1:15 AM Eastern

It happened a lot last year.  The Blue Jays got their heads handed to them by one mediocre pitcher after another, and the cliche was the same every time:  “Sometimes you have to tip your cap to the other guy.”  It usually wasn’t true, but tonight it was.

Jered Weaver reached back to 2006 and pulled out one of the best outings of his career, his first-ever complete game, a three-hitter without a walk, facing just three hitters over the minimum, using only 103 pitches.  Weaver was phenomenal, and the Jays really never had a shot.

Weaver had some help shutting down baseball’s best offense, though.  Remember yesterday’s post, when I talked about teams tending to be flat after the cross-country flight, especially without benefit of a day off?  Well, it turns out I forgot a big gamblers’ rule – a lot of the time, that effect shows up the day after.  Tonight, it did, but I still think it had a little more to do with Weaver.

I liked what I saw out of Robert Ray, for the second straight time.  His line didn’t wind up looking good at all – 6 1/3 innings, six runs (five earned) on 10 hits with four strikeouts – but he outpitched his line.  He didn’t walk anybody, and he deserved better from his defense.

Rod Barajas bounced a pair of throws to second trying to nail Chone Figgins, both times allowing Figgins to take third, from whence he immediately scored.  Scott Rolen had a hard-hit ball go through him for a double, and Aaron Hill had a hard-hit ball duck under his backhand for an RBI single.  Two tough plays, for sure, but plays that we have become accustomed to seeing those two guys make.

Ray earned another start, but it might be his last – Casey Janssen looked great again tonight in Dunedin, giving up a run on four hits in five innings, striking out five without allowing a walk.  It’s not a stretch to imagine that he’ll be back after one more rehab start, though he may get the call to work one of the games in next week’s Yankee series if the Jays don’t want to go with Brian Tallet in the Thursday finale.

Before I go, a quick comment on Manny Ramirez, though you’ll be able to hear it if you listen to the pre-pre-game, which is posted below.

It’s sad, but not unexpected.  We’ve gotten to the point where pretty much the only person whose positive test would surprise me is Roy Halladay.  OK, John McDonald, too.  Steroid use was rampant in the game from the mid-90s until about three years ago, but to think that the fallout from the Mitchell Report has resulted in the game being cleaned up is incredibly naive.  Manny was allegedly busted for using a female fertility drug – good for him, at 36, thinking about starting a family.  I guess that biological clock is tough to ignore.

It’s a shame that we have to talk about this again, especially while the NFL gets a free pass, but it’s a fact of the game now.  Most players look for any edge they can find, and many are willing to cross whatever line needs to be crossed.  Thing is, though, you have to be a first-class maroon to get caught.  Poor Manny.

There are two shows for your listening pleasure posted tonight. Both the pre-pre-game Manny talk and The Late Night JaysTalk.  Here they are, for your listening pleasure:

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Off to Oakland go the Jays now, with Scott Richmond getting another chance to keep his great streak alive.  The big righty has yet to allow more than three runs in any of his big-league outings.  He’s up against Josh (The) Outman, who faced the Jays in the opener of the second home series of the season.  Outman gave up five runs on five hits in four innings that day, including homers to Marco Scutaro and Hill, but the A’s came back to win the game 8-5.  It was the game in which David Purcey couldn’t hold a 4-1 lead.  We’re on at 9:30 PM Eastern with the pre-game, and then we’ll have the last Late Night JaysTalk for a while.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

2:27 AM Eastern

It’s always tough to go out west and be successful, and especially to win the opener after a cross-country flight without a day off.  Unless, of course, you’re the 2009 Toronto Blue Jays.

With Roy Halladay on the mound, you can be forgiven if you thought the Jays had a win two batters into the game once Aaron Hill took Anthony Ortega out into the Disneyfied rockpile in centre field for his team-leading 7th homer.  You can be forgiven because if you thought that, you were right.

