8:45 PM Eastern

Kyle Drabek is going to be a very good big-league pitcher.  He’s got the stuff – an electric fastball, a big 12-to-6 hook, a nice, tight cut fastball and an improving change-up.

This afternoon, though, Drabek got an education on what it’s like to be a visitor at Yankee Stadium.  Drabek had to battle his control and home plate umpire Wally Bell’s strike zone as well as the Yankees, and he lost that fight.

To his credit, as frustrated as he was, Drabek didn’t appear to let it get to him.  He did, however, wind up allowing five runs on seven hits, walking four and striking out four.  He actually struck out more than that, but Bell had other ideas.  Bell’s strike zone was all over the place for most of the afternoon.

It was the shortest outing of Drabek’s career, and he sat in the dugout and stewed about it for quite a while after he was yanked from the game.  Five runs marked the highest total Drabek has ever allowed in a start, and that’s saying something.  In his first eight starts in the bigs, Drabek had only allowed as many as four runs once.  That’s awfully strong for a 23 year-old in his first go-round in the majors.

Today was a rough one, but the future certainly looks bright.

With Jesse Litsch on the hill for the series finale and Jo-Jo Reyes scheduled for Monday, John Farrell held Carlos Villanueva in abeyance and the rest of the bullpen came through in a big way:  Jason Frasor, Shawn Camp, Marc Rzepczynski and Frank Francisco combined to throw 5 2/3 innings of no-hitter, allowing the Blue Jays to come back, and they almost did.

Frasor had the toughest task, coming on for Drabek with the bases loaded, one out and facing the top of the Yankees’ line-up, but he got out of the inning with no further damage, inducing lazy fly balls to right out of Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson.

It was a huge day for Mike McCoy, who belted his first major-league home run in the 5th inning – a lead-off blast to left-centre off A.J. Burnett.  McCoy also made a sensational over-the-shoulder catch of a looper by Nick Swisher in the 7th, easily doubling off Robinson Cano in the bargain.

The Blue Jays set a franchise record with three stolen bases in the game – that gave them an even 30 for the month of April, three better than the previous mark set in the Aprils of 1983 and ’84.  But in the 6th, with the Jays down a run and one out, Juan Rivera got thrown out trying to steal third as Edwin Encarnacion struck out, ending the budding rally.  That one was a little too aggressive, counting on Burnett to throw a curveball in the dirt.  He didn’t, and Rivera was meatcake.  Still, the Blue Jays stole 30 bases on 39 tries in the month, which is strong.

Rivera was the last runner the Blue Jays would get as far as second base until Jose Molina’s two-out double off Mariano Rivera in the 9th.  J.P. Arencibia watched from the bench as Molina battled Rivera, and then as McCoy flied out to end the game.

Rajai Davis had two more hits, giving him eight for the season. And the streak remains alive – in every inning in which Davis has gotten a hit, the Blue Jays have scored.  That’s pretty fantastic, though it’s also a pretty huge coincidence.

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

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So April is over with the Blue Jays finishing up 13-14, a strong record considering all the injuries, the failures of Brett Cecil and Travis Snider, and the tough schedule that included 16 road games and trips into Boston, New York and Texas.  The Blue Jays have played all four of last season’s A.L. playoff teams already along with the consensus choice to be the best team in the league this season.  It hasn’t been easy, and a game under .500 is pretty terrific.

Tomorrow, the series wraps up with Jesse Litsch getting the call against Ivan Nova – one of Jose Bautista’s favourite guys. We’re on the air at 12:30 pm Eastern with the pre-game that will feature Jerry Howarth in conversation with John Farrell and Mike McCoy – join us, won’t you?

Please follow me on the Twitter – you can find me @wilnerness590!

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

12:35 AM Eastern

Just as there were plenty of goats the other day, there were plenty of starts shining for the Blue Jays tonight as they opened up their series in New York with a win, improved to 4-1 as they hit the halfway mark of the current road trip and got back to .500 on the season in the bargain.

Ricky Romero came through with six strong innings, picking up his first win since Opening Day.  He gave up two runs on five hits and dominated Andruw Jones and Curtis Granderson, who were a combined 0-for-6 with six strikeouts against him.  It helps that the five runs of support were more than Romero had gotten from his teammates than he did in his last four starts COMBINED, but it was another good game for the lefty with the filthy change-up.  He also showed incredible reflexes in snaring a third-inning rocket off the bat of Mark Teixeira that was headed straight for his face.  Romero got the glove up and caught the ball, which otherwise – and I write this in all seriousness – very well could have killed him.

Jose Bautista – who else? – had a great night, too.  A two-run jack in the third gave the Blue Jays the lead for good – it was his league-leading ninth of the season, putting him on a 56-homer pace. He also walked twice, giving him a club-record 28 April free passes.  And of course, he worked the crazy voodoo/Jedi/ninja magic we have seen on a couple of other occasions this month, using it to extricate himself from a rundown in which he should have been retired easily.  Caught dead to rights halfway between first and second, Bautista willed Yankee reliever David Robertson to throw wildly into centrefield, allowing Bautista to trot to second and Rajai Davis to walk home from third.

Speaking of Davis, he returned from the disabled list to go 1-for-4 with a walk and stole a couple of bases, too.  The Blue Jays have scored in every inning in which Davis has gotten a hit for them. Ever.

