5:15 PM Eastern

The Blue Jays took the first two from the Red Sox, a great start to a long homestand coming off an 0-9 road trip, but they had no answer for Jon Lester in the finale.

Lester took the Jays’ brooms and stuffed them where the sun, as it were, tends not to shine, striking out 12 Jays over six innings of three-hitter as the Red Sox romped.  This wasn’t one of those days where the Jays had chances but let the starter off the hook – their three hits against Lester were all infield singles.  The young lefty simply chewed them up and spit them out.  One merely wonders why Lester hasn’t been able to do that against anybody else this season, but that’s why they call it baseball.

The bloom appears to be off the rose that, by any other name, is known as Ricky Romero.  The sneeze did him in, it appears.  Romero was riding a nice little hot streak at the beginning of the season, looking fantastic in his first three outings, but he simply hasn’t been the same guy since going on the disabled list back in April with the sneeze-induced ribcage strain.

Romero couldn’t make it out of the 5th inning today – he actually couldn’t even record an out in the 5th – walking five over  his four-plus innings and allowing five runs on six hits.  It wasn’t an AWFUL outing, though, despite the line.  The big blow against Romero was a two-out, three-run home run by Dustin Pedroia in the 4th.  I mentioned in the comments section that it was about as cheap a home run as you’ll see, and I mean no disrespect to Pedroia, who is a fine guest on tonight’s edition of The Blue Jays This Week.  Thing is, it was a line drive down the left-field line that just barely held its line and hit the bottom of the foul pole in left field.  If the ballpark was two feet deeper down the left-field line, that’s a foul ball.  If the ball drops another six inches, it’s an RBI double.

I’m certainly not painting Romero’s work today as good, by any means, it just wasn’t horrific.

Lester, though.  Wow.  The Jays only hit one ball out of the infield against him all day, and get this:  Had the Red Sox had just Lester and Jason Varitek out there on the field over Lester’s last three innings, the Jays would have scored all of one run.  Scott Rolen’s infield single would have gone into the corner and been an inside-the-park homer,  but that would have been it.  Eight strikeouts and a foul pop to the catcher, along with an Aaron Hill walk.  That’s dominance.

The biggest highlight for the Jays, offensively, other than Rios’ homer into the 200-level, was Kevin Millar stepping into the batters’ box in the second inning to the strains of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer”.  I thought someone had set him up, but I’m told that he and a few teammates went to the Elton John/Billy Joel concert at the ACC last night.  I would have loved to have seen that – oh, well.  They’re playing in Ottawa tomorrow night if any of you feel the need to attend on my behalf.

Brian Wolfe’s performance today will surely have a bunch of commenters pining for the return of Jeremy Accardo, which is understandable, but try to remember that Accardo isn’t the saviour.  He had a great year in 2007 in the absence of B.J. Ryan, but lost command of his splitter before he hurt his forearm last season and didn’t look especially good this spring.  He’s been OK in Las Vegas, but those numbers are difficult to read because of the hitter-friendliness of the Pacific Coast League.  In 16 outings totalling 19 innings, Accardo has allowed seven runs (six earned) on 21 hits and seven walks, with 17 strikeouts.  Not bad, indeed.

But the thing is, Wolfe and Accardo play very different roles.  Wolfe is a guy who can go multiple innings, can work early in a game, can be kind of a mop-up/long reliever if they need it.  Accardo isn’t that.  I had said when Ryan went down that the call would have gone to Accardo if they’d needed a short guy, but they didn’t, with Downs, Carlson, League and Frasor all apparently just moving up a spot.   Now, with Carlson’s recent struggles and Cito’s apparent unwillingness to use Frasor in a big spot, they might need a short guy – but who’s to say that Cito would trust Accardo any more than he trusts Frasor?

There’s certainly a case to be made for having Accardo here – if he has his splitter command back, which we don’t know – but he’s not the white knight that so many seem to believe he’d be.

