5:53 PM Eastern

We were looking for a bounce-back outing from Scott Richmond, to prove his worthiness to remain part of the starting rotation of the American League’s best team, and boy, did we ever get one.

In a series of great pitching performances, Richmond had arguably the best (Robert Ray did give up a run, after all, even though it wasn’t earned), throwing seven innings of five-hit shutout, walking one and getting all the fans a free slice of pizza by striking out seven.  He only allowed three runners to make it past first base.  A fitting tribute to Queen Victoria by the lone homebrew on the Jays’ roster, and he left after seven up 2-0 in position to pick up his fifth win of the season.

We all know by now, though, that wins and losses don’t really tell you anything about the quality of a pitcher, and we got another lesson to that end today, because Scott Richmond wasn’t the winning pitcher.  Richmond didn’t get the win, despite not allowing the opposition to score, because his hitters only managed to get him two runs and because Jim Thome took Jesse Carlson deep with a man on in the 8th to tie the game.

You can’t really blame Carlson. Thome hit a good pitch, low and away, but there’s a reason he’s one of the best power hitters of his, or any, era.  Prior to the Thome at-bat, Carlson had coaxed a couple of fly ball outs and allowed an infield single to Jermaine Dye, who hit a ground ball deep in the 5-6 hole – Marco Scutaro couldn’t throw him out.

The Jays won it with a run in the bottom of the 8th.  Octavio Dotel walked Jose Bautista, Scutaro bunted him to second, he walked to third – taking advantage of a day-dreaming Dotel – and Alex Rios tripled him in.

Bautista’s steal of third was unlike any I had ever seen before.  I’ve seen pitchers not pay attention to baserunners, but Bautista took off while Dotel was still in the stretch, and Dotel didn’t move a muscle until Bautista had a foot in the dirt cutout around third base!

Rios’ hit was a triple, as opposed to a single, because the go-ahead run was at third.  Scott Podsednik had to lay out to try to catch the ball, because he knew that the run would score if it dropped.  If Bautista isn’t at third, Podsednik takes the ball on a hop and Rios stops at first.

Still, the Jays’ three-hole hitter continues on with his coming around-ness.  Since (and including) April 30th, Rios is hitting .301/.366/.535, with three doubles, a triple and four homers in 18 games.  Everyone OK with that?  Good.

A point of contention on the post-game, and in the comments I saw before I posted this, was Scutaro’s bunt in the 8th with Bautista on first and nobody out in the tie game.  Obviously, I didn’t like it.  I didn’t think it was ridiculous or anything, but I would have preferred Scoot get the chance to try to get himself on base, something he’s done in about 42% of his plate appearances this year.  Moreso, though, I would have loved to have seen Bautista get a pitch or two to try to steal second.  The combination of Dotel on the mound and A.J. Pierzynski behind the plate is one that’s just begging people to run wild.

The Jays played for one run, and one run they got.  It was enough because Snakeface is the closer.

The crowd of 24,206 got the Jays to the 100K mark for the four-game series, but just BARELY (I had thought it would be cake).  There were a grand total of 100,353 spectators for the series.  Here’s hoping they can at least match that number in the next home series, a three-gamer against the Red Sox May 29-31.

Speaking of the Red Sox, the Jays are off to Fenway to start a three-game set tomorrow night with Brian Tallet up against knuckleballist (and former Welland Pirate) Tim Wakefield.  If the Jays get swept (and there’s no reason to believe they will), they’ll still leave Boston with sole possession of first in the East.

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

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Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

5:10 PM Eastern

It was a scary beginning for Roy Halladay, and a nervous ninth for Brandon League, but in between the Blue Jays pounded out more than enough to get an easy win over the White Sox and put themselves in a position to sweep a four-game series, which is a rare thing indeed.

Halladay didn’t look himself off the top – in fact he looked a lot like anything but himself in allowing the first five hitters he faced to reach base.  It wasn’t like he got beat up badly, though.  There were two ground ball hits, one of which Lyle Overbay would have gotten easily had he not been holding a runner on, a looping opposite-field double, a walk, and a little bouncer towards the mound that clanked off the glove of Halladay himself.

Still, it could have gotten really ugly had Jermaine Dye not helped the Jays’ cause by trying to steal third base.  He was nailed on a bang-banger by Rod Barajas.  Thus, the end result was just two runs coming across, with the White Sox leaving two runners on.

Alex Rios got one of the runs back with a solo shot in the bottom of the first, and Adam Lind took care of the rest of what was needed with a first-pitch three-run bomb in the 4th.

The White Sox had some chances after Halladay got out of the first, but the Jays’ ace really steeled himself when he needed to.  Chicago had a runner on second with nobody out in each of the 4th, 5th and 6th, but couldn’t score, as Halladay retired the next three hitters each time.  For the game, the White Sox were just 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position.

Lind came through again – what else is new?  His three-run shot that brought the Jays back from 2-1 down gave him 35 RBIs on the season in just 38 games played (though the team has played 40).  He’s having an outstanding year, and it’s been great to see, especially after he slipped back so much in August and September of last season.  He should be out in left field tomorrow afternoon – Cito has to start getting him some outfield work in advance of the series at Atlanta next weekend, when the Jays won’t have the DH.

