12:12 AM Eastern

Interim Manager Don Wakamatsu’s handling of the bullpen in the Blue Jays’ series-opening loss to the Orioles was the main topic of conversation after this game, and it’s too bad because this was the first time the Jays have played a game under their substitute-skipper in which the manager actually had a chance to make a difference.

I don’t think Wakamatsu failed the test, I think he was in a position where his hands were tied and he had to figure out which was the lesser of two evils.

Brett Lawrie had given the Jays an early lead with a three-run homer in the second inning, but the O’s closed the gap on a two-run shot by Matt Wieters in the bottom of the frame.  Baltimore tied it in the fourth when Brett Cecil threw away a slow roller by Nolan Reimold with a runner on second, and took the lead the next inning on Vladimir Guerrero’s RBI double off the wall.

Cecil left after six, and Joel Carreno came on to throw a shutout 7th followed by Shawn Camp’s shutout 8th.  Neither frame was clean, or especially pretty, but both relievers ultimately got the job done and the Jays tied it in the top of the 9th with help from an impressive feat of derring-do.

It was a familiar scene to Blue Jays fans as Kevin Gregg came on to work the 9th inning of a one-run game and immediately gave up a base hit – this to J.P. Arencibia, who was pinch-run for by Dewayne Wise.  Mike McCoy then went up to bunt, but Gregg wouldn’t throw him a strike, walking McCoy on four pitches.  There was some serious deja vu happening.  Yunel Escobar was next, and also went up with instructions to bunt, but after he bunted through a 1-0 pitch Wise noticed that no Oriole was covering third and he was able to steal the bag as Wieters sat behind the plate utterly helpless – and McCoy scampered into second behind him.  You don’t often see a double steal while the ball is in the catcher’s hand, but there it was.

As Buck Showalter’s three remaining brown hairs turned gray, Escobar hit a fly ball to right that was deep enough to score Wise with the tying run.  With a runner on third and one out, Eric Thames flew to left, but not deep enough to score McCoy.  Jose Bautista was intentionally walked and Adam Lind walked on four pitches, though not especially intentionally.

Edwin Encarnacion was next, coming to the plate with the bases loaded for the second time in the game.  The first was back in the 5th, when he was in that situation with nobody out, and grounded into a 1-2-3 double play to put the Jays behind the eight-ball.  This time, it was a grounder to short to end the inning.  In all, Encarnacion himself left eight runners on base in the game.

With the score tied, Casey Janssen came out to pitch the 9th and got around a leadoff walk with a double play ball, winding up with a 1-2-3 inning the hard way.  In the dugout, the TV cameras caught trainer George Poulis talking to Janssen between innings, then to pitching coach Bruce Walton.  Janssen had a tight latissimus muscle, and despite having thrown just 13 pitches, was done for the night.

The Jays took the lead in the top of the 10th as Kelly Johnson led off with his second freak triple in as many games.  This one was hit off the left field wall and caromed away from Matt Angle and back towards second base.  Johnson scored on a wild pitch to give the Jays the lead, but they couldn’t add on, and took a one-run lead to the bottom of the 10th.  Wakamatsu had a dilemma on his hands. 

Frank Francisco never warmed up in the bullpen.  I can only assume that the Jays have decided to be careful with him and not use him on back-to-back days in order to keep his shoulder healthy.  You’ll remember that just last Sunday in Oakland, Francisco was unable to answer the bell because of shoulder tightness, and Janssen had to go out and throw a third inning of relief.  Not having heard from Wakamatsu after the game, but being told that Francisco is healthy, it’s the only reason I can think of for not going to the closer.

Janssen couldn’t go back out, so the remaining options were Jesse Litsch and the two lefties, Rommie Lewis and Brian Tallet.  Litsch had worked four of the last six days, so I completely understand him not being available, which brings us to lesser-of-two-evils time.

In the coin flip between Lewis and Tallet, I have no issue with choosing Tallet, having watched Lewis give up at least one run every time he has pitched in the bigs this season.

It wasn’t the most graceful return to the team for which he’d pitched the five years previous to this one, to be sure.  Tallet walked the first two batters he faced, then struck out Robert Andino who bunted foul with two strikes.  Jake Fox followed with a pinch-single to right to tie the game, and Ryan Adams then blasted a shot into the gap in right-centre for the game-winner.