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

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The Jays are off tomorrow, back Tuesday night with Roy Halladay taking his third shot at becoming baseball’s first nine-game winner.  The Angels are in town, with Joe Saunders starting.  Before that, though, make sure you tune into The Blue Jays This Week tonight at 7:00 PM Eastern.  Tonight’s show features Brian Tallet, to whom I love talking because he’s always really forthright and thoughtful.  You rarely, if ever, get a stock cliche answer from Tallet, unlike so many others.  As I mentioned above, Dustin Pedroia is also on the show tonight, fawning over Aaron Hill, among other things.

As I type this, by the way, two of Alex Rios’ super-cool remote-control cars are tearing it up all over the Rogers Centre turf.  Rios is controlling the more stock-car-y one, while Jose Bautista is at the controls of the open-wheel racer.  Rios has already planted his into the wall down the left-field line once, and he also took it over the side of the mound, which caused the car to flip over about four times – but it landed wheels-down and was off to the races again.  Very rich boys with their very expensive toys, indeed.  But a lot of fun to watch.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

 5:30 PM Eastern

It’s a real shame that the Blue Jays proved earlier this season that they’re just not good enough to play with the Red Sox and Yankees, isn’t it?

Turns out a three-game series here and a three-game series there don’t make a season, after all.

The Jays now have a chance to sweep the Bosox and perhaps sweep their way right back into first place on the heels of that ugly nine-game losing streak, depending on how the Yankees do in Cleveland tonight and tomorrow.

I don’t know why it continues to amaze me, but it always does – people who think that a long losing streak proves a team is no good, or that the first 41 games were a fluke but the last nine aren’t, or that an 0-9 road trip means that a team will sink like a stone and be in last place within a week or two.  It doesn’t.  A nine-game losing streak is a nine-game losing streak.  When it’s over, you look at why it happened, take stock of where you were and where you are, and go from there. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

The Jays were in every single one of the games on the 0-9 trip, which is a good thing.  They stood half a game out of a playoff spot when the losing streak hit nine, which is also a good thing.  They’ve won two tight games against a team that’s probably better than they are, which is -wait for it – yet another good thing.  And they have the chance to sweep the Red Sox without using their best pitcher.

Brian Tallet had a Jekyll and Hyde day today – 59 pitches over the first two innings, 49 over the next five.  Over the first eight batters he faced, he gave up a single, a homer and three walks.  He faced 20 batters after that and allowed one hit and one walk and hit Dustin Pedroia in the knee.  Maybe Tallet is becoming an honest-to-goodness starting pitcher.  You know, one of those guys who you have to get early if you’re going to get them at all.

Good for Tallet, who took his last two losses pretty hard for no reason.  He picked up the win today because Cito Gaston, in true Cito fashion, rewarded him by letting him pitch the seventh inning so that he’d have a chance to get it.  The Jays went ahead for the first time when Alex Rios picked up his fourth hit of the day, a line single to centre to cash Marco Scutaro.  Vernon Wells followed with a double to left to bring in Rios.

It was only the third time this season that Rios and Wells each had an RBI in back-to-back at-bats, and they did it against Ramon Ramirez, who you may not know, but who had been ridiculous to this point this season.  Going into today’s game, Ramirez had pitched 24 1/3 innings and allowed just 11 hits and only seven walks.  The opposition was hitting just .139 against him.

Brandon League looked terrific again, using 11 pitches to get through a 1-2-3 eighth inning.  That’s back-to-back great outings, in which he’s needed just 21 pitches in all.  Let’s hope that Cito doesn’t fall in love with him and use League at every conceivable opportunity.  If League has found his stuff, if “it” has clicked, then that’s another devastating weapon the Jays have in the back of their bullpen.

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

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Tomorrow, the brooms are out, and it appears that the Sox will have to face Ricky Romero without one of their lefty-killers – Rocco Baldelli hurt his left knee when he slammed into the wall in foul territory chasing an Aaron Hill pop-up that went in and out of his glove.  X-rays on Baldelli’s knee were negative, but that doesn’t mean anything as far as ligaments and tendons are concerned.  I’d be very surprised to see him out there tomorrow.