Travis Snider, who has been getting most of the work in left field (though he wouldn’t have played tomorrow anyway with a lefty starting) had another rough day, striking out three times.  His best at-bat was his last one – against a lefty nonetheless – taking Jimmy Gobble to a seventh pitch before it was over.  Snider looked as though he was coming out of it for a while there, but seems to have gone right back into his slump; one hit in his last nine at-bats, with seven strikeouts.  What would I do?  For now, I’d keep Snider up here, but maybe not for long.  Maybe the trip to Fenway will shake him out of the slump.

There was a scary moment in the 5th inning, when Marco Scutaro stole third.  He was hit by Corky Miller’s throw, directly in the chest, and spent a minute or two writhing in pain on the ground.  It’s very rare to see a player take a hit right in the sternum, and that’s the kind of thing that can put a whole bunch of things into perspective in a hurry.  Scutaro stayed in the game, wound up scoring on an Rios grounder, and played a couple of innings on defense before leaving to, as Cito said, “go get checked out”.  X-rays were negative, so it’s just a bruise. Hopefully he’ll be back in the line-up tomorrow.

Speaking of Rios,  today’s homer was his 5th of the season.  At the all-star break last year, he had four.  He wound up with 15.

It was a good, strong edition of The JaysTalk this afternoon, here it is for your listening pleasure:

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We have a day game tomorrow for the Victoria Day holiday, hitting the air at 12:30 PM Eastern with Scott Richmond trying to rebound from a couple of losses in a row.  He’s up against lefty Clayton Richard, against whom opponents have hit .337 so far this season.  No idea who I’m going to get for the pre-game, butI’ll try to make sure it’s somebody good.

Tune in to The Blue Jays This Week tonight at 7:00 PM Eastern – you’ll hear from yesterday’s hero, Robert Ray and Tuesday’s villain, A.J. Burnett.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

5:00 PM Eastern

For a good, long while there, it appeared as though the Blue Jays were going to waste the best performance of Robert Ray’s  young career.  Ray threw eight innings of three-hitter, walking one, striking out three, facing two batters over the minimum and not allowing an earned run, but by the time his day was done, he was on the hook for a loss.

Ray’s lone walk came to the first batter of the game, Scott Podsednik, who went to second on a ground out and then stole third.  He stole the bag off Ray, with a great jump, and Raul Chavez didn’t have a chance to throw him out, but tried anyway.  He rushed a desperate throw from his knees and sailed it to the shortstop side of third.  Jose Bautista dove, but couldn’t get it and it bounced off Podsednik into foul territory, allowing the speedy Sock to score.

It stayed 1-0 all the way until the bottom of the 8th, when Vernon Wells smacked a first-pitch ground single up the middle, stole second, and scored on a looping double into the right-field corner by Adam Lind, who just happened to be my pre-game guest today.  The double came on the 10th pitch of Lind’s at-bat; an at-bat that started with Lind getting behind 0-2.  Jose Bautista followed with a soft line single over a drawn-in infield, and the Jays had the lead for the first time.

Snakeface took it home with a 1-2-3 9th, and Robert Ray had his first major-league win.

For a two-hour and 26-minute, 2-1 ballgame, there sure was a lot of stuff to discuss.

The Jays’ adventures on the basepaths, for one thing.  Facing a Bartolo Colon who seems a shell of his former self (stuff-wise, not physically), the Jays seemed to get extra-aggressive on the basepaths, and it cost them.  Bautista singled to left-centre with one out in the 2nd and was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double, and Scutaro was nailed trying to stretch his 3rd-inning double to right-centre into a triple.

I liked Bautista’s ultimately vain attempt.  He had hit it into the gap in left-centre, and Podsednik – who doesn’t have a great arm – had to go a long way to get it.  It was a nice try for a hustle double.  Scutaro’s gambit was far less advised, especially given the fact that he was already in scoring position.

There was some interesting bench-jockeying from Cito Gaston late in the game.  Cito doesn’t usually use his bench at all, but today he decided to pinch-hit for Travis Snider in the 7th with lefty Matt Thornton on the mound and the tying run at first.  Kevin Millar came on, as opposed to Scott Rolen, and struck out.  I’m guessing that Cito wanted to give Rolen the entire day off, but that still doesn’t explain why Millar went out to play third in the top of the 8th, especially since John McDonald was already in the game.  McDonald had pinch-run for Chavez after Scutaro singled with two out, before Aaron Hill struck out to end the mini-rally.

The move – for me, anyway, was to either bring Rolen in to play third (because Bautista had to move to left since Snider was out and Lind was DHing) or to leave McDonald in at third.  It occurred to me that Millar might stay in at third, but I dismissed that notion immediately since there were two better defensive options – FAR better defensive options – in a one-run game.

Again, my guess is that Cito:  A – really wanted to give Rolen the whole day off, and 2 – didn’t want McDonald coming up to bat in the 8th or 9th in a big situation.  But wow – it was Millar’s first action at third base since 2002, when he played all of 11 innings there with the Marlins.  For some strange reason, Alexei Ramirez didn’t drop a bunt down the third-base line leading off the 8th.  Millar didn’t wind up making a play,with Ray throwing a 3-up, 3-down inning on two fly balls and a strikeout.