It was definitely over after Vernon Wells hit his non-clutch three-run homer in the second.  That one should hardly count, since they had a four-run lead at the time.

After the Jays got up 7-0, the game became a simple lesson in efficiency from Roy Halladay.  I thought he might just toy with the Angels and try to throw a 45-pitch complete game, but he wound up striking out six over the first seven innings, before showing his human side in the 8th.

There’s an argument to be made that Halladay should have been yanked earlier to protect against injury, but as was debated during The Late Night JaysTalk, if you are worried about hurting him, he should have been taken out after the 5th, by which point you could be reasonably certain that the game was won no matter which reliever was used.  That way, Halladay gets the win, too.  He had only thrown 100 pitches through seven, and Cito was going to send him out there until he gave up a run.  Halladay will get an extra day off before his next start against the Yankees (and likely A.J. Burnett), so that factored into the decision to leave him out there as well.  I have no problem with him pitching the 8th.

It was great to see every Blue Jay get at least one hit and score at least one run, but it was strange not to see John McDonald for the last couple of innings.  I guess Cito didn’t empty the bench – or use any of it – because the game didn’t get ridiculous until the 8th inning, when the score went from 8-0 to 13-0, though 8-0 after six is still pretty done.  With this coming Monday being only the Jays’ second off-day of the season, and given the long trip and all, one would think that any break the regulars could get, even for two or three innings, would be worthwhile.

Justin Speier blew up real good in that 8th inning, by the way.  I didn’t like that he buzzed Hill after not getting a call or two in walking Marco Scutaro to lead things off.  I’ll give Speier the benefit of the doubt for that, though, because he doesn’t seem the type who would do something like that intentionally.  I don’t think he hit Rod Barajas on purpose, either – if he had wanted to drill him, he’d have done it with a fastball.  I’d love to know exactly what the blow-up with hitting coach Mickey Hatcher in the dugout was, though.  Was Speier upset because he was getting squeezed?  Was he upset at being left out there to absorb the entire 10-batter, five-run 8th?  Was he upset about going back out for the 9th after getting lit up?  I’m pretty sure it was one of the last two, and that he was vocal about it when he got back into the dugout, leading to Hatcher’s reaction and the scuffle that saw the two of them having to be separated physically.

The Late Night JaysTalk was solid, and here it is, for your listening pleasure:

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One thing, though – what’s with all this trade Aaron Hill talk now?  Why is it that whenever someone plays a lot better than people expect, the first thought is to trade him?  This isn’t fantasy baseball.

Oh, and also, I mentioned at the end of The JaysTalk how cool it was that, since the Jays are now 20-10, it meant that they’d gone 7-3 for a third straight set of 10 games.  What can I tell you?  Those are my math skills at 2:00 in the morning.  Obviously it’s been 7-3, 7-3, 6-4.  Sorry about that.

Tune in tomorrow for both a pre-game and post-game edition of The JaysTalk.  We’ll be moving in after the Hoopsters move out at 9:00 PM Eastern on The Fan590 and on this very website, and then it’s Robert Ray making start number two taking on Jered Weaver.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

1:00 AM Eastern

In Tony Sipp’s major-league career, he has faced left-handed hitters other than Adam Lind eight times, has not allowed a hit or a walk, and has recorded six strikeouts.  Lind, who played with Sipp in 2003 (somewhere – I don’t know, a wood bat summer league, maybe?) is a different story.  Not only is he the only left-handed hitter to touch Sipp, Sipp just can’t get him out.  Lind is 2-for-2 against the Indians’ lefty, with a single last night and a booming two-strike, three-run homer into the second deck in right field today that broke a 6-6 tie in the 7th inning.

The home run was ridiculous.  Gone from the moment it left the bat, the only question was how far was it going to go.  Lind had also singled in two runs the inning previous, giving the Jays a 3-2 lead, so he finished the game tied with Albert Pujols for second in the majors with 29 RBIs.