Yunel Escobar flashed some serious leather to help Romero out of a 5th-inning jam caused mostly by Edwin Encarnacion. With runners at first and second and none out, Nick Swisher hit a soft liner to third that had triple play written all over it.  Encarnacion clanked it, but still had a chance to get two out because the runners were scurrying back to their bases with the ball on the ground.  He went to get it, then fired it way past John McDonald into right field.  Encarnacion was only given one error on the play, though he should have gotten two – I guess the official scorer didn’t want to bump his average up to exactly one error per game (he’s made 6 in 7 starts at third).

So the bases were loaded with none out and the Blue Jays up by only one and Mark Teixeira hit a dying quail into shallow left field.  No chance for Juan Rivera to get it, but Escobar got on his horse and made a great running catch over his head for the first out.  On the next pitch, he snared a hard grounder by Alex Rodriguez well off to his right and started a beautiful, inning-ending double play.

Escobar may well have been the night’s ultimate hero, if not for the pitch Jon Rauch threw in the 8th inning.

With the score 5-2 Blue Jays, Robinson Cano took Shawn Camp out of the yard to lead off that 8th – on the first pitch Camp threw.  Camp then induced two weak ground balls, but the second one was too weak, and Curtis Granderson beat it out.  With two righties sandwiched around light-hitting lefty Brett Gardner coming up, and with Frank Francisco and Marc Rzepczynski unavailable except on an emergency basis, the call went out to Octavio Dotel to put out the fire.

Dotel promptly walked Russell Martin, then did the same to Gardner to load the bases.  Left in to face Derek Jeter, Dotel finally did his job, striking out the Yankee captain and handing the mess over to Rauch with the two-run lead still intact.

Rauch sucked all the drama out of the budding rally by getting Nick Swisher to roll over on his first pitch and ground weakly to first.  Inning over. Rauch needed all of seven pitches to retire the Yanks’ 3-4-5 hitters in order in the 9th to secure his 5th save.

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

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It was also David Cooper’s major-league debut!  Batting 7th, Cooper looked great in working a walk from Freddy Garcia his first time up,  then went 0-for-4 the rest of the night.  He’ll get another chance to pick up his first big-league hit Saturday afternoon when the Blue Jays face A.J. Burnett.  Kyle Drabek will oppose – the rookie is 2-0 this season, and the Jays have won all five of his starts.

We’ll be on a 3:30 pm Eastern for the pre-game show – Jerry will have John Farrell and he’ll likely hang with Mr. Cooper for a bit, too.  First pitch is scheduled for 4:05, but the Yankees lie.

If you haven’t yet, please follow me on Twitter @wilnerness590.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

11:40 AM Eastern

…….if you ain’t got that swing, and that’s the problem the Blue Jays are seeing with Travis Snider.

The 23 year-old was sent down to Las Vegas after yesterday’s win over Texas, despite the Jays being in a development year and despite the fact that Snider had put up almost exactly the same numbers through 24 games last season before breaking out in a huge way until he hurt his wrist in mid-May.

Alex Anthopoulos addressed the media this morning with regards to the demotion and said the difference between last year and this year is simple – Snider has gotten out of his swing, needs to make changes, and those changes are easier to work through in the minors where winning isn’t as important a consideration.

Anthopoulos said that Snider isn’t driving through the ball when he swings.  He’s coming around it, hooking it and often seems to be on his way out of the batters’ box towards first base as he’s swinging – a la Ichiro Suzuki.  He’s strong enough and talented enough that he’s been able to get away with it sometimes, but not much, but the Jays don’t want to settle for Snider being a 7-8-9 hole hitter, and they felt as though if he stayed and tried to work through the problems, to make subtle changes to his swing in the majors, he’d continue to underachieve.

He added that even though Snider’s numbers at this point last year were very similar, his swing wasn’t.  He was making hard contact and getting through the ball.  At that point, they could ride it out because it was only a matter of time before his numbers came around, and they did.  This is different and Anthopoulos said that if something is going on that would be better addressed in the minors, it’s simply a waste of everyone’s time to wait to make a move.

The winning versus developing question is one that came up, and the answer is that, even in a development/building year, John Farrell is trying to win as many games as he can.  They don’t want to have to hit for Snider in a big spot because his swing isn’t right to try to win a game, so they want him to go down to Vegas, play nine innings every day, and make the subtle changes necessary so that he can be back in the big leagues and performing to his capabilities.

Anthopoulos brought up guys like Adam Lind and Alex Gordon, both of whom have needed several ups and downs to get to where they are, and was steadfast in his belief that Snider is going to be a great hitter in the majors.  He called Travis a model Blue Jay as far as character and make-up are concerned and said he took the demotion like a total pro.  Anthopoulos gave every indication that he plans for Snider to be part of this team for a long time, saying he believes that Snider will grow into a leadership role and will be one of the guys other players will look to and try to emulate.

Even though Snider came out of his swing, he never came out of his approach, something that is a very good sign.  Travis will be back soon, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he spent at least a month trying to get right in the minors.  We’ll keep an eye on his numbers down there, but it’s less about results and more about good swings and hard contact.