Rolen wound up coming in to watch the 9th, anyway, having as busy an inning as Millar did.  So this may well be our only chance to say that Kevin Millar and Scott Rolen were defensive equals at third base in the same game.

Speaking of Ramirez, he had a fun time on the basepaths in the second.  OK, maybe HE didn’t, but we sure did have fun watching him.  Standing at first with one out and A.J. Pierzynski at the plate, Ramirez took off for second three times on balls that Pierzynski wound up fouling off.  Each time, despite the fact that Marco Scutaro came over with his hands up to say “foul ball, calm down”, Ramirez dove headlong into second base.  Each time, Scoot had a huge smile on his face as Ramirez hit the dirt, and on the third one, Lyle Overbay was even kidding with Ramirez as he came back to first.  Next pitch, Ramirez goes again, and Pierzynski fouls another one off, but this time it was playable for Bautista at third.  Scoot again put the hands out for Ramirez, who glanced over towards third base, then geared down and cruised into second.  He stood there and watched as Bautista caught the pop-up and raced back in vain as he was easily doubled up.  Good times.

It was a short, but successful, edition of The JaysTalk this afternoon, what with the Toronto Football Club game in the offing.  I thought we were independant from Britain, by the way.  Anyway, here it is, for your listening pleasure:

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Tomorrow, Roy Halladay looks to become baseball’s first eight-game winner of the season, facing Sox’ righty Gavin Floyd, who has struggled to a 7.32 ERA and1.88 WHIP after what appeared to be a break-through season last year.  Tune us in at 12:30 PM Eastern for the pre-game.  Vernon Wells agreed to be the pre-game guest, so you have that to which to look forward.  Also, after the game, make sure to check out The Blue Jays This Week at 7:00 PM – I’ll have an interview with A.J. Burnett, and I’m going to try to get today’s hero – Robert Ray- for the leadoff spot.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

12:40 AM Eastern

Sorry, true believers, but I’m applying the “night-game-before-day-game” corollary of the Official Rules of Fan590 blogging tonight.

It was a long night, being unable to catch up on the comments with everything going on in the booth, so I finished replying to yesterday’s comments and it’s an early morning tomorrow, what with the pre-pre-game show and all (catch it at Noon Eastern).

Tonight was a terrific bounce-back game for the Jays.  Cecil pitched well, despite his contention that he threw only one good slider all night, and the Jays really took it to the petulant John Danks (listen to The JaysTalk for the explanation).

I wish I could say I liked what I saw out of B.J. Ryan, but I didn’t see anything other than the game-ending fly ball, because I was running down the stairs and through the bowels of Rogers Centre in advance of the on-field post-game in-house interview with Aaron Hill, who thought it was a really cool idea.  Still, it’s good to have him back, and if he can get back to where he was pre-surgery, the Jays have another devastating weapon at the back of the bullpen.

It’s interesting that Ricky Romero was activated off the D.L. but left in Vegas.  J.P. Ricciardi said that no one in the current rotation has pitched his way out of it, so guys like Romero, Casey Janssen and even Jesse Litsch are going to have to wait to get their jobs back – or at least they’re going to have to outpitch the guys who are up here in order to do so, which Romero hasn’t done.  I expect to see Janssen in that Red Sox series, though.

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

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Saturday, the pre-pre-game goes at noon on the Fan590 and this very website.  Scheduled to appear are Brian Butterfield, to discuss the defense, and if there’s time (I could talk to Butter forever, he’s awesome), I’ll try to run the Trent Edwards/Lee Evans interview from after their batting practice session on Thursday.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

1:10 AM Eastern

Sadly, true believers, it’s not unpossible.  Not unpossible at all.

Some will say that the Jays badly failed their first true test of the season by dropping two of three to the Yankees at home, and that this series loss proves that for all the beating up on the Central and West (and the Orioles) over the first five weeks of the season, the Jays are really not all that good.

Those people, of course, will be wrong.  But you knew I was going to say that, didn’t you?

Think back six weeks and imagine, if you will, that someone posed a question to you:  When the Yankees play the Jays and CC Sabathia starts against Brian Tallet, who is going to win?  Your answer, after you stopped laughing at the idea of Tallet being in the rotation, would have been that the Yanks would take it in a walk.  They didn’t, not even close, and that speaks volumes about what the Jays are doing this season.

Tallet looked awfully shaky in the first inning, and thoughts of a Richmond replay certainly crossed my mind, but he got out of it (barely – that guy has to learn to get a better jump when he has to go cover first), and shut the Yanks down really nicely all the way into the 7th – an inning that started with the Jays up 2-1.  Tallet came back out for that 7th, having thrown only 83 pitches to that point, and proceeded to walk the lead-off man on four pitches, which spelled his undoing.

It’s never a good idea, in the American League, to walk the 8th-place hitter (unless the ninth guy REALLY blows and there are two out and stuff), especially when he’s leading off an inning and extra-especially when he sports an obp under .300.  But Tallet walked Brett Gardner, which allowed the Yankees to play hit-and-run, which led to Francisco Cervelli hitting a ground ball right to where Marco Scutaro would have been had he not abandoned his position to go cover second.  Derek Jeter followed with a little duck snort to right off his fists and the game was tied.  Hideki Matsui won it with a homer in the 8th off Jesse Carlson.