I know that a player doesn’t have much control over how many runs he drives in, other than himself when he hits a home run, but it’s a big point of pride for Lind to be where he is, and it’s nice to see that he has spread out the steaks.  He drove in six runs on Opening Night and five today, and in between had 18 in 26 games.

There’s a groundswell among the fans to move Lind into the clean-up spot, breaking up Alex Rios and Vernon Wells, and it’s not a bad idea.  Truth is, though, with the team hitting so well as a whole, Cito’s not going to make that change.

It was great to see Travis Snider snap out of it, too, with a pair of singles and a deep fly out the other way in his four at-bats today.  Snider had gotten into a rut that resulted in him not going deep into a lot of counts and hitting a ton of ground balls to the right side.  In the last three games before this, he’d gone 0-for-9 with five groundouts to second and one more to first.  Today, though, he took the count full in his first at-bat before lacing a line drive the other way that Indians’ left fielder Ben Francisco caught just before he got to the warning track.  Then he lined a single to right and another to left before striking out on three pitches in his last trip.

Hopefully he remembers what got him here – pick out the pitch you want, don’t just jump at the first strike you see.  It’ll serve him well.

Brett Cecil looked terrific in his major-league debut.  He struck out the first big-leaguer he ever faced – Grady Sizemore – winning an eight-pitch battle by ringing him up on an 89 mile-an-hour slider.  He finished up his first inning by getting Shin-Soo Choo to swing and miss an eye-high fastball pumped in at 93 with a couple of runners on.

Cecil showed a great change and a nice slider to go with the heat, and he didn’t walk anyone, though he hit three.  Kelly Shoppach was hit twice, but the first time he just dropped his elbow into the pitch.

Cecil gave up two runs, one earned, but deserved better.  After hitting Matt LaPorta with one out in the second, he gave up a line drive to left to Francisco.  Snider charged it, and thought about trying a diving/sliding catch, but pulled up and instead tried to smother the short hop.  Problem was, the ball took a weird kick off the turf and jumped to his right, past him and all the way to the wall, which allowed LaPorta to score.  Two batters later, Sizemore hit a double play ball to first, but Marco Scutaro’s return throw to Overbay was wide. With the defense that the Jays usually bring to the table, the Indians don’t score that inning, and Cecil goes six shutout frames and gets himself a win.  Instead, he left up 3-2 after Lind’s two-run, two-out single in the 6th.

Vernon Wells had reached ahead of Lind’s hit on a four-pitch walk, by the way.  Imagine that – the Indians actually pitched around Wells to get to Lind.  And with a righty on the mound yet!  And Wells didn’t swing at the first pitch.

I didn’t love Cito’s decision to start the 7th with Jason Frasor, with him knowing that he wanted Jesse Carlson to work to Sizemore and to turn around the switch-hitters Asdrubal Cabrera and Victor Martinez.  Frasor has been fantastic, and each of the last two games Gaston has used him for less than a full inning when he needed him for more.  If Cecil had to come out (and he had thrown 96 pitches), I would have gone to Brian Wolfe for the two righties at the bottom of the line-up, then to Carlson and had Frasor for the 8th to set up Downs.

It didn’t wind up mattering, both because Carlson blew up real good and because the Jays got the seven runs in the bottom of the inning.  But as a result, Cito had to go to Downs for the last five outs instead of the last three, which could affect how much Downs can be used on the early part of the road trip if he’s needed tomorrow night.  Snakeface made it almost a moot point, though, since he only needed 16 pitches to get the five outs to close out the game!

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

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The Jays are off on their way out west, which means the always-fun Late Night JaysTalks will be coming your way the next three nights.  Make sure you stay up to check them out!

And congratulations to Scott Richmond – the American League Rookie of the Month for April!

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

1:40 AM Eastern

It was long, but it was really entertaining.  The nearly near no-hitter (which I didn’t  break up, thank you very much) the back-and-forth from the 7th inning on, both teams down to their last strike in the 9th, it was a lot of fun.