The Sox will counter with Jon Lester, who beat the Jays at Fenway last week (proving that the Jays are terrible and won’t ever beat Boston).  Lester was good then, but hasn’t been good in the overall this season, posting an ERA over 6.00 and having allowed 11 homers in 59 1/3 innings.  The league has hit .307 against him.

We’re on the air at 12:30 PM with the pre-game, and I’ll spend the morning running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get an interview for the pre-game and then two more for The Blue Jays This Week.  I still don’t have a clue as to who I’m going to get.  I’m thinking maybe Rios for the pre-game, but beyond that I really don’t know.  We shall see!

Tonight, I’ll be on with Erik Tomas at 7:20 PM Eastern, if you need another dose of me – and really, who wouldn’t?

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

12:30 AM Eastern

The Blue Jays weren’t going allow their losing streak to reach ten games.  They dug deep, found every ounce of grit and heart and determination they could muster, and used it to beat on the knuckleballer they couldn’t touch a week and a half ago – solely because he was the one who started them on the streak.  With the losing streak in the past, the Jays will no doubt be embiggened enough to rhyme off seven or eight wins in a row and coast into the playoffs.

Or……..the Jays were patient with Tim Wakefield, got some knuckleballs they could handle (with an assist to the closed roof) and put together a big inning.  They got big hits with runners in scoring position and got a solid start from Casey Janssen along with great relief efforts from Brandon League and Scott Downs, and got the homestand off on a good note by snapping the long losing streak that couldn’t possibly have gone on much longer.  And they caught a huge break when David Ortiz JUST missed his pitch in the first. Vernon Wells tracked it down right at the 400-foot sign – it was about ten feet shy of being a Grand Slam, at the most.  If only Ortiz had eaten one more Wheatie for breakfast.  Or, umm, something.

Which of the above paragraphs do you think I believe?

It was great that they snapped the losing streak, no question, but all they did to do it was repeat what they did in large part over the first 41 games of the season.  Hit well, pitch well, defend well.  These Jays are capable of doing that more often than not.  It’s a good team.

It was especially nice to see Casey Janssen out there, too.  He wasn’t fantastic, but got himself out of almost every jam into which he got himself.  He didn’t walk people, and spread out the 11 hits he allowed over seven innings enough that he only gave up three runs.  Janssen got his first win as a starter since June 30, 2006, when he beat the Phillies with six innings of five-hit shutout.

Good for Casey, and good for the Blue Jays.  He has a very bright future ahead of him in this rotation, I think.

League was electric, teasing us again with a 10-pitch, 3-up, 3-down 8th. He showed yet again why so many believe he can be a dominant closer someday, and Snakeface shook off a poor outing Wednesday (and a minor hamstring strain) with a perfect 9th to close it out.

The Jays improved to 2-2 at home against the Red Sox and Yankees (0-3 on the road) and remain just a game and a half out of first place in the A.L. East, though it’s now the Yanks who are on top.

The thing I’ll remember the most from this one, though, was the sight of Rod Barajas chugging all the way around from first base on Marco Scutaro’s two-out double off the centre-field wall in that big 5th inning.  Barajas, who I interviewed on the field after the game, told me he didn’t have an extra gear into which to shift, and that as he lay in a heap at the plate after sliding in safe, his heart was racing and he couldn’t feel his legs.  When he dove for the plate, he touched it with his outstretched left hand and just lay there, face-down, for way more than a good three-count.  It was hilarious – a fun moment during a fun game that the home team won.

And hey, the Jays are on a five-game home winning streak!

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

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We had some technical issues with the blog that prevented me from posting anything after Tuesday night’s loss, so Tuesday night’s edition of The JaysTalk was never posted here.  Until now, that is:

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It’s kind of dated, I’m sure, but enjoy anyway!

Tomorrow we’re on at 12:30 PM Eastern, I’m going to try to get Janssen for the pre-game.  Make sure you tune in on the Fan590 or on this very website!