The last time Tallet pitched for the Jays in Baltimore was a head-scratcher, as well.  He was brought in to start the 9th inning in a 3-3 tie and got through it, was sent back out for the 10th and threw another shutout frame, then was inexplicably sent back out again and lost the game in the 11th.  The explanation is easier to see this time, though the results are just as tough to swallow.

And why not go to Lewis after Tallet walked the first two guys?  The simple answer to that is because Lewis is your last bullet.  They needed to get at least the inning out of Tallet in case the game continued.  Asking Henderson Alvarez to pitch the 12th inning would be a little nuts, and using Mike McCoy isn’t a realistic option, either.

Sometimes your hands are tied and there’s no way to wriggle out.  Some early strikes from Tallet would sure have been nice, though.

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

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The series continues Wednesday night with the Jays throwing Alvarez against lefty Jo-Jo Reyes, who will be motivated to show his former team just what they gave up.  At least he’s a lefty who throws hard, so they’ll likely have a better chance than they did against Bruce Chen and Jeff Francis.  With one game left to play before roster expansion, it’s highly unlikely that Janssen will go to the disabled list, but one would imagine that both Litsch and Francisco will be available in this one if need be.  We’re on the air at 7:00 PM Eastern – stay with us, won’t you?

Of course, I say stay with us because I know you’re planning on tuning into Prime Time Sports at 5:00 PM Eastern – I’ll be co-hosting once again with the lovely, talented and grumpy Jeff Blair on Sportsnet Radio The Fan 590 and right here on this very website!

A new edition of The Blue Jays This Week podcast was posted today – you can check it out here on the site, as well!

Please follow me on The Twitter – you can find me @wilnerness590.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

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12:11 AM Eastern

I ask because you’d never know that the Jays salvaged the finale of their series with Tampa Bay by listening to the The JaysTalk or by checking out my twitter feed.

I honestly have a lot of trouble understanding why so many people seem to feel the need to be first in line to be negative, to try to splash cold water on what’s been a pretty exciting summer of Blue Jays baseball.

I swear, it often feels like I’m covering a 100-loss team based on the feedback that I get from a lot of listeners/readers/tweeters.

Tonight’s game was a very good one – the Jays got solid starting pitching, timely hitting, a couple of big home runs, a bunch of stolen bases, terrific work out of the bullpen and even a couple of bloop triples to beat a team that I’m told is much, much better than they are.

Yes, it’s the dog days of August and yes, the Jays just wrapped up a pretty awful 2-5 homestand that felt as though it went on a lot longer than a week.  But the truth of the matter is that they have won exactly as many games as they have lost this season, and that they’ve had ONE losing season in the last SIX years - which is another reason I don’t get the whole “here we go again” thing every time something happens in a game that doesn’t go the Jays’ way.

I get legitimate criticism, and it’s fine that there are those of you who don’t buy into the Anthopoulos/Beeston plan.  But at least make sense – please.  Ignoring how young the Jays’ players are, or the fact that they traded three of their best four relievers a month ago isn’t fair.  Saying that every player in professional baseball has an equal chance to be a star because of how Jose Bautista emerged isn’t fair.  Suggesting that the Jays simply add a whole big whack of money to their $18 million payroll (listen to The JaysTalk for more on that) whether or not there’s anything decent at which to throw it isn’t reasonable.

It’s true that this will be the 18th consecutive year in which there has been a post-season and the Blue Jays have not been a part of it.  But there hasn’t bee one lengthy 18-year rebuild, and they haven’t been competing for a playoff spot on a level playing field.  The fact that they’re a .500 team in the A.L. East while in the middle of a rebuild is astonishing, and I know that most of you understand that.  But forgive me, because I think on this night, the wall against which I have been banging my head lately seems to have gotten the better of me.

At least such things make for an enjoyable JaysTalk to listen to, and here it is:

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The Jays hit the road, and for the first time this season a trip will begin without manager John Farrell, who is staying behind to continue his battle with pneumonia – they hope he’ll be able to meet the team in New York for the series with the Yankees that starts Friday.  Brett Cecil will pitch the opener in Baltimore on Tuesday night – the native Marylander has never allowed a run in Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and this will be his second career start.  Jeremy Guthrie answers for the O’s.  We’re on the air at 7:00 PM Eastern – join us, won’t you?