There were three points in the game that could have been seen as potential “turning” ones, all of which were touched on by callers on The JaysTalk.  As someone who has been very critical of Cito Gaston and his in-game tactics (or lack thereof), I didn’t pile on and in fact, didn’t really have a problem with any of them.  Here they are:

A – The decision to send Rod Barajas home from second on John McDonald’s single in the 5th.

2 – The decision not to pinch-hit for McDonald in the 7th, with runners on the corners and one out in a 2-2 tie.

III – The decision not to use the bench (that had Lind, Overbay and Snider still on it) in the bottom of the 9th against Mariano Rivera.

I’ll go point-by-point for you.

A – With the Jays up 2-1 and looking to extend the lead, McDonald hit a ground ball to Derek Jeter’s left (Q – What do you call a ground ball to Derek Jeter’s left?  A – A single!) with Barajas at second.  The Jays’ slowest baserunner (losing to Kevin Millar by a nose) got a great jump and was waved home by Nick Leyva.  He didn’t make it, though it was very close.  Here’s the thing – in a game where scoring is at a premium, you want to take your runs where you can get them reasonably, and that was a good send.  The ball was hit slowly, even kicking off the pitchers’ mound to take some steam out of it, and Brett Gardner isn’t known for a great throwing arm.  To nail even the Jays’ slowest runner, the play still would have required Gardner to charge the ball beautifully and make a perfect throw.  That’s what happened.  If that’s what’s required to make a play, it’s worth the risk to send the runner.  With nobody out, you probably hold him; with two out, it’s a routine send without even thinking.  With one out, it’s a solid call to send the runner.

2 – The game was tied 2-2, runners on the corners and McDonald coming up.  Aaron Hill, who fouled a ball off his shin yesterday, was already in the game as the DH with McDonald playing second.  If a pinch-hitter is sent up for McDonald, then either Jose Bautista has to move to second base from left for the rest of the game, or Hill has to come in and play (if he even can) and the Jays lose the DH.  That’s reason enough to send Mac to the plate.  The other reason is that while he’s not terribly likely to get on base, McDonald isn’t a guaranteed unproductive out.  Look, he’s your worst offensive option, period, but I’m not willing to take the subsequent drop-off in defense (from McDonald at second and Bautista in left to Bautista in second and Lind in left – because Lind is the one who would have pinch-hit) in a tie game.  We have seen just how important defense is over the early part of this season, and it’s not worth letting it go that much, especially in a tie game when you know you have a hitter behind Mac in Scutaro if McDonald doesn’t get the run in.  If the Jays are behind, it’s an easy pinch-hit, and I think Cito would have done it.  But they weren’t.

What I don’t understand is why they didn’t try to squeeze.  Even if the Yankees expected it.  If you do it right, and Johnny Mac is a great bunter, it can’t be stopped.

III – Scott Rolen, Kevin Millar and Rod Barajas came to the plate in the bottom of the 9th against Rivera with the Jays down a run and were retired in order with Overbay, Lind and Snider sitting on the bench.  Believe it or not, this was fine by me.  Over the course of his devastating career, Rivera has been a much better pitcher against left-handed hitters than against right-handed hitters, by 85 points in OPS.  Despite lefties having had almost 200 more plate appearances against him, he’s given up almost twice as many home runs to right-handed hitters.  This year (tiny sample size alert), lefties are OPSing .670 against him compared to a 1.000 mark for righties.  That’s the reason Tony Fernandez used to turn around and hit right-handed against him.

Against Rivera, you want right-handed hitters with power.  You’re not going to pinch-hit for Rolen, and Millar and Barajas are right-handed hitters with power.  Millar had even had some success against Rivera in the past – he’s a career .300/.300/.550 in 20 at-bats.  It’s not much, but it’s something.  And had the Jays gotten a runner on base, Snider would have pinch-ran (unless it was Rolen) and Lind would have hit for McDonald.

This was a pretty good game, all things considered.  The walks cost the Jays, the manager didn’t.  And next time it happens, the Jays could just as easily come out on top.

After the game, the Jays activated B.J. Ryan from the disabled list and optioned Bill Murphy back to AAA, as I guessed they would on The JaysTalk right before the announcement came down.  Ryan won’t close, and his role as of now is undefined (I don’t imagine he’s going to want to talk about it tomorrow, but I’ll try).  Expect to see him first in some low-leverage situations before he graduates to important times.  In three outings in Dunedin (totalling three innings), Ryan allowed one run on one hit and one walk, striking out two.

Speaking of The JaysTalk, why here it is, for your listening pleasure:

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With the Yankees gone, the White Sox come in for a four-gamer starting tomorrow night, we’re on at 7:00 PM Eastern for a battle of lefties.  Brett Cecil makes his third big-league start, taking on John Danks.  Cecil has been a sheer joy to watch so far, here’s hoping it continues.  And hey, with this weekend being the unofficial kick-off to summer, maybe we’ll get some crowds down to the ol’ ballyard to check out the first-place Jays.  I was thinking they’d pull in 100,000 easy for the Yankee series, but they only got 86,000.  A hundred grand should be cake against the White Sox – here’s hoping for at least 120,000.