But it also took nearly four hours, and I have to be back at the ballpark in about eight.

So – all you’re getting is tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk:

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Without Alan in the booth I had an increased role both in doing the colour and getting to do an inning of play-by-play, so I didn’t have the opportunity to answer the comments during the game like I usually do.  There were 120 comments sitting waiting to be moderated when I sat down to write this, and I got through the first 80 before The JaysTalk showed up for me to post.  I’ll try to get to the rest in the morning, but no promises.

I’m really looking forward to our first glimpse of Brett Cecil in the morning!

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

12:35 PM Eastern

Sorry for the lack of bloggage, but it was a busy night (volleyball tournament, prepping for the start of my sim baseball/geek league season tomorrow) and a busy morning (practice for the softball team I help coach and various and sundry other things).

Yesterday was a fun day, for sure, with the worst 3-4 hitters in major league baseball combining for a double, two homers, three runs scored and three RBIs.

It seems as though Alex Rios is coming around.  It started on Wednesday, and since his second strikeout against Cy Greinke, he has eight hits in his last 19 at-bats – the last of which was a mammoth blast halfway up the second deck in left field.  The home run broke a 3-3 tie that shouldn’t have been for two reasons.  The first was a brutal call by first-base ump Jerry Layne on what should have been a 1-6-3 double play grounded into by Melvin Mora in the second.  Layne called Mora safe – and it really wasn’t even a bang-banger – and Luke Scott followed with a game-tying two-run homer.

After the Jays went ahead 3-2 on back-to-back doubles by Lyle Overbay and Rod Barajas, the O’s tied the game when Barajas tried to make an impossible throw on a  little nubber by Nick Markakis out in front of the plate.  It was a spectacular grab, turn and throw, and the ball wound up nowhere near first base, up the right-field line.  Barajas got WAY too ambitious there, when the play was to just stuff the ball in his back pocket and get set for Aubrey Huff.

Still, it’s tough to be too hard on The Captain.  He was even for the day (with the RBI double), and he’s hitting .342/.370/.539 on the season.  This from a guy whose career average going into this year was .241/.289/.409.  Not a bad little month.

Scott Richmond was fantastic again.  As I mentioned on the post-game, his slider has developed to the point where right-handed hitters simply don’t have a prayer.  He handled the lefties well enough, holding them to four hits (and two walks) in 17 at-bats.  Lefties hit .235/.316/.471 against Richmond yesterday, which is much more like it (save for the slugging, but it was just that homer and a Felix Pie double).  Righties continue to be utterly clueless, hitting .111/.111/.111.

And Scott Downs had a nice, quiet 9th inning for his third save.  It’s amazing that a closer can take care of his saves so comfortably with a fastball that rarely gets above 89 miles an hour.  Somehow I thought that wasn’t possible.

There was a special super extra-long edition of The JaysTalk last night – here it is for your listening pleasure:

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Tonight it’s the start of a two-gamer against the Indians.  Tomorrow it’s Brett Cecil’s major-league debut!

Make sure you tune into The Grill Room tonight on SunTV at 6:30PM, I’ll be on with former Jays beat writer Mike Ganter and lacrosse mogul Brad Watters.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

6:00 PM Eastern

Well, YOU will, because you’re Blue Jays fans.  But Aaron Hill got his dander up in the 10th inning – by his own doing – and made the Orioles pay.

Hill booted a Nick Markakis grounder leading off the 10th, and Markakis eventually scored the go-ahead run on a hit-and-run grounder by Ty Wigginton.  Hill let the Jays’ faithful know how upset he was about his miscue by tattooing the second pitch of the bottom of the 10th into the left-field seats to tie the game, and the next inning, he put the cherry on top, driving in Rod Barajas with the game-winning run.  Barajas beat a throw from O’s centrefielder Adam Jones that sailed up the third-base line – had Jones taken an extra second to set himself before throwing, the game would still be going right now.