Please give me a follow on The Twitter, at least to have a laugh, if nothing else.  You can find me @wilnerness590.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

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 5:29 PM Eastern

With Brandon Morrow and David Price matching up, all the ingredients were in place for a classic pitchers’ duel.  Problem was, only one of the hurlers lived up to his end of the bargain.

Morrow gave up a home run to Desmond Jennings on the game’s first pitch, and Jennings went deep again in the second – back-to-back with Sean Rodriguez – to cap a four-run frame, and the Tampa Bays had far more than they would need.

Price, who had dominated the Jays over the course of his career prior to his last start against them three weeks ago, got right back to his old tricks with arguably the best start of his career.  The hard-throwing lefty struck out the side in each of the first two innings and added two more Ks in each of the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings, while giving up only two singles to that point.  Price wound up setting a Rays’ record (and therefore, a career-high) with 14 strikeouts through seven innings of work.  He gave up three hits, walked two and the only man he couldn’t whiff was Mike McCoy, who grounded out and walked twice in three trips.

Price rang up Kelly Johnson three times and got Yunel Escobar, Jose Bautista and J.P. Arencibia twice each. 

When you add in the fine relief work of Brandon Gomes and Cesar Ramos, the Blue Jays struck out a total of 18 times in the game, with Johnson donning the Golden Sombrero.  That total ties the club record for a nine-inning game – matching their (lack of) efforts on July 25, 1989 in a 4-0 win over the Texas Rangers (yes, a win).  The Jays also struck out 18 times in nine innings on June 8, 1977, though the game wound up going 13.  No shocker - both those games were started by Nolan Ryan.

The good news is that the Blue Jays won the AL East in 1989, so striking out 18 times in a game isn’t always a bad omen.

There’s no question that the Jays are in a particularly rough patch of the season right now, but it’s nothing that hasn’t happened before.  They’ve had awful home series before this year – the ones against the Tigers in May and the Red Sox in June stand out – and the fact of the matter is that they’re a game under .500 in the overall and have still never had a losing streak as long as five games this season. 

The silver lining in this utter humiliation was that Mike McCoy reached base three times and that Brett Lawrie went 2-for-4 with a couple of singles.  Lawrie already has nine multi-hit games in his 22-game big-league career.

Perhaps an additional piece of good news for Jays fans is that Wilfredo Ledezma was designated for assignment after the game, though to take it that way would be kind of mean.  The lefty with the big arm and little clue as to where the ball is going suffered through a painful 9th inning in which he gave up six runs on five hits (including two doubles and a triple) and walked four.  Ledezma’s WHIP for the game was 8.000 and his ERA was only slightly worse at 54.00.  The Jays will make a move to replace him on the roster before Monday’s series finale.

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

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The series wraps up with a night game, which is kind of strange given that the Jays and Rays have just played two day games in a row, but such is life.  Ricky Romero will conclude what’s been a phenomenal August for him – he’s 4-0, 1.66 with a 0.789 WHIP and opponents are hitting just .142/.238/.291 against him for the month.  He’s coming off a no-decision against the Royals in which he battled through six without his best stuff and left in a 3-3 tie.  Lawrie won that game with a 7th-inning homer, and so far that’s been the Jays’ only win in this seven-game homestand that ends Monday night.  Righty Wade Davis replies for the Rays, who will bust out the big brooms, looking for the four-game sweep.  We’ll be on the air at 7:00 PM Eastern for a 7:07 first pitch – join us, won’t you?

Please follow me on The Twitter – you can find me @wilnerness590. I passed the 9,000-Tweet mark during the game!  Not sure if that means anything.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

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5:25 PM Eastern

The Blue Jays fell back to .500 and dropped to 1-4 on the current homestand with a second straight loss to the Rays and third straight loss overall, but there were more than a few highlights on the losing side.

The game really turned in the 7th inning, when Jesse Litsch came in to hold the Rays’ lead at 3-2, but Jesse had his first poor outing since being moved to the bullpen.  Litsch walked two in a row around a groundout and a strikeout, and his first pitch after what appeared to have been a big K got taken way out of the yard in a hurry by B.J. Upton to blow the game open.