That might not be a terribly rational prediction, but reasonable, rational comments are always welcome!

11:30 PM Eastern

After the near-fairytale opening of this series against the Yankees, I guess you had to expect a dip in retrospect, and the Blue Jays got that dip, getting pasted.  For the second straight game, Scott Richmond gave up five runs in the second inning, but this time, he didn’t recover to suck up some quality innings afterwards and give the Jays a chance to come back.

Tonight was easily the worst start of Richmond’s big-league career – he didn’t make it out of that second inning, allowing those five runs on seven hits, with a couple of walks.  Tonight, he was target practice, as the Yankees stroked two doubles, two triples and a home run off him in that fateful frame.

So, does that mean the dream is over for Richmond?  For the Blue Jays?  Of course not.  Richmond should get the ball again on Monday when the Jays wrap up this homestand with the last of four against the White Sox, but if he falters again……well, he’s picked the wrong time to do it, with all this healthy pitching coming back.  If you’re trying to make a decision about who stays and who goes, and you have one guy who has given up one earned run over two starts, another who has allowed a combined one hit over the first six innings of each of his last two starts, and another who has given up 13 runs in his last two starts, there’s not much of a decision to be made.  Richmond should be thankful that he should get at least one more start, if not two, before Ricky Romero comes off the DL.  One would have to think that no matter what, Robert Ray is the first to go once the first healthy pitcher (Casey Janssen) comes back.

There’s no sugar-coating how bad Richmond was tonight, but that doesn’t mean that his first six starts were a complete mirage, and that he’s not capable of being a quality major-league pitcher.  He’ll get the chance to prove it on Victoria Day, but the leash won’t be long.  Without question, though, he has a fan in Cito.

The Jays’ vaunted offense let Andy Pettitte off the hook early – the lefty walked three Jays in the first inning, but they only scored once, thanks to an error by Robinson Cano, who bounced a throw trying to double up Vernon Wells.  The ball skipped away from Mark Teixeira, not by much, but by enough to allow Aaron Hill to score.  The Jays were well behind the eight-ball by the next time they came up, and they couldn’t overcome the big deficit, despite some chances.  It was a rare night of frustration with runners in scoring position, with the Jays going just 2-for-14.

Still, it didn’t feel as though the Jays really had much of an opportunity to get back in the game beyond the 4th inning, and that opportunity was handed to them by Ramiro Pena, who left a two-out routine grounder by Jose Bautista on the turf to load the bases with two out.  Marco Scutaro, who had doubled in his previous at-bat, flied out to centre to end it, and the Jays managed only four hits the rest of the way.

For the first time this season, the Jays had to worry about a potential injury to one of their hitters, and it just so happened to be the one who has arguably been the best.  Aaron Hill fouled a ball off his shin in the 3rd inning, and hobbled more than halfway down to first base, then limped back, finished the at-bat and played another half-inning of defense, but he couldn’t  answer the bell for the 5th, being replaced by John McDonald.  Hill didn’t even go for an x-ray, so they’re not worried about a break, which is great news.

The crowd was a huge disappointment, although the Tamil protest going on downtown and (I’m led to understand) right outside the ballpark might have been a mitigating factor.  Still, barely 20,000 the night after the evening before kinda stunk.  Let’s see what kind of group we can get down here for the rubber match – the roof might even be open!  It would have been tonight if not for the threat of thunderstorms. Who knows?  It may actually have rained.  I have no idea.

News on the rehabby front – Ricky Romero had a rough outing for AA New Hampshire.  He walked five in 5 1/3 innings in an eventual 5-4 win over Binghamton.  He only gave up two runs, one earned, on three hits, and struck out four, but the walks really stand out.  That’s twice he’s been less than good on his rehab, which may mean he’s still a couple of weeks away.  Of course, he could be lights out next time and be back in nine days.  By the way, Bubbie Buzachero wound up getting the win in that game, as Brian Dopirak walked it off with an RBI double in the bottom of the 9th.

We had another lovely edition of The JaysTalk, without nearly as much venom directed towards Richmond as I expected.  That’s a good thing, it shows some of the callers have gotten off the roller coaster.  Here it is, for your listening pleasure:

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Also, I mentioned last night that I was going to be on the Red Sox’ pre-game show tonight, prior to their game against the Angels, and some people said they wanted to hear it.  Here it is, courtesy of ESPN 890 in Boston:

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Tomorrow, the rubber match pits Brian Tallet against CC Sabathia.  It should be another fun one, and don’t look for Derek Jeter to take the field.  Of course, if he does, then maybe we can figure that the RH32 virus is a 48-hour one.  Finally, I had a nice, six-minute sitdown with A.J. Burnett before the game – you can hear it on The Blue Jays This Week this week.  He was in a great mood, pleasant, happy, very willing to talk, and took some personal responsibility for the way he was treated by the fans both last night and over his tenure here in Toronto.  He’s almost got me sucked into believing that he really has grown up, but I have to say I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop.  That said, he was one of the best guests we ever had on the BJADPPGS two years in a row.  Then again, I have seen the other side plenty of times.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

11:22 PM Eastern

Very rarely does a “big” game live up to the hype, but this one went almost exactly as scripted for the Blue Jays.  Over 43,000 people showed up at Rogers Centre to mercilessly boo A.J. Burnett and Alex Rodriguez, Roy Halladay dominated in a complete-game five-hitter, Burnett took his first loss as a Yankee and, for good measure, A-Rod booted what may have been a double play ball.  The only thing missing was Derek Jeter – surely he couldn’t have come down with the RH32 flu, could he?