So David Cooper is going to come up to DH with the suddenly red-hot Juan Rivera moving to left field for the time being.  Rivera’s poor defense may be mitigated by the return of Rajai Davis, who will be back in the line-up tonight, but it also may not.

Cooper put himself back on the Blue Jays’ radar last July by sitting down with former Jays Scouting Director Jon Lalonde and watching some video of the swing he had in college then trying to get back to it.  It worked, and he had a strong final two months of 2010, then came to Spring Training and opened a ton of eyes, hitting .378/.400/.511 in 45 at-bats.  His strong spring carried into the start of the season at Las Vegas, where he hit .395/.438/.617 over the first 20 games, with more walks (7) than strikeouts (6), which is one of the things that stood out to Anthopoulos.

Asked about the decision to choose Cooper over Brett Lawrie and Eric Thames, Alex cited Cooper’s strong approach.  He said that Lawrie and, to a lesser extent, Thames, are getting by on their talent rather than their approaches right now, and they have to get those things right before getting the call to the bigs.  Lawrie has struck out 21 times and only walked four (despite his 1.090 OPS), while Thames with his 1.069 OPS has 10 walks and 19 strikeouts.

Cooper is the latest first-round “bust” to make it to the majors with the Blue Jays, and he beat Ricky Romero by a year.  That bust has worked out pretty well, as it turns out.

Finally, Anthopoulos was asked how much longer the Blue Jays are going to stick with Jo-Jo Reyes, and he replied that the only difference between Reyes and everyone else is that he’s out of options, but that it’s a results-oriented business and he’s going to have to start getting some soon.  Alex cited the two strong starts Reyes has had, in Anaheim and Boston, and said that they continue to evaluate him, just as they do everyone else.  There’s no timeline on him, but they’re going to do their best to stick with him as long as they can.

He has been making it kind of difficult, though.

Tonight, it’s Jays and Yankees at 7:00 pm Eastern along our Blue Jays Radio Network – Ricky Romero against Freddy Garcia.  Rajai Davis will be back in centrefield and leading off, and Cooper will make his major-league debut!  Join us, won’t you?   There will be a link to the live blog with me and Shi Davidi at www.fan590.com, and you can follow me on Twitter @wilnerness 590.  If you’re already following me, then you got the Anthopoulos quotes as they were happening this morning!

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

7:50 PM Eastern

So this was supposed to be a nice little post about a series win in Texas, another very solid start by Brandon Morrow, more excellent work from the bullpen, a swell safety squeeze by Corey Patterson to bring in what proved to be the winning run in the 9th and the Rangers’ Keystone Kops act allowing the Jays to tack on a couple of insurance runs.

It could also have been about how, for the second time already this season, a Blue Jays baserunner took off for third when the base was already occupied or how, for the umpteenth time already this season, a Blue Jays baserunner got caught in a rundown but didn’t get out.

I could have written about how Jose Bautista cheated serious injury by getting his hands up in front of his face to deflect a high and tight 0-2 fastball from Pedro Strop in the 7th.  He didn’t even break his hand – the man is unstoppable.

Maybe I would have thrown something down about the big offensive series for Adam Lind and Juan Rivera.  Lind hit .412/.421/.941 over the four games, despite striking out twice with the bases loaded in today’s finale.  Rivera topped him with a .500/.632/.929 mark.

I could have written about any of those things, but then nine minutes after I signed off the air, the Blue Jays announced that they’d outrighted Chris Woodward back to AAA Las Vegas.

Oh, and that they’d optioned out Travis Snider with him.

Snider leaves town on a five-game hit streak, over which his line reads .286/.375/.286.  For the season, he’s at .186/.276/.264.  Last year after the Blue Jays’ 24th game, Snider was hitting .155/.277/.338, and from that point until his wrist injury, he hit .378/.404/.711 in a 12-game span.

To say that I’m stunned by the move would be an insult to the stunned.  I had thought the entire direction of the team, the whole organization, was to use 2011 as a development year, to throw some of the kids to the wolves and to see what they had from players like Snider and J.P. Arencibia, Rajai Davis and Edwin Encarnacion.  Seeing if they could be real  contributors given a season’s worth of at-bats and everyday play.

Instead, Snider is shipped out after 87 mediocre to poor at-bats to either find his swing or get his confidence back at Las Vegas.  Alex Anthopoulos will address the media tomorrow morning, and I’ll have his comments as they happen out on Twitter (follow me @wilnerness590), and then wrap it up here on the blog shortly afterward.

What is AAA going to do for Travis?  I can’t imagine.  He goes down to Las Vegas a lifetime .339/.420/.623 hitter at that level, with nothing at all to prove.  He didn’t appear to be getting down on himself about his slow start, and for all the times that he looked “lost” at the plate, there were still glimpses of the hitter I believe he will wind up being.  And again, he was doing almost exactly the same thing last season at the same point in time and came out of it beautifully.

Maybe the difference this year is the lack of power.  Snider only has five extra base hits so far this season – four doubles and a home run – compared to  four doubles and three homers in 16 fewer at-bats through the same 24 games last year.

I am looking forward to hearing what Alex has to say because honestly, I just don’t get it.