Litsch had allowed seven hits and three walks in his 15 1/3 innings of work since being moved to the bullpen, striking out 17 – that’s a WHIP of 0.652.  Opponents were hitting .143/.189/.306 against him, so I guess he’s entitled to a bad outing – it was his third time working in four days, as well.

The Jays got  back to within one as Brett Lawrie tripled in the 7th and scored on a J.P. Arencibia groundout, and Eric Thames (on a 9th pitch after falling behind 0-2; fantastic at-bat) and Edwin Encarnacion went deep in the 8th, but that was as close as they would come.

That RBI groundout by Arencibia was part of a big day for the rookie catcher – he also doubled in a run in the 4th to tie the game 2-2 and threw out three Rays baserunners who were trying to steal. Arencibia nailed Upton and Elliott Johnson at second and Sean Rodriguez trying to take third.

Rodriguez may well have been safe on that stolen base attempt, but he may well have been out the inning previous, when Bill Welke called him safe on a play on which an out call would have been the Blue Jays’ first triple play since 1979.  Shawn Camp came on to work the 6th and hit Upton with a pitch, then gave up a single to Rodriguez to put runners on first and second with nobody out.  Kelly Shoppach was sent up to bunt the runners over in what was a tie game, and he bunted it too hard back towards the mound.  Camp pounced on the ball and threw to third, where Brett Lawrie had to reach up to snare the high throw.  Lawrie held onto the bag, then threw to first to double up Shoppach as Rodriguez rounded second and raced to third.  Kelly Johnson, who was covering at first, threw back to third and Rodriguez slid into the bag, safe by an eyelash according to Welke.  Replays may have disagreed.

Every Blue Jays fan remembers the last time the team turned a triple play that wasn’t – thank you very much, Bob Davidson – when the call was missed on Kelly Gruber’s tag of Deion Sanders to complete the triplet-killing against the Braves in Game 3 of the 1992 World Series.  But the last time the Jays actually turned a triple play that counted was all the way back on September 21, 1979 against the Yankees.  Damaso Garcia, who would be traded to the Jays that winter, lined into a 4-3-6 triple play turned by Dave McKay, Craig Kusick and Alfredo Griffin.  That was the third triple play turned by the Jays within 16 months, and they haven’t turned one since.

And speaking of triples in general – the one Lawrie hit in the 7th inning was his fourth so far in what’s been a 21-game big-league career.  That would put him on pace to hit 31 three-baggers over a full season; the Blue Jays’ record is 17, set by Tony Fernandez in 1990.

It was a brief, but spectacular edition of The JaysTalk, and here it is, for your listening pleasure:

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The series continues Sunday afternoon with Brandon Morrow trying to bounce back from a rough outing against the Royals and with the Blue Jays trying to beat David Price for the second time ever, and also for the second straight time.  We’ll be on at 12:30 PM Eastern for a 1:07 first pitch – join us, won’t you?

Please give me a follow on The Twitter – you can find me at www.twitter.com/wilnerness590

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

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11:37 PM Eastern

The most notable thing about the Jays’ series-opening loss to the Tampa Bays was that their superstar slugger’s recent frustrations finally reached the point at which he got himself thrown out of a game.

For a while now, Jose Bautista has not been shy about challenging umpires when he believes they’ve made an incorrect ball/strike call.  As the season has progressed,  he’s become more and more demonstrative about his objections, and he boiled over tonight.

After striking out for the third time in the game, in an at-bat that included a pitch that was actually behind him, Bautista went back to the dugout and talked to Henderson Alvarez and Luis Perez for a minute.  He then smashed his bat against the back wall of said dugout, turned around, and screamed at home plate umpire Bill Welke to “pay attention”, with some colourful language mixed in.  That was enough for Welke, who threw him out – an ejection that was immediately followed by a hail of various and sundry items springing forth from the dugout; a bat, a water bottle or two, an elbow pad, before Bautista left for the night.