And by the way, thanks for the 200+ comments on the last post.  I think that’s a record.  Maybe I should keep it to ten words more often, it would sure make my life easier!

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.

5:50 PM Eastern

Sweet mother of Cheez Whiz. 

I mean, come on.

Seriously.

1:38 PM Eastern

The extra “L” is for losses!

It was pretty much a replay of the first six games of this losing streak yesterday in Baltimore. Jays get a very good outing from a starting pitcher, Jays don’t hit at the right times, Jays don’t drive in any runs, Jays get chances late but can’t cash, bullpen doesn’t help.

I mean, I could have written basically the same thing for a week.

At least Vernon Wells is starting to heat up.  He drove in the game’s only run, and did it in the  first inning to actually give the Blue Jays a lead.  That was different, for a couple of reasons.  First, it was Wells’ first RBI in 18 games.  His last ones came on a three-run homer against Rafael Rodriguez in Anaheim back on May 6th.  Believe it or not (I’m sure you do), Wells hadn’t even gotten a hit with a runner in scoring position since then, putting together an 0-for-15 run.  But now he has four hits in his last seven at-bats, and even an RBI!

Second, the lead.  Ahhhh, the lead, short-lived as it was.  When the Jays were up 1-0, it was only the second time they’d held the lead on the whole road trip.  They didn’t lead once in Boston, and in Atlanta only led in the top of the 3rd, when Marco Scutaro’s two-run double put them on top 2-zip.  The Braves tied it in the bottom of the 3rd on Casey Kotchman’s two-run double.

The Orioles tied yesterday’s game in the bottom of the first when Melvin Mora hit into a double play with runners on the corners.

So for the entirety of this road trip, all seven games, the Blue Jays have never held the lead after a complete inning.  Sheesh.  I can almost understand why some of you think they won’t win another game this season.

Of course, a team is never as bad as it looks when it’s losing seven straight, just as it’s never as good as it looks when it’s winning two out of every three games for the first quarter of a season.

I feel for Brian Tallet, who said after the game “I started this in Boston.”  It’s as though he actually feels some personal responsibility for the losing streak.  That’s ridiculous, and equally ridiculous is him feeling any personal responsibility even for his two losses over the streak.  In Boston, Tallet gave up two runs on four hits in six innings, walking two and striking out five.  Yesterday, he gave up two runs on seven hits in six innings, walking one and striking out five.  Both those lines should lead to wins with even a decent offense, or  no-decisions at worst.

Here’s yesterday’s brief edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

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Tonight, the Jays will try to avoid consecutive loss number eight, as Ricky Romero makes his return from a crappy rehab assignment (14 1/3 IP, 17 hits, 8 walks, 12 K, 6.91 ERA, 1.744 WHIP).  Romero was incredible in his three big-league starts before straining a ribcage muscle while sneezing, but it won’t matter how incredible he is if the Jays don’t improve upon their .127 average with runners in scoring position so far on this trip.  Righty Jason Berken will be making his major-league debut for the Orioles.  He has gone 2-0, 1.05 in AAA Norfolk, making five starts with a 0.97 WHIP over 25 2/3 innings.  We’re on at 7:00 PM Eastern for a 7:05 first pitch.

Sorry for the lateness of the post, I spent half the night in the hospital after hitting my head pretty badly on the volleyball court, in a diving attempt to keep the ball alive.  It’s funny, I’ve had a bunch of concussions and this was easily the hardest I have ever hit my head, but I had no immediate signs of concussion – no dizziness, nausea, blurred vision, nothing, and I remember the whole thing very clearly.  I sat out for a few points, then went back in, and after the tournament was over (we won, woo-hoo!) headed over to the Trillium Health Centre in Mississauga, where they decided to give me a Head CT to make sure I wasn’t bleeding in there.  Thanks to Dr. Michael Chung (sp?) and the staff for helping me out.  It turns out the good doctor is a listener to the program – he told me how much he enjoyed me letting that “Lyle Doubleplay” caller have it on Friday night.

I’ll beat all you haters to it by saying that my brain scan came back negative!