It was a perfect storm of the Jays being in first place, the Yankees making their first visit and the dream pitching match-up of Halladay vs. Burnett, and the result was that crowd of 43,737.  But even after that, the Jays had to make sure that crowd left happy.  Mission accomplished.

It was a great night, an atmosphere as electric as I’ve seen it at the Dome since 1993 (with the exception of the Canada-USA game at the WBC), and the Jays vanquished the hated Yankees.

Burnett was, in fact, booed mercilessly – from the second he came out to warm up before the game.  In fact, excitement about the potential booage of A.J. ran so high that the fans started booing Kevin Cash when he came out of the dugout to prepare for Burnett’s warm-up.  Rodriguez was booed viciously the first time he stepped into the batters’ box, and the crowd cheered gleefully when he dropped Scott Rolen’s grounder in the second for an error.  A fan even threw back a foul ball that A-Rod hit into the stands.

This was fun, and it was an almost-packed house that wasn’t marred by fights in the stands and people who weren’t able to handle their liquor, which made it even better.  I’m hopeful, but not optimistic, that crowds like this will show up for the next two games against the Yankees.  At the very least, though, the Jays shouldn’t have a problem drawing 100,000 for the three-game series.

So, was this a statement game?  Maybe.  You know that when you have Halladay on the mound, odds of a win are very, very high, but even he raised his game a notch tonight.  Halladay faced the minimum 18 hitters through the first six innings, and needed only 56 pitches to do it.  He gave up a single to Johnny Damon in the first, but Damon was erased thanks to a great throw by Travis Snider trying to stretch it into a double.  From there, Halladay went through the line-up twice before Damon doubled to right in the 7th.  17 up, 17 down.  And after struggling through a 24-pitch 7th inning in which he allowed the Yanks their only run (on a ground single to left that would have been a 6-3 groundout had it been another foot and a half up the middle), he needed just eight pitches to get through the Yankees in the 8th.

Scott Rolen raised his game too, going 3-for-4 off Burnett (against whom he’d been 0-for-18 lifetime going into the game), and raising his season RBI total by 25% by driving in three.  Aaron Hill went deep, Rod Barajas took the team lead with his 4th sac fly of the season and even Alex Rios walked, doubled and scored twice.

Great atmosphere, great game, and a great win that gave the Blue Jays the best record in all of major league baseball at 23-12.

Great news from the farm, too, where Casey Janssen continued his rehab with another dominant outing, this time at AA.  Janssen threw six innings against the Mets’ Binghamton club, and allowed just one run on four hits, walking one and striking out five.  He’ll probably be here next week.  Ricky Romero will throw for the Fisher Cats tomorrow night.  J.P. Ricciardi said before the game today that Jesse Litsch is behind those two, and likely won’t be back until June, which allows the Jays to defer the tough questions about who should lose their spot in the rotation.

One other thing about the pre-game chat with J.P.:  Expect to see B.J. Ryan back with the team soon.  Really soon.  As in probably by the time the White Sox arrive on Friday soon.  And when Ryan comes back, counter to what I have been saying (yes indeed, I was wrong), he will NOT be the closer.  Ricciardi couldn’t define a role for Ryan, mentioning that he could be used in the 6th, 7th or 8th, and Cito couldn’t either, saying that he might be a guy that Cito could use to close if Downs isn’t available. Maybe.

After a night like this, The JaysTalk was bound to be good, and here it is, for your listening pleasure:

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For those of you who are able to listen, I’m going to be on the Red Sox pre-game show tomorrow night – no idea why, but they want to talk.  Here in Toronto, come on down to the ballpark to see Scott Richmond try to improve to 5-1 against Andy Pettitte.  It’s so much more fun here with a big crowd.  And hey, the Jays remain unbeaten against the A.L. East!

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.

7:50 PM Eastern

Just another day at the office for the Blue Jays.  A sensational start from a rookie pitcher, a double-digit hit total, and a flight out of a visiting city having taken a series.  No big whoop.

Brett Cecil had the A’s eating out of his hand through eight shutout innings in picking up his first major-league win.  Cecil, as I have said before, is “the package”.  Four plus pitches,  great control, great poise, and he works quickly, which helps get the most out of the terrific defense behind him.  He’s going to be a LOT of fun to watch for at least the next seven years as a Blue Jay.

Neither Cecil nor Brian Tallet deserve to go anywhere when the injured pitchers start trickling back with the likely return of Casey Janssen next week.  By the end of the month, with Janssen, Jesse Litsch and Ricky Romero all healthy, the Jays will have a few tough decisions to make.  The truth of the matter is, there’s no certainty that ANY of those three will be able to do better than what Cecil and Tallet might do.  I still think that Ray and Cecil go down and Tallet goes back to the bullpen, but the return call for Cecil will come pretty quickly, if need be (especially once he gets the three or so weeks back down in AAA that should take him out of Super-2 territory).