It’s readily apparent that Bautista is frustrated.  It’s the first time in his career that he’s expected to be an offensive leader and he hasn’t hit as well as he believes he should be hitting since the all-star break – though his numbers have certainly come back up lately, with an OPS over 1.000 in August.  I don’t think Bautista believes he should be getting the benefit on close ball/strike calls, but I do believe that he has a very good idea of the strike zone and thinks the home plate umpire should, too.

It’s not the end of the world if he lets someone have it once or twice a year, though as the most important hitter in the line-up, Bautista has to know that it’s incumbent upon him to stay in the game regardless of what he feels needs to be said.  The larger point, though, I think, is that Bautista isn’t doing himself any favours by being as demonstrative with the umpires as he has been.  It’s not at all difficult for the men in blue to get their backs up about something, and I’m surprised Bautista hasn’t been run more often.  He’s often correct, and not at all shy about voicing his opinion, but it seems to be doing him more harm than good as far as getting close calls is concerned.

Bautista declined to speak to the media after the game, but I’m hoping I can get him on Saturday’s pre-game show.

Don Wakamatsu didn’t really have any buttons to push while filling in for John Farrell, who has been sidelined with pneumonia for the time being.  Henderson Alvarez only gave up four hits in his six innings of work, but three of them were home runs, and the Blue Jays only got three runners past first base all night – their only run scoring on a Brett Lawrie solo shot in the 2nd.  Lawrie was also the third runner to get past first, he took second on defensive indifference after his 9th-inning single.

If you throw out the six runs the Jays scored over the last three innings of Thursday night’s loss to KC (I know you can’t, but bear with me anyway), the Blue Jays have scored a grand total of 11 runs in the last week.  That’s all sorts of not good.

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

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The series continues Saturday afternoon with Luis Perez looking to build off his phenomenal outing last Sunday (five perfect innings before settling for six innings of one-hitter) as he makes his second big-league start.  Big righty Jeff Niemann answers for the Rays.  Dewayne Wise will join the Jays for this game – they picked him up on waivers Friday afternoon – he’ll help out in centrefield with Colby Rasmus heading to the disabled list with a wrist injury.  Travis Snider would have been the guy the Jays called to take over in centre, but he’s out for the season with a wrist injury of his own.  Snider has tendinitis, Rasmus has a jammed wrist.

We’re on at 12:30 PM Eastern with the pre-game and again, I’m going to see if Bautista wants to share his thoughts, for a 1:07 first pitch – join us, won’t you?

Please give me a follow on The Twitter – I’m trying to catch Shi Davidi, who has rocketed past me since joining Rogers Sportsnet as far as followdom is concerned.  You can find me @wilnerness590.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

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12:58 AM Eastern

Brett Cecil battled strep throat and his teammates combined a shaky defensive night with yet another tough time hitting a lefty who barely throws hard enough to pitch batting practice. Put it all together and it spells a series loss to the sad-sack, but young and up-and-coming, Kansas City Royals.

Cecil got nickel-and-dimed over the first five innings, giving up a duck snort RBI single with two out in the 3rd and a grounder that basically went right over the mound to cash another run in the 4th – the runner that scored had reached on a shallow fly down the right-field line that fell in due to confusion between Jose Bautista and Kelly Johnson, who was making his Jays’ debut.

There was a nubber up the third-base line that Shawn Camp played when he should have let it roll foul, since there was no chance to make a play, a fly ball over Eric Thames’ head in left on which a better outfielder makes the play (though Corey Patterson thought it wasn’t catchable) that led to two runs, and a dropped foul pop by J.P. Arencibia that led to another two, but it was that kind of night.

The Jays didn’t get a sniff off Jeff Francis and his 82-85 mile-an-hour heater until Arencibia took him deep in the 7th – a two-run homer that gave the rookie a share of the Jays’ all-time single-season record for home runs by a catcher, with 20.  John Buck set the record just last season.

The Jays scored a couple more in each of the 8th and 9th, including a two-run shot by Edwin Encarnacion and a bloop RBI triple by Brett Lawrie, but it wasn’t enough.

As for Johnson’s debut, it went exceedingly well aside from that miscue on the bloop.  He singled and walked twice in four trips, and also threw out a runner at the plate.