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.

8:55 PM Eastern

And now the Jays have lost six straight and for the first time all season don’t even have a share of first place in the American League East, trailing the Red Sox by a half-game.

Clearly, there’s no reason to even pay attention to the remaining 115 games.

If you believe that it’s all over, I encourage you to read comment #62 on the previous post.  General Zod found a way to pretty much crystallize my thoughts entirely.

Look, I understand the nature of fandom, the living and dying with every game, but I’m not going to spend the whole season talking people down from their lofty expectations or talking (likely those same) people off the ledge.

I’m glad there was only a short edition of  The JaysTalk today, because I really didn’t want to deal with the gathering chorus.

Six losses in a row sucks.  Getting swept back-to-back is brutal and it shouldn’t happen.  But I can’t get over how easily some people thoroughly dismiss the entire first 25% of a season because of a really lousy week.

The first 41 games of the season didn’t tell the true story of the Blue Jays.  I know some of you convinced yourselves that this was a 100-win team, or that it would be a relative cakewalk to the playoffs.  I tried to tell you that wasn’t the case.  The last six games haven’t told the true story of the Blue Jays, either.  They’re not a 100-loss team that’s going to go to Baltimore, get swept by the Orioles, freefall into fourth place and not win a series again all season.

There’s a reason they play 162 games, and it’s because more often than not, the true nature of a team shows up at the end of it all.

I don’t even want to talk about today’s game at all, because the calls and comments lately have been so ridiculous.  If I did, I would say that I can’t believe Shawn Camp would be Cito Gaston’s first option in a tie game in the 7th inning, Lyle Overbay botching that line drive turned the entire game, and it seems that Vernon Wells has decided that since he can’t drive in any runs, he might at well try to be a table-setter.

I’ve spent more time these past two days deleting comments from idiots than I have answering comments, and that’s how it’s going to go from here on out.  If you’re going to be a knee-jerk moron, you’ll find that you’re wasting your cyber-breath commenting on this blog.  If you want to be critical, you’re welcome to do so, but please have at least a discernable amount of intelligence behind it.

This is supposed to be a place for intelligent baseball conversation.  It’s going to get there even if I have to stop replying to comments altogether.

Here’s this afternoon’s edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

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I hope you got the chance to tune into The Blue Jays This Week tonight – Michael Barrett was a terrific interview.  I had only planned on doing four or five minutes with him, but we just wound up going and going.  If you didn’t hear it, you can find it in the Audio on Demand section of this very website.  Tomorrow, the Jays are in Baltimore trying once again to snap the losing streak.  Brian Tallet (why didn’t they break up the lefties?) against the O’s ace, Jeremy Guthrie.  We’re on the air at 1:30 PM Eastern.

Rational, reasonable comments are required, if you want to see them on the site.

3:05 PM Eastern

After a couple of hysterical calls on last night’s edition of The Jays Talk, I need a break, so I’m not going to work tonight.

Actually, I was never going to work tonight – my uncle Norm is getting married, so I’m off to the wedding!  Enjoy Roger Lajoie, maybe he’ll let some of the nuttier callers get away with things I wouldn’t.  As the constitutional amendment to legalize police beatings for flag burners once said:  “Door’s open, boys!”

Have a good time!

As for last night, what can I say?  The offense is sputtering mightily now, and not even seven shutout innings from Roy Halladay could help.  I knew that Rios’ and Wells’ failure to bring Aaron Hill’s one-out double in the 9th home would lead to all manner of rending of garments on the post-game, and I’m sorry it always happens to be that way.

There remains no question, and there never was any question, that the Jays’ 3-4 hitters don’t stack up with the best teams’ around, but it’s the overall offense, top to bottom, that augurs well for the future.  Assuming this pitching holds up.

I’m PVRing the game tonight, because I can’t wait to see Casey Janssen pitch.  I also can’t wait to see him with a bat in his hands.

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

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Take it easy on Roger for me, will you?

