounded to second.  Marco Scutaro wasn’t exactly quick flipping to McDonald, who took the throw with Ellis about to crush him, but Johnny Mac sailed over the runner and made a strong throw to first to complete the DP and end the inning.

Before the game, Cito Gaston said that he’d love to have McDonald play shortstop every day, but the rest of the team has to be hitting well enough to support the bat.  After the game, J.P. Ricciardi said that even though the Jays are now 14-8 when Mac starts, more offense is needed from that position than what John provides.

The one major revelation that came on Wednesdays with J.P. was that if Ricciardi is back in 2009, Cito Gaston has a job.  It had always been thought that Cito would likely stick around, but there had been no official word until tonight, when J.P. said “Cito Gaston will definitely be the manager next year.”  You can hear it all right here:

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The best part may well have been when J.P. said he’d love to get into a round-table debate with some of his critics in the media.  I wonder if we could set that up on Prime Time someday?

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

12:45 AM Eastern

It’s an interesting word, “consistent”. It is often used in place of “very good”, which isn’t at all what it means. Someone can be consistently poor or mediocre at something, and many people are, at many things. To be consistent is to “constantly adhere to the same form”. Alex Rodriguez was the American League MVP last year – was he a consistent hitter? Not even a little. The first four months of the season, he OPS’d 1.297 – .782 – 1.269 – .835. Wildly inconsistent. You want consistency? I introduce North Vancouver’s pride and joy, Mr. Scott D. Richmond, as Exhibit J (see what I did there?).

In each one of his major league starts, Richmond has allowed three runs on seven hits while striking out four. In each of his major league starts, Richmond has left in the 6th inning trailing 3-2. That, my friends, is consistent.

In his first start, he recorded one out in the 6th inning and didn’t walk a batter. In his second start, he recorded two outs in the 6th inning and walked one. If, in his third start, he gets through the 6th inning, even if he adds another walk, he becomes the perfect 5th starter. Who wouldn’t want to see 6 – 7 -3 -3 -2 -4 out of the 5th guy every single time out, consistently?

It’s only two starts, but Richmond is off to a solid, consistent start to his big-league career.

John McDonald made two more phenomenal plays at shortstop tonight, showing again why he deserves more playing time. The first was a dazzling grab of a pop-up to shallow centre that he had to track as it moved to his right while he was moving back. I thought originally that he had turned wrong, that he would get turned around and the ball would fall in, but he was in control the whole way, grabbing it almost basket-style right in front of Alex Rios. The other play was the line-drive double play with the bases loaded and nobody out in the 8th. The A’s were in position to blow the doors off against Brandon League, but McDonald grabbed Mark Ellis’ liner in the hole, and from the ground, spun and doubled off Emil Brown at second.

It wasn’t a textbook sharp liner that required an immediate diving catch – the ball was kind of falling towards the ground almost slowly and McDonald fell with it (to his right) and picked it just before it hit the turf. His throw to second short-hopped Marco Scutaro, who made a really nice play to corral it. Given the end result, that may well have been a game-saver.

Does any other shortstop make that play? Maybe, but certainly not any other shortstop on the Blue Jays. Does McDonald deserve to be the everyday guy because of what he brings with the glove? I’m still on the fence on that.

The thing is, the Jays haven’t lost many games this season because of their defense, and they’ve lost many, many games because they haven’t been able to drive a run in at the right time. Johnny Mac isn’t the guy who can be counted on to drive in runs, although he is a hell of a bunter. He has the best glove and the worst stick of the three shortstops. David Eckstein has the worst glove and the best stick of the three and Marco Scutaro is second in both rankings. Should McDonald be starting over Scoot? No question. But I still think that given all the options, Eckstein should be in there every day. And it has nothing to do with the fact that his wife is voicing one of the main characters in the Clone Wars movie (coming soon to a theatre near you).