The lovely and talented J.P. Morosi of FOX Sports is reporting that David Cooper will be called up to replace Snider on the roster.  Cooper is off to an incredible .395/.438/.617 start in his first season of AAA or, in other words, his OPS at Vegas is 12 points higher than Snider’s career OPS at Vegas.

Does he go to first base, his natural position, with the Blue Jays moving Adam Lind back to left, where he’s certainly a better fit than Rivera?  That seems doubtful, so it appears as though Cooper is coming up to DH with Rivera moving out to left for the time being.  Of course, with Rajai Davis likely being activated off the disabled list to replace Woodward, maybe Corey Patterson slides over to left – but that wouldn’t leave a spot for Rivera, who is on fire right now.

I wonder if this is a quick look so that the Blue Jays can see for themselves the strides Cooper has made.  He had a couple of mediocre years in a row at New Hampshire, but opened a ton of eyes with his spring training performance and carried it over into the start of the season in Vegas.  Regardless, I remain floored that it came at the expense of Snider.

This is now the third year in a row that Travis, still only 23, has made the team but not gotten a legitimate shot, playing time-wise.  This is a kid who has all of the skills, who has made himself into a solid defender and a threat on the basepaths, and it’s hard to believe that this was all the rope he was given.  24 games and 87 at-bats is just a blip.  I’m confident that he’ll go down to AAA, rake, and be back here soon.

Since it was a weekday day game, there’s no JaysTalk to share with you.  The Blue Jays continue their road trip in The Bronx tomorrow with Ricky Romero taking on the Yankees’ Freddy Garcia.  We’ll be on the air at 7:00 pm Eastern for a 7:10 first pitch (it says 7:05 on the schedule, but the Yankees lie).

Again, I will have another post up for you in the morning after the Alex Anthopoulos conference call, and I’ll file quotes to Twitter as they happen.

Rational, reasonable comments always welcome!

1:30 AM Eastern

In a one-run loss in which a team allows six unearned runs on one error, you’d think that the goat horns would have no trouble finding a head on which to rest.  Not tonight, though.

There’s all kinds of blame to go around in the Blue Jays’ first loss of this road trip, though it is first laid at the feet of Edwin Encarnacion.  Edwin made the error – his 5th in six games at third base this season – that opened the floodgates to the six-run frame.  With one out, nobody on and the Blue Jays leading 2-0, Encarnacion made a nice play to flag down a ground ball by Texas catcher Yorvit Torrealba.  He got back on his feet, steadied himself, and uncorked a one-bounce throw that skipped past Adam Lind.

A good throw, which Encarnacion certainly had time to make, easily retires the slow-footed Torrealba, and we have bases empty and two out, with Jo-Jo Reyes having still faced the minimum.  Instead, it’s a runner on first and one out.  Reyes rebounded to strike out Mitch Moreland, but that was the last hitter he’d retire.

Therein lies another head to fit for those goat horns.  Sure all six of the runs Reyes gave up in the third inning were unearned, but even after the error, all he had to deal with was a runner on first and two out.  From that point, he blew up real good.

After the strikeout, Reyes threw a wild pitch, then issued a walk and gave up an RBI single and a two-run double.  With the Jays only down one, Reyes got ahead of the dangerous Adrian Beltre 0-2, but then threw three straight balls, the last of which hit Beltre in the back.  Then there was another RBI single followed by another two-run double followed by a shower for the Jays’ lefty who left the game with a WHIP of 1.83 and who has made all of one quality start in his first five – and the quality start is a pretty low bar.

But another goat emerges on that final two-run double.  Mike Napoli squared up that ball solidly and drove it deep into the gap in left-centre.  Corey Patterson gave chase, and turned to take the ball off the wall – but it didn’t hit off the wall.  The ball landed on the warning track and short-hopped the fence, bouncing back past Patterson to a waiting Travis Snider, who was backing up.  If Patterson keeps running towards the wall instead of turning to take the carom, he’s in a strong position to make the catch and the inning is over with the Blue Jays down 4-2 instead of 6-2.  It was far from the first time that we’d seen a gaffe from Patterson in the outfield, and his baserunning has been far more suspect than we’d had reason to expect, as well.  Rajai Davis has likely been joined by Scott Podsednik in Patterson’s rear-view mirror.

The Blue Jays did manage to rally from their four-run deficit and tie the game in the 7th.  They scored three in the 5th, the big blow being a two-run double by Jose Bautista, and then Juan Rivera played hero in that 7th inning.  With two out, Rivera blasted his second home run of the series, and of the season, to knot things up.

By the way, Rivera is on quite the little run right now.  Small sample size, sure (no one would argue that he’s even close to this good), but he had three more hits tonight and over his last 19 plate appearances is hitting a stellar  .500/.579/.875.  Not bad for a guy who so many believed was lazy and disinterested just three or four days ago.  His situation hasn’t changed in Toronto – he’s still only here for a year at the most and he’s still only here because the Blue Jays had to take him to make the Vernon Wells deal work.  Hopefully this little run shows just how little those facts had to do with his rough start that was, as it turns out, just a rough start.

So on whose head doth lie the final goat horn?  Well, that depends.  Opinions are varied, but it might lie on the head of Octavio Dotel, for giving up the tie-breaking home run to Mitch Moreland leading off the 7th, or it might be better-placed on the head of manager John Farrell, for bringing Dotel in to face a left-handed hitter in a big spot.  Heaven forfend Moreland should actually get credit for hitting the home run or anything.