We still have a couple of weeks until we have to worry about that, though, and someone could very easily get hurt in the interim.

Alex Rios, despite looking utterly lost at the plate lately, was the offensive star of the game, going 2-for-4 with a home run, sac fly and three RBIs.  He hit the ball hard five times today, and stunningly, over the last 11 games, is hitting .292/.358/.458 with nine runs scored and five RBIs.  As you can see, he’s plainly been just an anchor dragging this whole team down.

It would be too much to ask people to just climb off Rios’ back for a little while, but can you all just take it down a notch or three?  Please?

Now it starts to get fun.  The Blue Jays get just their second off-day of the season tomorrow, and come home for their first 2009 meeting with the New York Yankees.  It couldn’t possibly start better, with Roy Halladay up against A.J. Burnett in the opener.  Scott Richmond will face CC Sabathia in the second game, and the Jays have bumped Brian Tallet up to pitch the finale on his regular day, against Andy Pettitte. Two Yankee lefties mean we only get to see Travis Snider and Lyle Overbay on Tuesday, but Jose Bautista and Kevin Millar have played awfully well to this point, and Millar even flashed some fancy leather today.

The Jays have 19 games left in the month of May (in which they’re that familiar 7-3 to this point), and nine of them are against the Yankees and Red Sox.  Will this be the measuring stick for the Jays, to see if they’re actual contenders?  Of course not, but they’re the match-ups that so many want to see before passing judgement on the team.

Here’s this evening’s edition of The JaysTalk/TBJTW for your listening pleasure:

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A day off for the Jays means a day off for me, too, though I’ll be on with Hoagie and Toth at 10:40 AM Eastern on the Fan590 and this very website, should you want to check in.  I’ll be spending the rest of tonight and most of tomorrow setting up the brand-spanking new Wii I picked up to give to my lovely wife on this Mother’s Day.

Speaking of which, I’ve been very lucky to have been able to have grown up/lived around some incredible, strong, brilliant women in my life, and they all get a shout-out on Mother’s Day.  I’m not going to get all sappy and stuff in this forum, but I’m truly blessed to have my wife, my mother, two aunts and even a fantastic mother-in-law, and I miss terribly my departed grandmothers and aunt.  Every day should be Mother’s Day, but make sure you tell ‘em you love ‘em today, and as often as you can.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

7:23 PM Eastern

So it turns out the sky’s not falling after all.  The Blue Jays put their little two-game losing streak behind them with a very efficient effort in Oakland and another brilliant start by Brian Tallet, despite the best efforts of Scott Downs to pitch himself into a save situation (you can’t, by the way).

I don’t know how many of you expected this from Tallet, but I sure didn’t.  I thought he would provide a reasonable stop-gap in the rotation until one of the injured starters came back (or until Brett Cecil asserted himself inVegas), but he has blown away all expectations.

Tallet had one awful start in Kansas City, and that can’t be ignored.  BUT.  If you throw out that start, here is Tallet’s line over four starts since moving into the rotation:

25 IP, 14 H, 6R (5 ER), 9 BB, 18 K.  That’s a 1.80 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP.  Also, he’s 2-0.

In a word, you’vegottobefreakingkidding me.

Last time out, Tallet took a no-hitter into the 7th.  This time, a one-hitter into the 7th.  Ridiculous.  He’s making it look awfully easy – save for the (ummm, what’s a lot more serious than a hiccup?) against the Royals -and he’s certainly making the case that when everybody gets back, it shouldn’t be automatic that he loses his spot.  It’s going to be interesting to see if the Jays choose to keep Brett Cecil in the rotation over Tallet when Ricky Romero gets back, because one has to assume that Robert Ray goes back down when Casey Janssen arrives, and Scott Richmond isn’t going anywhere.

I’m thinking Tallet stays in over Cecil, to get the kid a little more development time and to stop the clock on his service time for a while.

Offensively, the Jays improved their performance with runners in scoring position by two hits in three tries, going 3-for-14 today as opposed to 1-for-11 in last night’s loss.  But Lyle Overbay went 0-for-1 with RISP and still managed to drive in three runs, thanks to a solo shot, an RBI double (against a lefty!) and a sac fly.

Marco Scutaro showed up with three singles and a near sac fly on which Travis Snider was thrown out by a hair, if at all; Vernon Wells dropped in three hits of his own and stole a base (but he didn’t drive in any runs – he sucks), and Snider and Adam Lind had a pair of knocks each.

Snider’s first hit was unimpressive – it was a pop-up to very shallow centre that dropped in because Orlando Cabrera called off his charging centrefielder Ryan Sweeney and then lost the ball in the sun at the last second.  Those are the kinds of hits that can get a guy back on track, though, and Snider is getting there.  Since he snapped his 2-for-30 with an RBI single on Wednesday, the 21 year-old has gone 4-for-10.

Alex Rios had a promising 0-for-4 today, hitting the ball REALLY hard twice.  Sweeney ran down his deep fly to left-centre at the base of the wall, and Adam Kennedy absolutely robbed Rios on a hard line drive that was headed up the middle.