Congrats to the Blue Jays for kicking a team when it’s down, too. It would have been the same old story to let a group going as badly as the A’s are come to town and grab a win, but they pounced on Huston Street in the 9th, with each of Rios, Rod Barajas and Kevin Mench absolutely scorching a ball in order to put together the winning rally. Now, though, they have to deal with a pitcher making his major-league debut. And it’s a lefty, no less!

Gio Gonzalez will be called up to start tomorrow night’s game. The 22 year-old southpaw has already been traded three times in his professional career, in deals involving Freddy Garcia, Aaron Rowand and Nick Swisher. Organizations have thought very highly of him, and this year in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, he’s got a 4.24 ERA and a WHIP of 1.358 though he’s struck out over a batter an inning. In his last seven starts, he’s allowed just eight earned runs on 20 hits over 41 1/3 innings, with 45 strikeouts. That’s kind of scary. He has walked 19, though. Still, it’s an ERA of 1.74 and a WHIP of 0.944. Should be fun.

Here’s tonight’s The JaysTalk for your listening pleasure:

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Oh, at the end of the show I promise to fill you in on how Jesse Litsch did in his AAA start tonight, but I forgot to do so when I came back from the break.  So for those of you who are too lazy to go to milb.com and look it up, Litsch gave up two earned runs on seven hits in seven innings, with a walk and four strikeouts.  Charlotte’s 9-hitter, Javier Colina, took him deep.

Reasonable, rational comments are always welcome!

10:45 PM Eastern

A holiday Monday Tour de Force by Roy Halladay, and the Blue Jays taking advantage of a struggling team – that’s exactly how things are supposed to go. If the Jays had been this opportunistic over the first 111 games of the schedule, we wouldn’t be talking about how they need a miracle to make the playoffs.

Tonight, they scored early and often, and did it in an unusual fashion. The first two Jays’ runs came on hit batsmen with the bases loaded, and the third scored on a passed ball. Not the sort of thing we’re used to in the land of bases-loaded strikeouts, pop-ups and double-play balls.

The Jays had five opportunities to score a runner from third with less than two out and cashed all five.

Halladay was at his dominant best, holding the league’s worst-hitting team to just four safeties over eight innings. Outside the Bobby Crosby homer in the 8th, he allowed a ground single up the middle, a bloop single that fell in front of a hard-charging (yes, hustling) Alex Rios, and a liner to deep left by Jack Cust that got over Adam Lind’s head. A better left fielder probably catches that ball, but Lind more that makes up with his bat for being an average to below-average defensive outfielder.

With Halladay operating the way he was, there was no need to pile on, but it would have been nice to see the Jays not shut down offensively in the middle part of the game. They didn’t score in four innings against the just-called-up Dan Meyer, although they did manage a hit in every inning – a far cry from last night in Texas. The A’s looked every bit the death-spiralling team that has lost 15 of its last 17.

Finally, I got a chance to have a good, long talk with Scott Richmond before the game, and he came across as a pretty run-of-the-mill, ordinary guy – and I say that in a good way. He talked about dreaming about playing pro ball, but he also wanted to take a year off after high school and wound up getting a job that paid well and decided to stick with that for a while. Of course, his story differs from a lot of ours because he was actually really, really good at throwing a baseball, and he eventually wound his way into the majors. Although he did say he wished he was in Beijing with the rest of the Canadian Olympic team, he also said that playing in the majors is his dream, and he couldn’t be happier to be in the bigs with the Blue Jays. You can hear the whole interview in the hot audio section of the website.

Look, every ballplayer’s dream is to compete at the highest level, and that’s the big leagues. If you’re not in the big leagues, then something like the Olympic team is a wonderful opportunity. Richmond wants to be here, with the Jays, and doesn’t believe that there should be any backlash against the Jays’ front office for calling him up when they did.

Here’s tonight’s episode of The JaysTalk – extendo and all – for your listening pleasure:

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Reasonable, rational comments are always encouraged!

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12:00 PM Eastern

It takes a special ballclub to be able to be shut down by Luis Mendoza, but the Jays pulled off that trick last night.  After they torched the shaky Rangers’ starter for three runs in the first, they just stopped.  A run on four hits the rest of the way.  It’s something we’ve seen dozens of times this year and last, and something that tends not to work well as far as winning games is concerned.