Lots of cool stuff to talk about in this one.  Robert Ray looked fine in his major-league debut, for the most part.  He hung a curveball to Adam Jones in the first inning and paid for it in a big way, and was shaken up, walking Markakis with his next four pitches.  But he followed by popping up Aubrey Huff and getting Melvin Mora to ground out to end the inning.  Ray wasn’t incredibly sharp, walking four, but two of those walks came on a total of nine pitches to Markakis.   You’d expect the kid to be pretty nervous making his big-league debut, and all in all, I thought he did more than well enough to warrant another look.  Certainly better than we’d seen out of Brian Burres ever (as a Jay) and David Purcey lately.

Travis Snider has been having a rough time at the plate lately, with just two hits in his last 22 at-bats after today’s 0-for-5, but he flashed some serious leather today, making three terrific plays in left.  In the third, he corraled a Jones single moving to his right, and even with his own third baseman telling him to throw to second to keep the double play in order, threw out Brian Roberts at third by plenty.  He followed that up with a great sliding catch on a shallow fly by Roberts to end the 4th with two on, and then made a nice grab deep in the left-centre gap on Markakis to end the 7th.  He jumped for that one, but he didn’t really have to.

Cito Gaston finally played the percentages in choosing to use a pinch-hitter in an appropriate situation!  First time it’s happened this year, and I’m hoping it happens a lot more often as the season continues.  It didn’t work, though, so it may not.  With the bases loaded and two out in a tie game in the 8th, Baltimore went to lefty Jamie Walker to face Lyle Overbay, and Cito pinch-hit with Kevin Millar, who wound up flying out on a 3-2 pitch that may well have been ball four.  Still, you can’t take that pitch and go down looking.  The thing is, I’m not so sure if the move was made because it was the right thing to do, percentage-wise, or if it was because Gaston seems not to have a whole lot of faith in Overbay.  I don’t think Overbay should be hitting against lefties in those situations, but I can’t help wonder that if that was Millar, or Jose Bautista, or even Raul Chavez in that same situation against a tough righty with Overbay on the bench, that we wouldn’t have seen a pinch-hitter.  I hope I’m wrong.

Before I go, one thing for the vocal critics of Alexis I. Rios – he’s coming around.  Since Zack Greinke struck him out for the second time in KC on Wednesday, Rios is 6-for-15 with a double.  He’s been hit by a pitch and has struck out twice, for a REALLY SMALL SAMPLE SIZE mark of .400/.438/.467.  He’s coming around.

None of The JaysTalk today, since we had to get out quick for the Toronto FC game, but we should be able to JaysTalk it up tomorrow after the Scott Richmond-Jeremy Guthrie affair.  Richmond’s dad, who comments every once in a while on this very blogaroo, offered free medical help this weekend for my still-sore neck/shoulder thing, but I have seen neither hide nor hair of him.  Shame.

Tomorrow, we’re on the air at 12:30 PM Eastern with the pre-game show, featuring this year’s first edition of the RRT, on which I’ll be joined by Mike Rutsey of the Toronto Sun, Jordan Bastian of mlb.com and a scribe to be named later.  Make sure you tune in!

And for The Blue Jays This Week, tomorrow night at 7:00 PM Eastern, I am endeavouring to have sit-downs with both Aaron Hill and Robert Ray.  I’m still going to try to get that Kevin Millar-Brian Roberts interview done, too.  I also want to talk to Gregg Zaun, though, so I’ll have to figure out a way to get it all in.  Maybe the Millar thing gets pushed back to next weekend.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

!2:30 AM Eastern

A solid start from Roy Halladay, plenty of offense and a return to sole possession of first place.  That, as they say, is how it’s done.