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

UPDATE – 2:45 PM Eastern

So it turns out that Travis Snider’s not the only one making the trip to Vegas.  Conveniently forgetting that “four or five” poor starts were supposed to have been required for the kids in the rotation to lose their spots, the Jays have sent Brett Cecil and Bobberty Ray down to AAA as well, and have recalled Casey Janssen and Ricky Romero, in addition to Joe Inglett.

Well, Romero’s not in Atlanta, but he’ll be recalled in time to make the start Tuesday in Baltimore.  Janssen is going to start tomorrow night in Atlanta, which will give the Jays the convenient opportunity to get his bat into the line-up.  I can’t wait to see him hit!

Janssen killed it in both spring training and in his five rehab appearances in Dunedin and New Hampshire, while Romero killed it in the big leagues before straining a ribcage muscle sneezing, and struggled in his rehab, allowing 25 baserunners in 14 1/3 innings over three starts.

So, the new Jays rotation appears to be Roy Halladay, Janssen, Brian Tallet, Scott Richmond and Romero.  Jesse Litsch is due back in about three weeks.

These moves, by the way, mean that the Jays can no longer bring up a pitcher (Janssen or Romero) to start Wednesday and push Halladay back to that Friday start against the Red Sox, as I had thought they might.

11:45 AM Eastern

Oh, well.

It wasn’t necessarily something one should have seen coming, but it was something by which we shouldn’t have been surprised.  It’s not to say that the Blue Jays aren’t as good as the Red Sox (they probably aren’t), but it is to say that the Jays played over their heads for the first quarter of the season, and they went into Boston starting Brian Tallet, Brett Cecil and Bobberty Ray.  Even the most optimistic couldn’t really believe that the Jays were likely to pull out more than one win.

But that’s OK.

The fact that the Jays are still in first place in the A.L. East is a pretty amazing thing, given that the Red Sox have already had an 11-game win streak and the Yankees are currently on a nine-game win streak – both huge outliers over a 162-game spread.  Combine those two things with the fact that the Jays are now 1-5 against their two closest pursuers and you have a team that one would think would be a clear third in the division, if not worse, yet there they are continuing to sit pretty with the league’s best record.

For those of you who believe that the Jays are a legitimate playoff team (though I’d surmise there are far fewer of you than there were Monday, which is ridiculous), that’s a great thing.  Sure it’d have been nice to win that home series against New York last week, but the difference between winning and losing that entire series was probably the Jays’ slowest baserunner being thrown out at home plate by about a millisecond.  It would also have been nice to take a game or two at Fenway, but the difference between that and getting swept was Adam Lind having a rough three games.  Remember, too, that not one of the three starting pitchers the Jays sent to the mound in Boston was supposed to be in that role at ANY point in time this season (except maybe Cecil, later).  It’s not that bad.

The Blue Jays have lost three series this year, and each of the two times previous, they’ve gone out and swept the next one.  Tonight, they’ve got Roy Halladay on the mound to kick it off in Atlanta, and not only is he arguably the best pitcher in the game, he’s also the best-hitting pitcher in Jays history!  That’s right, the good doctor is tied for the Jays’ all-time lead for hits by a pitcher (3) and RBIs by a pitcher (1).  He’s even scored two runs.

It’s most certainly not the end of the world that the Jays were swept in Boston, nor does it mean that they’ve been a smoke-and-mirrors act for the first quarter of the season, even though they outperformed the expectations of any sane human being over that stretch.  They were very definitely playing over their heads.  At 27-17 (a 99-win pace), they still are.

After the game, Travis Snider was sent down to Las Vegas to find the swing that led him to last year’s terrific September and this year’s wonderful spring and first-14-games-of-the-regular-season.  As hammered out by the lovely and talented Jordan Bastian on bluejays.com, Snider hit .310/.383/.643 over those first 14, but a miserable .185/.214/.204 since.  He hasn’t homered since April 13th.  For a while there, he appeared to be coming out of it – there was a five-game stretch over which he went 7-for-18 (.389) – but since then, he’d gone 1-for-8 with five strikeouts.