Here’s the thing:  Left-handed hitters love Dotel.  Last season, lefties hit  .301/.412/.581 against him for a .993 OPS.  As a basis of comparison, Jose Bautista’s OPS was .995 last season, meaning ANY left-handed hitter who stepped into the box against Dotel last year became as good as Bautista.  The year before, lefties had an even more insane 1.000 OPS against Dotel .  So it’s fair to ask why Farrell would go to Dotel in a tie game with a left-handed hitter leading off, even though he was to be followed by six straight right-handed hitters, for whom Dotel is poison.

One possible answer is that Carlos Villanueva had just finished up 3 1/3 innings of no-hit relief and was done, and Farrell didn’t want to waste Marc Rzepczynski, his only lefty in the ‘pen, in that spot when the rest of the inning was screaming for Dotel.  He might not have wanted to go to Jason Frasor, Casey Janssen or Shawn Camp for just the one hitter, either, especially since Camp and Janssen had both worked the night before.  And it wasn’t time for Frank Francisco or Jon Rauch yet.  And in a tie game, you don’t want to start going to your bullpen for just one hitter.

Another possible answer is that – dig this – while Moreland was FAR more likely to reach base against Dotel than against any other Blue Jays reliever, the likelihood of him taking Dotel out of the yard wasn’t all that screamingly high.  Despite the brutal splits, Dotel has actually allowed FEWER home runs per plate appearance to lefties than to righties over the past couple of seasons.  So sure, there’s a good chance that Moreland walks (I would have thought that was the most likely outcome), but then there’s a great chance that Dotel mows through the next three righties, or three of the next four, and the inning ends with the game tied.

It didn’t happen that way.  I’m not going to roast John Farrell for it – he took a calculated gamble and it blew up in his face.  And again, it came in his 24th game as a major-league manager.  Certainly most of us wouldn’t have done it the same way, but Farrell still has plenty of rope as he settles into this position.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk, featuring someone who wanted to fight with me about J.P. Ricciardi!  For your listening pleasure:

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Tomorrow, it’s the good old day game after the night game, and what promises to be a terrific pitching match-up with Brandon Morrow facing Alexi Ogando.  We’re on the air at 2:00 pm Eastern for a 2:05 first pitch, and we’ll be live blogging and tweeting all afternoon.  There will be no JaysTalk, because it’s a weekday day game, but join us anyway, won’t you?

Please follow me on Twitter @wilnerness590; rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

12:32 AM Eastern

The Blue Jays had so much fun with their big inning in the series opener in Texas that they decided to have a few more in the second game.  They threw down against Matt Harrison with a five-run first and put up a crooked number in three of the first four innings on their way to a rout.

Harrison came in with a 1.88 ERA in 28 2/3 innings over four starts, having allowed just six earned runs all season.  He gave up seven in just three inning tonight.

The first six Blue Jays hitters of the game all reached base:  Yunel Escobar led off with a sharp single to right and Corey Patterson dropped a beautiful bunt down the first-base line and beat it out.  Jose Bautista then walked – what else is new? – and Adam Lind followed by ripping a line-drive base hit to cash Escobar.  Then Harrison lost the plate, walking Juan Rivera on four pitches and issuing a second straight bases-loaded free pass to J.P. Arencibia.  Travis Snider’s grounder to third provided the first two outs of the ballgame, but produced another run, and John McDonald put the cherry on top with a soft line single to centre that made it 5-0 Blue Jays.

Lind would lead off the 3rd inning with a home run to left field and then belt a three-run shot to right off Brett Tomko in the 4th to cap a five-RBI night, a night in which every Blue Jay managed at least one hit, save for Mike McCoy, who went 0-for-4, robbed at the wall by Julio Borbon in his final at-bat.

On the continuing Juan Rivera watch, the much-maligned second-highest-paid Blue Jay got his first multi-hit game of the season, going 2-for-4 with a walk.  In his last 18 plate appearances, Rivera is now hitting .375/.444/.563.

Jesse Litsch did exactly what he was supposed to do, a perfect 5th starter’s start as (almost) always.  Staked to the big lead, he threw strikes and got outs, save for a four-batter blip that started with two out and nobody on in the second.  But the Jays restored the big lead and Litsch got through his final four innings putting up zeroes and allowing only three singles.  John Farrell said before the game that he should approach this start as though he’s going to get 25 more in the big leagues this season, and there’s no reason Litsch shouldn’t do so.

Certainly he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder at Brett Cecil right now.  The lefty made his 51s season debut on the road in Colorado Springs (a phenomenal hitting environment, it should be noted, even more so than Vegas itself) and had a worse night than even Matt Harrison.  Cecil gave up 11 runs (10 earned) on 13 hits over 4 1/3 innings against the Sky Sox, allowing three homers and walking three while striking out two.  Sure two of the homers he gave up were to big-leaguers in Ian Stewart and Josh Fields, but that’s one ugly line.  Daniel Farquhar followed and wasn’t much better.  It’ll be interesting to see if Cecil simply takes the AAA mound again in five days, or if there’s a look into the physical structure of his arm to come.  So far, there’s no indication (other than the results) that he might be hurt.

Tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk was pretty tame, what with Litsch pitching well, Rivera getting a couple of hits and Lind hitting a couple of home runs.  The Great Shi Davidi, who was in studio with me all night doing the live blog, stuck around to take calls.  Here it is, for your listening pleasure:

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Tomorrow, Jo-Jo Reyes will look again for his first win as a Blue Jay, coming off his best start of the season.  He’ll face lefty Derek Holland as the Jays try to clinch a series win in Texas.  We’ll have a pre-pre-game show for you on Sportsnet Radio The Fan 590 and here on this very website during which we’ll hear from J.P. Arencibia and Tampa Bay’s David Price on their experiences with social media, specifically The Twitter.  That’s on at 7:00 pm Eastern, the network pre-game begins at 7:30 for an 8:05 first pitch – join us, won’t you?

You can find me on The Twitter @wilnerness590 – please give me a follow, I’ll do my  best to make sure you won’t regret it!

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

12:15 AM Eastern

The skeleton crew made its way out to Texas to start a ten-game road trip and drew first blood in Arlington, using a bat-around, six-run fifth inning to do all the damage.

The rally started with two out and Travis Snider’s leadoff walk still on first base.  Yunel Escobar hit a dribbler up the middle for a single, then Corey Patterson went up and got an 0-2 shoulder-high fastball from Colby Lewis and drove it out of the yard for the Blue Jays’ first three-run homer in almost two weeks.  Jose Bautista followed with a blast of his own on the very next pitch – his 8th of the season gives him twice as many as he had in all of last April.  The back-to-back homers were the Blue Jays’ first since Opening Day.  By the way, Bautista is now on pace to hit 58 home runs this season.

As if the unexpected Patterson blast wasn’t enough, the inning continued with a walk to Adam Lind and then Juan Rivera finally broke his maiden as a Blue Jay.  Rivera’s first big fly of the season was a two-run job the other way, and it gave the Jays a 6-0 lead.

The much-maligned Rivera seems to be coming out of his long, season-opening funk.  He hit into a double play in his first at-bat, but hit that ball awfully hard and let’s face it, any ball Rivera hits on the ground with a runner on first is likely to be turned into two outs, regardless of how hard he hits it. SMALL SAMPLE SIZE ALERT, but in his last 13 plate appearances, Rivera is hitting .333/.385/.583.  That’s good, no?

That inning was the only one in which the Blue Jays scored tonight, but it was enough.  Kyle Drabek got in trouble early, walking Ian Kinsler to lead off the game and giving up a single to the next hitter, Elvis Andrus.  But he got Michael Young to bounce into a double play and induced another ground ball from Adrian Beltre to end the inning.  The Rangers didn’t get another baserunner until Nelson Cruz walked to lead off the fifth. After another double play ball, Drabek gave up a two-out solo shot to Yorvit Torrealba, and then got into trouble again in the 6th but managed extricate himself from the inning before John Farrell had to come and get him.

Marc Rzepczynski, Jason Frasor and Jon Rauch gave up a hit each – Rauch’s a home run by Cruz leading off the ninth – to finish things up.  Rauch picked up his fourth save, Drabek his second win.  The Blue Jays are 5-0 when Drabek starts this season.

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

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A note from AA – Rajai Davis was expected to get nine innings in, then get the call to the big club for tomorrow’s game, but he was hit on the wrist by a pitch in the first inning and had to be removed.  His return to the majors will be put off until at least Wednesday, probably farther considering the wrist injury, which is apparently not serious (as far as we know at the moment, anyway).

Tomorrow night, Jesse Litsch makes what he hopes will be a valiant return to the rotation after a brief sojourn in Las Vegas.  He’s coming off a very solid outing at Fenway Park and knows he didn’t deserve to be farmed out.  He’s got a tough team with which to deal, and the Blue Jays face a tough lefty to in Matt Harrison.  Or at least, a hot lefty in Harrison, who has an ERA of 1.88 and a WHIP of 0.94 over his first four starts, through which he’s averaging more than seven innings each.

We’ll be on the air at 7:00 pm Eastern on Sportsnet Radio The Fan 590 and here on fan590.com with the pre-pre-game show, during which you’ll get to meet Blue Jays “coach without portfolio” Luis Rivera.  Then at 7:30, we’ll hook up with the rest of the country for the network pre-game ahead of an 8:05 first pitch.  Join us, won’t you?

Remember, you can follow me on Twitter @wilnerness590.  Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome, and will be answered!

4:43 PM Eastern

The Skeleton-Crew Jays didn’t bring much to the table in their series finale with the Tampa Bay Rays.  With Aaron Hill on his way to the disabled list, Rajai Davis already there, Edwin Encarnacion unavailable as well and Adam Lind, Travis Snider and Juan Rivera mired in big slumps, the Jays had no answer for James Shields and were unable to support their ace for a third straight game.

Ricky Romero made one bad pitch and Ben Zobrist put it in the seats for a two-run homer in the first inning, and that was that.  The next hitter was Dan Johnson and he hit a hard line single up the middle, but Romero moved into shutdown mode from that point on.  After the Johnson single, the Rays managed just two more hits against the Jays’ ace through his seven-inning stint, and Romero managed a pair of strikeouts in each of his final four innings of work, finishing up with a total of 10 Ks.