Gerald Laird swung the big stick, with a pair of two-run homers off of David Purcey – both almost to the same spot in the opposite field – but it wasn’t the Rod Barajas look-alike  that did them in so much as the freebies to the runners who were on base ahead of him.  Purcey walked Ian Kinsler to lead off the 4th, and Laird left the yard immediately afterward to get the Rangers on the board, and the hit batsman that may or may not have been came a couple of batters ahead of the second Laird shot in the 5th.

Debate all you want about whether the pitch actually hit Travis Metcalf on the top of the foot – replays were inconclusive because even though it appeared that the ball bounced over Metcalf’s foot, it’s almost impossible to tell if it didn’t catch a piece of the top of his shoe, much like trying to see if there was a foul tip on a particular swing.  Regardless, Purcey bounced an 0-2 pitch at the hitter’s feet.

It’s all part of the process, and Purcey continues to improve start to start.  He’ll be fun to watch over the last two months of the season, to see if he can be a legit 4 or 5 for the Jays next year.

Here’s last night’s edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

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Remember, on this holiday Monday (in most of Canada), I’ll be outside in the tent at Gate 6A for a pre-pre-game show at 5:00 PM Eastern.  No clue what we’ll do for that half-hour, but I’ll figure something out.  I’ll try to get some quality time with A.J. Burnett or Scott Richmond.  Richmond might be the guy, no one has really sat him down since the major-league debut on Wednesday – we can get him to weigh in on the Olympic debate, as well.  I guarantee you he’d rather be in the big leagues.

Reasonable, rational comments are always welcome!

12:05 PM Eastern

It’s a good thing that B.J. Ryan didn’t retire after blowing that save on Friday night – the Jays needed him to close it out last night, securing A.J. Burnett’s career-high 13th win.

The intentional walk backfired on the Rangers, just like it had on the Jays with David Murphy (twice!) in the series opener.  Amazingly, it was Matt Stairs who was intentionally passed for Rod Barajas.  I guess it’s six of one, because neither of them have been hitting for a while but really, are people even paying attention?  Stairs had a three-hit game last week against the Mariners, sure, but he’s still hitting just .175/.325/.381 over the last month, and it was the second time in nine games he’d been intentionally walked.

This time, Barajas came through with a two-run double down the third-base line and Scott Rolen followed with a two-run double of his own over Josh Hamilton’s head.  Scott Downs made it stand up by facing the minimum SEVEN hitters over his season-high-tying 2 1/3 inning stint, and then Ryan nailed down the save.

You had to love Brad Wilkerson’s sell-job on the home run he stole from Mike Young to lead off the bottom of the 6th.  Wilkerson actually had his glove open towards the wall when he went up, and the ball short-hopped off the yellow line and stuck right in the pocket.  There was no way any umpire could ever have seen it happen with the naked eye, which is a good argument for instant replay.

Still, it’s kind of funny – the act of thievery involved there is applauded in baseball circles, even Wilkerson could barely contain his glee on the field.  Take a legit home run away illegally, make a sliding catch that you actually trap but no one sees, skip over second base instead of stepping on it while you turn a double play, relay a sign from second to your hitter, peek down to see the catcher’s signals when you’re at the plate, grease up the ball – all of that is looked upon as part of the gamesmanship of the game, the old “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying”.  Just heaven forbid you use a syringe.

The Blue Jays This Week will be on a little early tonight.  We’re doing it before the pre-game, and it’ll start at 7:00 PM Eastern as opposed to 7:05.  Tonight, we feature Marco Scutaro, talking about his (relatively) newfound everyday shortstopness, Gregg Zaun, making an effort to clear the air about his pre-deadline comments, and Carl Crawford, who answers 10 questions.

Here’s last night’s edition of The JaysTalk for your listening pleasure:

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Reasonable, rational comments are always welcome!