Halladay frightened some folks by giving up a two-run shot to Nick Markakis in the first, but he settled down nicely after that, allowing just five hits from there until the 8th, giving the Jays a chance to get to Mark Hendrickson.  The double that preceded the home run was a little looper off the end of Adam Jones’ bat, there was another little looping single and a broken bat flare for another hit.  After the homer, the only ball hit hard off Halladay until the 8th was Gregg Zaun’s double into the right-centre gap.

Zaun came to the plate to a mixture of cheers and boos – more cheers, I’d say – but after that first at-bat it was all boos all the time, which I don’t get.  It’s as though every ex-Jay who comes back is Larry Murphy.  Fans should save the real vitriol for either those who really deserve it (Chipper Jones?) or those who it would be a lot of fun to boo lustily (A.J. Burnett?).  Still, I expect it’ll be a chorus of boos for Zaun for as long as he plays – hope it doesn’t hurt his feelings.

It didn’t take the Jays long to get to Big Bird tonight.  After one trip through the line-up resulted in just one hit, they were ready.  On the second trip through, the Jays hit .750/.778/1.000 against Hendrickson (though the scorer was generous in giving Scott Rolen a hit for his little nubber up the first base line that Aubrey Huff bobbled – Huff would have had a play at the plate if he had gotten the ball out of his glove clean).  Alex Rios and Vernon Wells set the table, and Kevin Millar cleaned it up, with Rod Barajas driving Millar in to cap the four-run rally that gave the Jays the lead for good.

Millar drove in three runs for the game, and had some lovely chats with his ex-teammates as a few of them managed to make it to first.  And how about The Captain?  Barajas threw down with a 3-for-5 night, raising his batting average to .319.  Barajas has been one of the unsung heroes of the first 25 games, and it’s great to see.  He’s a terrific guy and does a really nice job behind the plate.  He knows he’s only here for a good time, not a long time, and so far this season he’s done a really good job.

As has Aaron Hill, who hung another three hits on his line tonight, one of which Charlie Brown’d Hendrickson on its way to centrefield.  He had a terrific at-bat in the 3rd (that second trip through the line-up), too.  He saw 11 pitches, fouling off five two-strike deliveries, and when he finally got one he could handle he absolutely scorched it, but Cesar Izturis made a nice play on the short hop and threw him out at first.

For the second time in three games, an umpire changed his call on the Jays, though this time it didn’t happen in the middle of a play.  Scott Rolen lined out to left field in the second, but originally second base umpire Chris Tiller ruled that Luke Scott had trapped the ball and Rolen was safe at first.  Scott threw his hands up and was about to come charging to the infield to argue when Tiller signalled “out”.  He had looked over at third base ump Jerry Layne, who had a better look, and Layne informed him the catch was good.  They got the call right, and they waited until after the play was dead.  It was the right result – just weird to see it happen again so soon after the one on Wednesday.

For the first time in over 30 years of watching baseball, I saw a second baseman take a pitcher out of the game.  After Dennis Sarfate hit Jose Bautista in the ribcage and then threw ball one to Marco Scutaro, Brian Roberts came to the mound and signalled to the dugout for the trainer.  Roberts had noticed Sarfate squeezing his right hand, and figured something was wrong.  Very cool.  Hopefully he’ll talk about that tomorrow when Kevin Millar interviews him for me.

Speaking of tomorrow, we have a pre-pre-game show on the Fan590 and here on this very website at noon Eastern.  It will feature a conversation I had tonight with Paul Molitor, I hope you enjoy!  After that, we get Robert Ray’s major-league debut.  I spoke to him with the rest of the horde before the game, and he’s thrilled to be here but seemed very nervous.  Hopefully he can channel that energy in a positive fashion tomorrow.  The last thing Cito Gaston wants to see is another kid who isn’t able to throw strikes.  Ray will be facing another rookie in Brad Bergesen, who will be making his third major-league start.  He was the O’s minor league pitcher of the year last year (as well as the Eastern League’s pitcher of the year), and he gave up five runs on 10 hits in just four innings last time out against the Rangers.