Aaron Hill went 1-for-5, though.  He has three hits in his last 15 at-bats (.200) and obviously should be dropped out of the second spot, if not sent down.

It was a very short edition of The JaysTalk tonight – just three calls, since we had to make way for Toronto FC soccer.  I know we’re the rightsholders for their games and MLS seems to be really catching on in these parts, but other than “Real Salt Lake” and “FC Dallas”, is there a dumber name for a team than Toronto FC?  Seriously.

Here’s The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

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The road trip wraps tomorrow afternoon, and the Jays have a chance to finish it 3-2 with Cecil on the mound against lefty Dallas Braden.  We’re on the air at 3:30 PM Eastern – Jerry will have an interview with former all-star catcher Ray Fosse, who is best known for being the guy Pete Rose ran over at the plate in the all-star game.  There will be no The Blue Jays This Week this week, because of the west coast start time.  All that means is that the show will be twice as good next week.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

2:30 AM Eastern

If you did, you saw 7 1/2 brilliantly pitched innings of 0-0 baseball.  The Jays and A’s packed all eight runs into that one inning, the bottom of which was the worst of Scott Richmond’s career.

I figured something might be up when Richmond gave up a lead-off single to the right-handed hitting Matt Holliday.  Even after the two-run bomb by Ryan Sweeney, though, Richmond had a one-run lead with two out and nobody on, but he then blew up as he never has before in his big-league career.

Four straight hits, three of which produced runs, and a walk before Richmond popped up Holliday to end the inning.

Oakland wound up scoring five in the frame, which was two more than Richmond had ever given up in any of his previous whole outings in the bigs.

The thing is, even though this was his worst-ever start, there were far more reasons to be excited about Richmond than to be nervous.  As I mentioned in the comments section to someone who raved about the big righty (I think, not sure I remember that far back), I wanted to see how well he bounced back after getting lit up for the first time.  This was during that second inning, and I was talking about his next start.  Turns out, I didn’t need to wait that long.

Richmond bounced back beautifully from getting lit up for the first time, and he did it in the same game up in which he had gotten lit.

After that second inning, Richmond threw six innings of one-hitter, walking one, facing one batter over the minimum.  He was near untouchable, and his teammates couldn’t come up with the two runs that would have gotten him off the hook.

Outside that ugly 2nd, Richmond threw seven innings, allowing one hit and one walk, striking out three.  I know you can’t throw out that one inning, but the rest of the game looked great, and I really believe that this was another step forward for Richmond.  He remains a guy who continues to solidify his spot in this rotation, even when the injured guys get back.

Speaking of the injured guys, Ricky Romero pitched in Dunedin tonight, and not well.  He gave up six runs on six hits (including two homers), walking one and striking out five over four innings.  He’ll get at least one more rehab start, if not two.  David Purcey, who is trying to rehab his ability to throw strikes, was even worse in his outing for Las Vegas (though after the PCL adjustment, maybe not).  Purcey, coming off a start in which he took a no-hitter into the 7th – but still walked five and hit two – gave up eight runs on eight hits with three walks in only 2 1/3 innings.  OK, even after the PCL adjustment – yuck.  He didn’t strike anybody out and he threw two wild pitches.

The Blue Jays had a couple of good chances to tie the game or take the lead after the second.  First and third with one out in the 5th after Adam Lind’s single sent Josh Outman to the showers was the first one.  Michael Wuertz came in to get Scott Rolen to fly out foul and get Kevin Millar on a ground ball.

In the 7th, Lind hit a textbook double play ball to short with two on and one out, but Orlando Cabrera booted it to load the bases.  Rolen followed by striking out, and Millar grounded to third a couple of pitches after lining a ball about a foot and a half foul (if that) down the left-field line.  If that ball was fair, it was a three-run double.  The pitch was probably ball four, it’s true, but Millar took strike three the pitch before, and it was called a ball.

Despite the fact that he almost gave the Jays the lead, Millar shouldn’t have been hitting in that situation, not with Lyle Overbay on the bench.  Despite the fact that his batting average has plummeted in recent weeks, Overbay is still hitting .277/.407/.569 against righties this season, but I really think that Cito Gaston just doesn’t like him as a hitter.  Gaston will pinch-hit for Overbay with Millar, but not vice-versa.  I think that because Overbay takes so many pitches he’s seen as timid at the plate.   Add to that the fact that he doesn’t have the power a first baseman is expected to have, and it seems Cito doesn’t really trust him in a big situation.  It’ll be interesting to see when, if ever, we see Overbay come off the bench to pinch-hit when the situation calls for it.

There’s a lefty line-up and there’s a righty line-up, but in a game like tonight’s, the Jays saw right-handed pitching more than they saw left-handed pitching, and no moves were made to adjust for that.  This is something to which we’re going to have to re-adjust as Blue Jays watchers, but it doesn’t mean we have to like it.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The Late Night JaysTalk:

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We’re back on at 3:30 PM Eastern Saturday afternoon for a 4:07 first pitch – Brian Tallet takes on Oakland’s Sean Gallagher.  The Jays will be trying to avoid their first three-game losing streak of the season.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!