With interleague play coming up and Snider set to be nailed to the bench, and with the Jays having faced so many lefties that Snider had only started five times since May 7th, the timing seems to be right for a trip to Sin City.  It happens to the best of them, and by the time he’s done here, Snider will wind up one of the best hitters the Jays have ever had.  Here’s hoping he’s back soon, though if the Jays want to avoid Snider becoming a Super-2 after the 2011 season, they’ll have to leave him in AAA for at least seven weeks.

For those of you who want to compare Snider’s situation to that of Carlos Delgado, who homered eight times in April of ’94 but was in Syracuse by early June; Delgado was never recalled from AAA that season (though he probably would have been at least a September call-up if not for the strike), and didn’t re-establish himself as a major-league regular until 1996.

Mighty (Voodoo) Joe Inglett comes up from Vegas to take Snider’s place, with all of one game under his belt since being activated off the disabled list, to give Cito Gaston more versatility on the bench that he never uses.  The question is, will Joe take Snider’s place as the ninth hitter and platoon left fielder against righties (after interleague), or will Adam Lind move out to left on a semi-permanent basis with Kevin Millar taking over the DH duties?  Cito will likely address that tonight, tune into his pre-game interview with Jerry to hear what’s what.

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

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Before I go, there’s been a lot of debate about the Blue Jays moving Roy Halladay to allow him to get a start in the next series against the Red Sox, which begins next Friday night at Rogers Centre.  I stand steadfast against the notion of asking Halladay to pitch on short rest at this point in the season – there’s no good reason to do that, and I daresay that there’s nothing anyone could come up with that could convince me otherwise.  It’s lunacy to throw your ace on three days’ rest in May, no matter where a team is in the standings.

However, I could be convinced that it’s not a bad idea to skip Halladay on Wednesday afternoon’s finale in Baltimore so that he can start Friday, with the caveat that it takes him out of his normal routine.  Halladay on six days’ rest is likely to be a very different creature than Halladay on the normal four days’, and I don’t know if he’ll be comfortable with that.  If he won’t be, then forget it.  But if he would, why not?  Bring Casey Janssen up to start the game in Baltimore, then leave him in the rotation in Ray’s spot.

If they do that with Halladay, then he pitches against the Red Sox, Angels, Rangers, Marlins, Phillies, Reds, Phillies, Yankees and Rays and will be able to start the all-star game on five days’.

If Halladay continues on his regular routine, he starts against the Orioles, then faces the Angels, Royals, Marlins, Phillies, Reds (on five days’ rest), Phillies, Yankees and Rays, and will still be able to start the all-star game on five days’ rest.

So he wouldn’t miss any starts by pushing him back one, and he’d get the Red Sox instead of the O’s.  He’d also lose a start in Texas, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and pick one up against KC.  Again, it’s something with which Halladay has to be comfortable, but if he is, I’m all for it.

Tune into The Director’s Chair this afternoon at 1:00 PM Eastern, on the Fan590 and this very website, I’ll be on with Doug Farraway, then pick us up at 7:00 PM Eastern for a full pre-game from Hotlanta.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

12:30 AM Eastern

Wow, did the Red Sox ever lay some lumber on Brett Cecil tonight.  Eight runs on 11 hits in 4 2/3 innings, with five of those hits leaving the ballpark, four of the homers coming in the fifth inning.

That was one tough “Welcome to the Big Leagues” moment for the 22 year-old.

I’m quite surprised, actually, that The JaysTalk wasn’t riddled with callers ready to pull the plug on the Jays for the season, or call for Cecil’s immediate demotion, or opine that the Jays obviously can’t hack it against tough competition.

All of the above, of course, is nonsense.

Yes, the Blue Jays are 1-4 against the Yankees and Red Sox this season, and 26-12 against everybody else.  They may even get swept by the Sox, and with the newly re-christened “Bobby” Ray pitching the finale, one might even say that they’re likely to get swept.  Does that mean that they’re not ready for prime time?  Of course not.