But there was no offense.  Jose Bautista took a four-pitch walk in the first inning to extend his streak of consecutive plate appearances reaching base to 11, one off the team record, and that was the only baserunner the Jays had until the 5th inning.

In his attempt to tie Lyle Overbay’s club mark, Bautista hit an absolute laser-guided rocket missile, but it was guided right into the glove of Felipe Lopez at third.  It was the hardest-hit ball the Blue Jays had all day.

Juan Rivera actually broke up the Shields no-hit bid in the 5th, dribbling a single up the middle off the glove of a diving Reid Brignac – he’s singled in three straight games now.  Rivera got to second on a two-out single by John McDonald, but they couldn’t cash him, nor could they cash Corey Patterson, who was the only other Jay to get as far as second – he led off the 6th with a double down the right-field line.  Shut out in the loss, the Blue Jays have now scored a total of four runs in Romero’s last four starts after putting 13 on the board in his first one.

The Blue Jays are 9-12 through the first three weeks of the season, and given the circumstances, that shouldn’t be so surprising.  It might even be commendable, actually.  They’ve had their Opening Day line-up on the field only once – on Opening Day – and they’ve only had all nine of those players available to them twice.  With Aaron Hill going on the disabled list, the Jays have now hit the transaction wire 27 different times so far this season.

All this, and the fans have had to suffer through the growing pains of guys like Drabek, Cecil, Reyes, Snider and Arencibia and the re-establishment pains of Hill and Lind.

But that’s what was to be expected this season, right?  In the off-season, we all knew that the Blue Jays were in building mode, but some fans deluded themselves into believing that this team was likely to improve on last year’s 85-win finish, and even be a legitimate contender for a playoff spot.  Now, there’s no question that they COULD do those things, but so much would have to go right for that to happen.  That includes Hill, Lind, Davis and Escobar rebounding to their 2009 form, Snider emerging as the beast that he one day will wind up being, Bautista coming close to maintaining his 2010 numbers, Romero, Morrow and Cecil continuing their development by improving upon last year’s performances and Drabek and Arencibia hitting the ground running.  And everybody staying healthy.

That’s a lot to ask.

So far, Romero and Escobar have come through and Bautista has actually improved upon last year, amazingly, but those are the only things that have followed the best-case scenario route.  And don’t get me started on the healthy thing.

A team that’s building is going to have its ups and downs, and right now is a down – they’ve lost 10 out of their last 14 games.  But they’re still on the right track, and they’re not going to make the panic moves of calling up the young studs like Brett Lawrie, Eric Thames and Zach Stewart (or, as a caller on The JaysTalk suggested today, Anthony Gose) before they’re ready to go.  Having patience means having patience for more than three weeks.  And no, this isn’t about having been patient for the last 18 years.  The 2011 Blue Jays have nothing to do with the 2004 Blue Jays (except for Jason Frasor and Chris Woodward) or the 1996 Blue Jays.

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

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Tomorrow, the Blue Jays kick off their second, and final, 11-day, 10-game road trip of the season.  They’ll play four in Texas, then three each at the Yankees and Rays.  Jesse Litsch will join them in Arlington tomorrow, and he’ll start Tuesday, the day on which Rajai Davis may well join them as well.  Tomorrow features a pair of 1-2 righties – Kyle Drabek and Colby Lewis – in a place where the Blue Jays should be able to find their hitting shoes.  Juan Rivera, by the way, is a lifetime .299/.338/.517 hitter in Arlington. 

I’ll have a half-hour pre-pre-game show starting at 7:00 pm Eastern on Sportsnet Radio The Fan 590 and here on this very website each of the next three days.  One day I’ll introduce you to Jays’ coaching assistant Luis Rivera and another day you’ll hear from J.P. Arencibia and David Price on their use of social media, specifically Twitter, to stay in touch with their fans.  Tomorrow, I’ll likely get one of the Rangers’ broadcasters or beat writers on to discuss the state of the defending A.L. champs.  Then we’ll hook up with the rest of the network at 7:30 for an 8:05 first pitch.  Join us, won’t you?

Remember, you can follow me on Twitter @wilnerness590.  Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

5:17 PM Eastern

The Blue Jays got up off the carpet once again, and for the umpteenth time this season, managed to get the tying run at least to the plate in the ninth inning of a loss.  Heck, today they got the tying run all the way to second base.

It was a rally that wouldn’t have needed to be as furious had someone other than Jose Bautista managed to solve David Price over the first seven innings, but I digress.

The Blue Jays came into the bottom of the ninth trailing 6-2 mostly because of a bad pitch by Carlos Villanueva and the fact that nobody other than Bautista got a hit off Price until Jose Molina singled in the seventh.  For his part, Bautista homered twice, singled and walked – both homers were solo shots. He’s now reached base in 10 consecutive plate appearances, which is just two off the team record set by Lyle Overbay almost three years ago.  Oh, and he’s on pace to hit 65 home runs this season.

Bautista began the bottom of the ninth with a broken-bat single to left, took second because the Rays gave it to him, and scored on a double by Adam Lind off the right-field wall.  Molina followed with a single to put runners on the corners and sent Price to the showers for Rays closer Kyle Farnsworth, who gave up an RBI single to Juan Rivera on the first pitch he threw.  That got the Jays to within two, with runners at first and second, nobody out and Travis Snider at the plate.