All in all, just a sloppy game on a weird night at the ballpark.  There was a strange feeling in the air - the evening began with us finding out more details of Mike Flanagan’s tragic suicide, then Travis Snider sent a cryptic tweet about how he “will not break, I promise you that” and ”will miss you all”, and then John Farrell left the dugout mysteriously for the end of the game.

We found out later that Snider has been shut down with tendinitis in his right wrist and will miss the rest of the season and that Farrell was having pain in his left side, below the ribcage and while it was thought to be muscular, he was off to the hospital for tests just to make sure.

For Snider, it ends what’s been a tortured season for him.  He winds it up with career lows in all three slash-line categories, at .225/.269/.348 in just 49 major-league games.  Finally given the opportunity to play every day from the get-go, he got just 99 plate appearances before the Jays sent him down to Las Vegas to remake the swing that had seen him pick up just five extra-base hits to that point.  He came back up on the 4th of July and hit .421/.425/.711 over his first nine games before falling into a .161/.159/.242 rut that saw him shipped out in the coin-flip call over Thames when Lawrie got called up.  To his credit, Travis went back down to Vegas and hit well before the wrist started acting up about a week ago.

Snider’s track to stardom was derailed by his wrist last year – he had just started to heat up after a cold April and was finally being allowed to play against lefties as well as righties.  He’d hit .385/.418/.769 over 14 games but strained the wrist fouling off a Rich Harden pitch, and despite the fact that he hit a three-run homer later in the same at-bat, he wouldn’t play another big-league game for 2 1/2 months.

Hopefully this is just another bump in the road for Snider, though the timing is awful because he’d have been the one called up to replace Colby Rasmus – who also has a wrist injury that might result in him missing significant time.  He’ll come to Spring Training  ready to take on  Thames in a battle for the left field job. 

Even after all the ups and downs, Snider remains younger than everyone on the Jays’ roster but for Lawrie and Henderson Alvarez.

As for Farrell, chest pains are really scary, and lower abdomen pain can be a major issue, too, especially given Jon Rauch’s emergency appendectomy just last week.  It was a great relief to hear bench coach Don Wakamatsu tell the post-game media scrum that they believe everything is fine.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk, with guest Tom Henke, who joined us to talk about his good friend Mike Flanagan:

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With the Royals in the rear-view mirror but the Jays’ offense seemingly waking up with ten runs over the last two games, the Tampa Bay Rays come to town for a four-game weekend wrap-around series.  Alvarez will make his fourth attempt at a first major-league win.  He got his first big-league loss last time out, despite giving up just one earned run over six innings of work.  James Shields, who loves to give up home runs to the Blue Jays, starts for the visitors.  It’s another chance for the Jays to try to move closer to T-Bay for third place in the division – they’re 4 1/2 games back as the series begins.  We’ll be on the air at 7:00 PM Eastern for a 7:07 first pitch – join us, won’t you?

Please give me a follow on The Twitter, you can find me @wilnerness590.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

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11:30 PM Eastern

I’m starting to run out of superlatives with which to describe Brett Lawrie.  Here’s a 21 year-old kid who came up to the big leagues three weeks ago with a ton of hype, expected by some to be the saviour of the franchise and seemingly thought by many Blue Jays fans to be able to walk on water.  Rarely does a player arrive and come even close to living up to the hype – Lawrie has exceeded it.

Lawrie gave the Blue Jays the lead twice in this game – first untying things in the bottom of the 4th with a triple to the gap in left-centre (and how many people can leg out a no-throw triple to left-centre when the outfielders play it cleanly?) that scored Edwin Encarnacion and then, after the Royals tied it, breaking another tie by leading off the 7th inning with a solo shot against righty slinger Louis Coleman.  Coleman had held right-handed hitters to a .190 average.

In 18 games in the big leagues, Brett Lawrie is hitting .328/.379/.656.  Yes, that’s an OPS of 1.035.  10 of his 20 hits have gone for extra bases, with four doubles and two triples to go along with his four round-trippers.  That works out to a 36-homer (and double,  and 18-triple) pace!  Is he going to keep up this ridiculous level of production?  Probably not, but it’s been awfully fun to watch.