As I said at the beginning of the show, trying to get out ahead of the knee-jerkers I thought were sure to call in – look at where the Jays are, look at where you expected them to be at this point, and take a deep breath.

Going into the season, if you’d said the Jays would be three games OUT of first place on May 20th, people would have called you a cock-eyed optimist.  It turns out that they’ve held on to top spot despite having the two highest payrolls in the game chasing them – one of which has already rattled off an 11-game win streak, and the other of which has won its last eight in a row.  That’s a pretty impressive achievement.

Cecil had an awful fifth inning today.  A caller brought up how impressed he was by Cecil laying out for a bunt that Jacoby Ellsbury popped up in the third.  He dove and landed face-first in the grass down the third-base line with the ball just popping out of his glove.  It took Cecil a while to get up – it had looked like he’d wrenched his right shoulder pretty badly.  I certainly didn’t expect him to stay in the game but he did, and four outs later began the process of getting stomped like a bug.  It hadn’t occured to me that (A) might have had something to do with (2), but maybe it did.

Still, I think he’s likelier than not to make his next scheduled start in the big leagues, as opposed in Vegas, unless he’s hurt.

Alex Rios and Vernon Wells each showed nicely tonight, with three hits apiece.  Not enough, I know, for those of you who believe that hitters actually have the ability to choose when in a game they get their hits, but as far as I’m concerned, good news nonetheless.  Especially with an offense that seems to be slowing down, despite the fact that the Jays still lead the majors in runs scored and batting average (though they’re now third in the league in OPS – at least they were going into the game, the Red Sox may well have passed them tonight).

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

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The finale goes Thursday night, with the Red Sox attempting to become the first team to sweep the Jays this season and the Jays trying to avoid their first three-game losing streak of the year.  Bobby Ray makes his Fenway debut, and the looming presence of that big, giant wall only 310 feet away in left field has been known to turn pitchers to jelly.  We wish Ray luck in his attempt to play streak-breaker, though we don’t have a whole lot of confidence.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!  I mean that,  too.  It’s been a while since I’ve said this, but there’s no point in dropping in the irrational and unreasonable ones – they won’t be posted.  Also, just a friendly reminder, this blog is not the place to give knee-jerk comments during the course of a game – whether you believe they’re rational or not.  It’s not a game thread, those comments won’t be posted.

10:42 PM Eastern

This is the thing about knuckleballers – sometimes, you’re not going to be able to touch them (unless you’re Kevin Millar, of course).  Tonight was one of those times.

There’s really not that much to say about this game.  When you run up against a guy with a trick pitch and you can’t do a thing against him, chances are it’s because he’s throwing that trick pitch really, really well. Tim Wakefield also mixed in a few 75 mile-an-hour “fastballs” to great effect early.

Brian Tallet was terrific again.  The way he’s pitched since joining the rotation, you almost have to shake your head at the fact that the Jays had this kind of asset sitting at the back of their bullpen for years and didn’t have a clue how best to use it.  Regardless, they seem to have found themselves a gem.  Tallet had one shaky inning in which a walk got him in trouble (they almost always do – for him, at least), but finished off his outing by retiring 13 of the last 14 Boston hitters he faced.

B.J. Ryan came out to pitch the 8th and was OK, if unspectacular.  He gave up a lead-off double to Jacoby Ellsbury that was really just a soft liner over first, and after Raul Chavez threw out Ellsbury trying to steal third, Dustin Pedroia snuck a ground ball with eyes up the middle before Ryan got the next two hitters.  It was another solid step in the recovery of the ex-closer.

This was one of the games that the Jays just plain have to forget about, and set about to getting ready for tomorrow.

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

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The series continues Wednesday night with Brett Cecil making his first Fenway flings – hopefully the young Jimmy Key kinda-clone finds it to his liking.  Brad Penny (he keeps turning up!) of the  6.69 ERA and 1.68 WHIP – the one so many people were upset that the Blue Jays couldn’t land – replies for the home side.  I’m thinking that the Jays are very likely to at least match their hit total of the past two games combined.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!