12:45 AM Eastern

Not with that Blue Jays pitching staff it isn’t.  Well, at least it wasn’t tonight.  Shaun Marcum couldn’t work the requisite five innings after being given a 6-0 lead, and B.J. Ryan couldn’t slam the door shut in the 9th despite being handed a two-run advantage.

It was the 3rd straight sub-par outing for Marcum, who left up 6-4 in the 5th, but with runners on second and third who were quickly cashed by David Murphy.  Since coming off a month-long DL stint, Marcum has allowed 16 earned runs on 21 hits, five of which were home runs.  He’s walked seven and struck out six in his 14 2/3 innings of work.  Could he have come back too soon?  Is he still feeling the effects of the strain that knocked him out for a month?  Maybe, but maybe he’s feeling the effects of having sat out for a month and only having had one rehab stint before returning (which I guess would work into the coming back too soon argument, wouldn’t it?). 

Truth is, I didn’t think Marcum looked bad tonight until the 5th, when he just couldn’t get anyone out all of a sudden.  Maybe the 100-degree weather got to him, maybe that wasn’t it at all, but I thought that going into that inning, at least, he’d looked like the Marcum of the first half.

It’s a shame all that offense was wasted, but Marcum’s entitled, given how often he’s bailed the offense out with nothing to show for it.  Still, two days off and Scott Rolen hits a three-run bomb to dead centre, not bad.  It was good to see Adam Lind finally moved up into the middle of the order, hitting 5th, pushing the Stairs-Barajas-Rolen struggle-fest to 6-7-8, where they can combine to do less damage.

David Eckstein’s debut as a second baseman was uneventful, which is a good thing.  He played 14 games there as an Angels rookie in 2001, but hadn’t been back since.  If playing him at second and moving Joe Inglett to right is a way to get Brad Wilkerson out of the everyday line-up, I’m all for it.

You’ll hear a few callers on The JaysTalk (if you listen, and why wouldn’t you?) who are concerned about B.J. Ryan, which is to be expected after any blown save.  I’m sorry, though, I’m not buying it.  The guy is less than 15 months removed from a surgery that takes up to 18 months from which to recover, and he has blown three saves in 23 opportunities.  This was his first blown save in almost two months (June 5th was the last).

Yes, all three of Ryan’s blown saves have been spectacular, but there have only been three.  Yes, he’s not as dominant as he was in 2006, but he’s certainly not been the thrill-a-minute guy that Miguel Batista, or even Mike Timlin was.  Or hey, remember Tom Henke of 1992?  He’s not throwing as hard on a consistent basis as he used to, nor is he throwing strikes as consistently as ’06, but how could he have been expected to?  This isn’t a guy scraping by on the last little bit of what he has left.  He’s done a remarkable job.  It seems like so many people expect the closer to be 1-2-3 lights out, goodnight.  The truth is that VERY rarely is a closer so dominatingly automatic.  Jays fans have been spoiled in the past – Henke had a WHIP under 1.00 in ’85, ’87 and ’91, and Ryan’s ’06 was better than any of those years – but guys like that don’t come along too often, and Ryan at least has the chance to be that good again next year.

Finally, just so you know, the Jays can beat the crap out of a kid making his major-league debut.  Rolen and Overbay both took Canadian country music icon Tommy Hunter deep, and the kid left after 5 innings with a career ERA of 10.80 and a WHIP of 2.00.  Unfortunately for the Jays, he left in a 6-6 tie.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk:

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Reasonable, rational comments are encouraged, hate-spewers are encouraged to move on elsewhere, and those who want to react to something they only think I said are encouraged to listen more closely.

2:25 PM Eastern

Just letting you all know that I wasn’t able to get to the comments last night before my old-man softball game (a 29-16 win, yours truly going 3-for-4 with a sac fly).

Today’s my anniversary, so I won’t be getting to the almost-200 comments until I get to work tonight.  Make sure to listen to me with Eric Smith NOW and on the Prime Time RoundTable tonight!