2:06 AM Eastern

It took 72 games, but the line-up finally changed, and it took less than one turn through the batting order for the move to pay off.

As we close in on the halfway point of the season, the struggling Aaron Hill and Adam Lind have finally been moved out of two of the highest-leverage positions in the batting order, in order to give the Blue Jays a chance to score a few more runs while they work their way out of what has been a season-long slump for each.

Neither Hill nor Lind had started a game this year outside his regular spot in the line-up (second for Hill, third for Lind), but the line-up card in the clubhouse this afternoon showed Lind hitting fifth and Hill sixth, with Alex Gonzalez moved up to the second spot and major-league home run leader Jose Bautista batting third.

How immediate were the dividends, you ask?  Well, with two out and nobody on in the first inning, Bautista singled to left and Vernon Wells and Lind followed with back-to-back home runs.  Wells’ was a prodigious blast into the second deck just right of the foul pole down the left-field line, and Lind went oppo – clearing the in-wall scoreboard in left-centre.

The two clouts cashed three runs, which were two more than the Jays would need.  For good measure, Wells added another 200-level shot his next time up.  Not bad for the first two times he’d ever faced one of the National League’s best pitchers, Adam Wainwright.

In his second at-bat, Lind hit a hard ground single to right, and although he grounded out and struck out in his two subsequent at-bats, he looked far more relaxed and comfortable – far more like himself – than he has in a while.  He took some terrific swings and didn’t let hittable pitches go by early in counts.

As for Hill, he managed an infield single in four trips, but did hit the ball hard a couple of times, including a fly out almost to the warning track in dead centre.

Brandon Morrow was the star of the show, shutting out the Cardinals on five hits through eight innings, walking just one and striking out eight.  In talking to pitching coach Bruce Walton after the game, Pappy was impressed with how quickly Morrow has been able to transition from thrower to pitcher.  There’s no guarantee he’ll stay on track, and when the going gets tough he may well try to get out of it by throwing harder and harder, but for now he seems to have realized that you don’t need to throw every pitch at 97 miles an hour to get people out.

Over his last five starts, Morrow has been fantastic, allowing just five runs in total.  Over those five outings, he’s pitched 34 innings and has allowed 22 hits while walking 10, and he’s chalked up 27 strikeouts.  That’s an ERA of 1.32 and a WHIP of 0.941.  At 25 years of age and in his first year as a full-time starting pitcher, no one is expecting Morrow to be able to be consistently great, even though he seems to have all the stuff in the world.  But that’s a glimpse of what he can do, and it includes starts against the high-octane Yankees, Rays and Cards as well as an outing in Colorado.

Man, this starting pitching is good, and every one of the five starters currently in the rotation has a chance to be sensational.

Tomorrow, the homestand continues, but in Philadelphia, and the Blue Jays will face Roy Halladay for the first time ever.  That’s going to be weird.  Halladay is still looking for his first win against an American League team as a National Leaguer.  He’s faced the Yankees, Red Sox and Twins and gotten beaten up all three times, going 0-3 with a 6.86 ERA and a 1.576 WHIP.  Very un-Doc-like.  Amazingly, A.L. squads have an OPS of 1.002 against Halladay this year.  But whether he gets lit up or throws another perfect game, it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch, and facing Jesse Litsch, the game is going to fly by if Litsch can even be half as good as he was Saturday against the Giants.

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

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And here’s the link to tonight’s edition of “Miked Up LIVE!”:

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