There was another lesson in this game about the dangers of making Jose Bautista angry.  With the Royals up 2-0 in the bottom of the 3rd, Yunel Escobar was hit by a Luke Hochevar pitch and didn’t take it well.  Then Bautista was buzzed, and so a couple of pitches later Jose turned one around and cranked it off the facing of the 300 level in left field.  And yes, Bautista took a good, long look at Hochevar as he trotted to first.  You won’t like him when he’s angry (unless you’re a Blue Jays fan, of course).

Ricky Romero wasn’t as sharp as he’d been in his last five incredible starts, but left in a 3-3 tie after six and Jesse Litsch, Casey Janssen and Frank Francisco combined to close it out with three innings of one-hit shutout relief.

Darin Mastroianni made his major-league debut, filling in for injured centrefielder Colby Rasmus (jammed wrist, should be back by the weekend) until Kelly Johnson checks in and Mike McCoy can move out to centre.  Two days shy of his 26th birthday, Mastroianni went 0-for-2 and got a sac bunt down.  He also made a terrific diving attempt on a Billy Butler liner in the 7th that got by him for a leadoff double – the only hit the Jays’ bullpen would allow.

Mastroianni’s stay in the bigs, this time around anyway, may be a short one.  There’s a decent chance he’s sent back to Las Vegas before Thursday’s series finale. Of course, it could be Brian Jeroloman who goes.

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

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A lot of The JaysTalk was about the 1987 Blue Jays and their final series of the season against the Tigers, and the memories flowed back because of tonight’s passing of Mike Flanagan, who pitched 11 stellar innings in the penultimate game of that series.  Flanagan was just 59 years old, and reports of the circumstances surrounding his death are still trickling in as I write this.  I didn’t know him well when he played, but I definitely remember that game, and I remember the home run he gave up to Jose Canseco in the 1989 ALCS – the first homer ever hit into the 500 level at SkyDome.  I got to know him a little bit the last couple of years when he was a broadcaster and an executive with the Orioles.  He was always gracious with his time, always had a smile and a funny story to tell, and really seemed like a great guy.  I remember seeing him here in the press box just last month when the Orioles were in town.  I didn’t sit him down for an interview about the old days, because I figured I’d get many more chances to do so.  My sincerest sympathies and condolences go out to his family and those who knew him.

Back to baseball, and it’ll be Brett Cecil and Jeff Francis in the rubber match – we’ll be on at 7:00 PM Eastern on Thursday to bring it to you, please join us!

Please give me a follow on The Twitter – you can find me @wilnerness590.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

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11:30 PM Eastern 

The game was certainly not centre-stage at Rogers Centre as the Kansas City Royals came in for the first of three and the Blue Jays rolled over before the slopballic workings of one Bruce K. Chen (who lived up to his middle initial by tying his career-high with nine strikeouts).

No, the talk of the day at the ol’ ballyard was a three-player trade that the Jays and Arizona Diamondbacks pulled off a few hours before game time, a deal in which Aaron Hill and John McDonald were sent to the desert in exchange for Kelly Johnson.

What’s interesting is that, boiled down to its bare essentials, this was a deal that really shouldn’t cause that much of a ripple – struggling second baseman for struggling second baseman, with a weak-hitting utility infielder thrown in.  But of course, given the people involved, the flesh and blood moving in the deal, this was a much, much bigger trade than that.

John McDonald is one of the most popular players in Blue Jays history – THE most popular out of anyone who didn’t play for the Jays during their World Series years.  That says a whole heck of a lot about a guy who hit .243/.278/.340 over parts of seven seasons in Toronto.

The reasons McDonald is so popular go beyond his consistent highlight-reel defense.  That’s probably the top reason, though – McDonald is a ridiculous defender.  Brilliant, creative, with a flair for the jaw-dropping and eye-popping.  And quick, amazingly so.  He could get rid of the ball without making it look as though it was ever in his glove.

Beyond that, though, McDonald is a wonderful human being.  Often pro athletes seem to exist on a bit of a different plane of reality than the rest of us, given the money, the fame, the adulation, but not Johnny Mac.  He’s as much of a real human being as any of the rest of us, and it comes through.  Soft-spoken and a genuinely nice guy, McDonald won the hearts of Jays fans early in his tenure here.  We all went through the passing of his father last year and watched him return from the funeral on Father’s Day and go speak to a group of contest winners before the game – a prize that was supposed to have John and his father speaking.  Then he got into that game late and hit a home run that no Blue Jays fan will ever forget.