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

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Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

12:30 PM Eastern

Well, obviously a two-game losing streak doesn’t sit well with the higher-ups in Blue Jay land.  Unwilling to waste the fine offense that has led them to a 15-9 start, they turned over fully one-quarter of the pitching staff this morning with six roster moves.

Gone are David Purcey, Bryan Bullington and Brian Burres, coming up are Brett Cecil, Robert Ray and Brian Wolfe.

The big question, of course, is why Wolfe and not Accardo?  OK, maybe that’s not the big question, but I know that’s the question I’m  going to get on The JaysTalk probably about 8-12 times tonight.  The answer is a big, fat I don’t know.  At least until I talk to J.P. Ricciardi when I get to the park.  Wolfe isn’t pitching better than Accardo in Vegas, nor has he had more extended outings than Accardo.  Right now, let’s just say that the answer is that the Jays like Wolfe better.

As for Cecil and Ray, the hope is that they’re going to come up here and  throw strikes, which is something that neither Purcey nor Burres seemed able to do to great effect.

Cecil – a sandwich pick in ’07 – fired through three levels of the minors at the ages of 21 and 22 last season (his birthday is the day after Canada Day).  He tore up A-ball, held his own at AA, and got beat up a bit at AAA.  His return visit to AAA this season didn’t start off well, but his last start was a good one – he allowed four hits and a walk over six innings at Sacramento, striking out five.  He’ll start Tuesday against the Orioles, on a week’s rest.

Ray – a 7th rounder in ’05 and former Aggie – pitched himself onto the radar last year by going 8-6, 3.18 at AA after starting three straight years in Dunedin.  The 10.1 hits per nine innings there don’t look good, but he doesn’t walk people, having averaged 2.7 walks per nine through his minor league career.  That’s what the Jays are looking for right now, I think.  Cito hates pitchers who can’t throw strikes, and well he should.  Ray will be on the mound tomorrow, making his major-league debut in Purcey’s spot in the rotation.  He’ll be throwing on five days’ rest.

Will either one of these guys be here long term? It depends on how well they pitch.  When Casey Janssen and Ricky Romero come back in a couple of weeks, they’ll either take their places or replace one of them, with Brian Tallet going back to the bullpen – assuming everyone else stays healthy.

If they were going to bring up Cecil now, why not do it a week ago and save us from having to watch two starts from Burres?  I think the answer to that was that they wanted Cecil to have at least one good start this season before bringing him up.  Both to get him on a high note and to send the message that the kids do have to earn their way up here.  Still, it’s going to be very tough for the Jays to control his innings from here on out, especially if he pitches well enough to stay.  Both for that reason, and for service time reasons, I think we’ll see Cecil make a month-long trip back to Vegas at some point this season.

As for the guys who went down, Burres remains just a guy.  An emergency airlift in case you need an 11th starter, which the Jays did.  Bullington showed a nice slider and a good arm – there may be some there there, and hopefully they’ll let him start in Vegas, ahead of Burres or maybe Chris Michalak.

Purcey is the one the Jays want to bring back.  For whatever reason, Purcey just couldn’t put it together this year. A 7.01 ERA and 1.792 WHIP tells you that, despite the 26 strikeouts in 25 2/3 innings.  He only had one good start out of five, and it was the first one – second game of the season against the Tigers.  He’s going down to Vegas to turn things around.  To get back to being the guy who walked 2.6 batters per nine innings in Syracuse last year, and 2.3 per nine at AA the year before.  Purcey has a big-league arm, and if he can figure out his control, a big-league future, and is still very much a part of things going forward.

I’ll get to the comments during the ballgame, and if you’re coming down, you might just get to see me on the field when it’s over doing a post-game interview for the in-stadium crowd!