Chris Woodward, one of two Blue Jays on the bench with the hamstring injury to Aaron Hill and the late scratch of Edwin Encarnacion due to a sore wrist, came on to pinch-run for Rivera, since he was the tying run, and Snider was asked to bunt.

Snider wound up executing a beautiful bunt, and actually beat the throw at first base, but he was called out by Mike Everitt.  The Blue Jays should have had the bases loaded and nobody out, but that doesn’t really change the fact that Snider was sent up to move the runners over with a sacrifice.

I’ve said many times before, and I’ll say it again – I hate the sacrifice bunt in almost all situations, and this is one of them.  But I’m interested to see why Farrell did it.  Was it because Snider is struggling at the plate and John McDonald, who was on deck, is off to a great start?  Was it because Farrell believes that the bunt is always the play in a none-out, first-and-second, down-by-two-in-the-ninth scenario?  Or was it somewhere in the middle? 

I don’t know the answer because Farrell wasn’t asked the question in his post-game newser, which is understandable because I’m told he was still seething at the bad call at first on Snider and the effect that ultimately had on the game.  You have to pick your spots as a reporter.  We’ll talk to Farrell before the game tomorrow, and the question will come up.

As I said on The JaysTalk, I’m loath to come down hard on Farrell for bunting in that spot because he’s still so early in his managerial career that at this point he gets the benefit of the doubt.  And it’s not as though I could reasonably say that Travis Snider is the guy who has to get to hit in that situation, given his start to the season.  The move is defensible because Jose Molina is your lead runner, because Travis Snider is hitting .160 and because it gave the Blue Jays two shots to tie the game with a single.  Now, if Travis Snider is hitting like so many of us believe that he will, then he’s your best shot to win the game and I would have to imagine he’s not bunting.  But Travis Snider is hitting .159 right now.

Twenty games in to his managerial career, Farrell has had to deal with things that some of his peers haven’t seen over multiple seasons, and he’s running a team that has made every game exciting, tense and tight.  He deserves the chance to be allowed to grow into his position.

Outside that ninth-inning rally, the story of the game was the return of Brandon Morrow.  He walked the first batter he faced, Sam Fuld (though home plate ump Mike Winters stole a strikeout from him earlier in the at-bat), then fell behind Johnny Damon 3-1 (again, tight tight strike zone) before Damon turned a fastball around and put it in the seats.  After the home run, Morrow struck out three in a row and five of the next six.  He wound up going 5 1/3 innings of three-hitter, walking two and striking out 10 (not a typo), leaving with a runner on second in a 2-2 tie. 

It was a spectacular first outing for a guy on whom so many of the Blue Jays’ future hopes are pinned, especially given the fact that he’d been hit hard in his three rehab starts in A ball.  Morrow showed his 97 mile an hour fastball and a filthy slider, and this was a great take-off point for him as he attempts to develop into that ace that his incredible stuff indicates he should be able to be.

Upon Morrow’s exit, Carlos Villanueva came on to walk Matt Joyce on four pitches, and then serve up a three-run second-deck bomb to Ben Zobrist that wound up being the difference in the game.  Villanueva had allowed just one run in six appearances totalling 10 2/3 innings going into the game.

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

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Tomorrow, the Blue Jays play their first home rubber game of the season, with Ricky Romero looking to rebound off a rough outing at Fenway last Monday.  James Shields, who gave up eight home runs in nine innings over two starts at Rogers Centre last year, answers for the Rays.  Before the game, the Blue Jays will likely announce whether or not Aaron Hill is going to go on the disabled list as he waits for his hamstring to heal.  Hill was hurt Tuesday night, so the move would be retroactive to Wednesday, which would allow him to come off the DL on May 4th, towards the end of the road trip that starts in two days.  If Hill does go on the DL, then Jesse Litsch would likely get the call from Vegas to make the now-vacant Tuesday night start in Texas.  However, the injury to Encarnacion may have something to say about that, too.  The Jays may be more interested in adding to their bench rather than playing a couple of guys short until Rajai Davis is ready to come off the DL this Tuesday.  We’ll let you know when we find out.

We’re on the air at 12:30 PM Eastern tomorrow for a 1:07 first pitch.  I’m going to try to gather the good old RRT to see what the scriveners have to say about the first three weeks of the 2011 season.  It’s a year in which the Blue Jays have played 20 games so far and made 25 player transactions involving the major-league team.  That, as they say, is just ridiculous.

Please be sure to follow me on Twitter @wilnerness590.  Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

11:40 PM Eastern 

John McDonald trotting down the first-base line screaming: “Get the (bleep) outta here!  Get the (bleep) outta here!  Yeah!!!!!” as his game-winning two-run home run leaves the park in the bottom of the 11th inning.

Seriously – is there anything I can add to that?

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

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Tomorrow – Brandon Morrow makes his season debut!  He’ll face tough Rays lefty David Price.  We’re on the air with the pre-game show at 12:30 pm Eastern for a 1:07 first pitch.  I’m thinking I’ll try to get John McDonald on the air.

Remember, follow me on Twitter @Wilnerness590.  Rational, reasonable comments always welcome!