UPDATE – 12:40 AM Eastern

See what I miss for doing my taxes?  Burres and Bullington have both been optioned down to Vegas with no word on replacements.  I’m surprised that Bullington was shipped out, I thought (as you’ll see below) that he had the chance to get the start on Tuesday in Burres’ spot.  Could we see Luis Perez come up from AA?  He has allowed 24 baserunners in 22 innings, with 20 strikeouts in four starts for the Fisher Cats, but he hasn’t pitched since Sunday.  Robert Ray?  He had a solid start, though a bit wild, for Vegas Sunday, but he had very good numbers at New Hampshire last year and he’s a dead ringer for A.J. Burnett.  Neither Fabio Castro nor Wade Miller are on the40-man roster, but that’s not an issue, since the Jays could easily move Shaun Marcum and Dustin McGowan to the 60-day DL to open up two spots.  It should be one starter and one reliever, but it could be two starters in order to move Brian Tallet back to the bullpen.  I can’t imagine that Casey Janssen would get the call yet, he’s only thrown once, and only three innings.  I’ll let you know tomorrow as soon as I find out!

12:10 AM Eastern

Sorry for the late post, but I had to do my taxes first, April 30th and all that – you know?

So one night it’s Billy Butler stealing Brian Tallet’s lunch money, and the next day it’s John Buck doing the same to the Bri(y)ans, Burres and Bullington.

Buck – a catcher! – hit a pair of two-run triples to go with his sac fly and double in helping the Royals to the win that handed the Jays their first series loss of the season.  I guess I was a day early with the “dream is over” thing, as it turned out.

I’m amazed by the fact that the Blue Jays grounded into an AL-record-tying six double plays and yet still managed to score six runs.  That’s incredible to me.  Almost as incredible as the fact that Lyle Overbay sat and watched from the bench as Raul Chavez was sent up to bat as the tying run in the 8th inning against a righty.  There is no way that move can be justified in the Cito Gaston vein of “lose one now to win two or more later”.  Raul Chavez is not a guy whose confidence you need to build up.  The only way that move doesn’t deserve harsh criticism is if Rod Barajas was hurt.  Nobody wanted to talk about it on The JaysTalk, for some reason.

Brian Burres was awful for the second straight start, worse this time than last, and I have to imagine that was his last start for the Jays for the foreseeable future, if not ever.  Bryan Bullington picked him up and went three mediocre innings, so at least he’s stretching out enough to go four and change on Tuesday if they choose to start him against the Indians, who cut him over the winter.  It’s not as though Burres has gone more than four and change in either of his two starts.

Bullington might not be the panacea, either, but Burres isn’t the answer to anything.  Maybe it’ll be Fabio Castro, who pitched tonight for Las Vegas.  Castro didn’t carry his AA dominance over to AAA, though.  The little lefty gave up three runs on five hits, walking three and striking out five while throwing over 100 pitches in going 5 1/3 against the Angels’ Salt Lake club.  Castro also allowed three stolen bases.

It was nice to see the home run ball make a comeback.  The Jays had only hit one dinger on the road trip going into this game, Jose Bautista’s ninth-inning solo job against the White Sox on Friday night that made it 14-0.  Today, though, Marco Scutaro led the game off by going deep, and Adam Lind followed suit later to close the Jays to within 8-6.  The home run was a big part of the offense over the first 17 games, and maybe the Orioles’ pitching staff will be the tonic that brings back the big swings.

Nobody really expected the Jays to go the whole season without losing two in a row, right?  A 3-4 road trip is nothing to sneeze at, and they come home in a virtual tie for first place.  Going 15-9 in April was spectacular.  It’s funny, because the month ended with the Jays losing four of six, some people are disappointed, but how many of those are people who were sure the Jays wouldn’t win more than 10 games the entire month?

Two editions of The JaysTalk for your listening pleasure!  First, the Rain Delay Programme:

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And the regular post-game JaysTalk:

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A short homestand awaits, with Roy Halladay drawing Mark Hendrickson for the opener.  The Flashback Friday guest will be Paul Molitor and I’ll endeavour to get him to come upstairs after the game to take your phone calls.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!