In fact, both McDonald and Hill brought up the Father’s Day homer when asked about their greatest memories as a Blue Jay.

As for Hill, his game had fallen on very, very hard times the last two seasons, but he always remained a class act on and off the field.  Drafted as a shortstop, Hill broke in at third in May of 2005, replacing the injured Corey Koskie, and tripled to left-centre for his first big-league hit in his second big-league at-bat.  Ted Lilly, Ken Huckaby, Frank Catalanotto and Shea Hillenbrand were in the starting line-up for the Jays that day.  Orlando Hudson got hurt that September, and Hill moved over to play second for that season’s final month, which earned him the starting job the next season and enabled the Jays to make the great-at-the-time-but-much-maligned-since Hudson/Batista for Glaus/Santos trade.

Over his first three years, Hill hit .287./.341/.415 and played Gold Glove-level defense at second.  Off to a bad start in 2008, Hill got knocked out for the season by a David Eckstein elbow as they both chased a pop-up in shallow CF.  He came back with a vengeance the next season, hitting 36 homers with an .829 OPS in the best year of his career, but he’s been a shadow of even his early-career self ever since.

On a personal note, I am a huge fan of both Hill and McDonald.  Over their seven years with the Blue Jays I’ve gotten to know them and met their wives and daughters (I haven’t met the newest Mac yet).  They’re both terrific people, both just dirtbag ballplayers, and I say that with the utmost respect.  They’ve both been open and honest with me in interviews, and have always been willing to have a microphone stuck in their faces.  They tended not to give the guarded, cliched, typical athlete answers, and were both people with whom I could have a conversation that had nothing to do with baseball.  I’ll miss them both a lot, but I certainly expect to see at least McDonald back in a Blue Jays uniform next season, if not both of them.

Some of my greatest memories of them include the first interview I ever did with Hill, I can still remember standing in the tunnel behind the Jays’ dugout and asking him how it felt to be in the big leagues.  His answer? ”The pants are nicer.” The interview he did with Vernon Wells and McDonald just a week and a half ago when the Angels were in town was fantastic, as was the one Johnny Mac did with Omar Vizquel last year.

I wish the two of them nothing but luck in the desert, and I know that I’ll be rooting for the Diamondbacks to hold off San Francisco and win the N.L. West – especially since they’ll be fielding an all-ex Blue Jays infield of Lyle Overbay, Hill, McDonald and Ryan Roberts.  I also have a soft spot for Micah Owings, for some reason.  Dude can swing the bat.

As far as the game goes, Brandon Morrow wasn’t terribly good – only his second bad outing in his last nine – but among the positives was Yunel Escobar shaking out of his 2-for-32 slump with a single, then a three-run homer.  Joel Carreno made his major-league debut and threw 3 1/3 innings of four-hit shutout relief, striking out a pair without issuing a walk.

Colby Rasmus jammed his right wrist first making a catch against the wall and then trying to make a diving catch on Salvador Perez’ 5th-inning triple – he wasn’t able to answer the bell in the bottom of the 9th, and there’s no word on how much time he’ll have to miss.  If he can’t start Wednesday night, it’ll be very interesting to see what the Jays do, since Johnson isn’t supposed to arrive in Toronto until just before game time.  Mike McCoy is the back-up centrefielder, but we might see Jose Bautista in centre for a night with Mark Teahen playing right.

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

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The series continues with the possible debut of Kelly Johnson – an Alex Anthopoulos target for a couple of years now – who had to go from Washington to Phoenix when told of the trade so he could pick up his passport.  Ricky Romero will take the ball, hoping to continue his ridiculous run; in his last five starts, Romero is 5-0, 0.89 with a WHIP of 0.62 and an opponents’ batting average of .107.  Former first overall pick Luke Hochevar answers for KC.  We’re on the air at 7:00 PM Eastern – join us, won’t you?

Please give me a follow on The Twitter, you can find me @wilnerness590.  And be sure to follow @jaysthisweek as well, so you can get the links to The Blue Jays This Week podcast – the latest one was done just prior to Tuesday night’s game.  You’re also welcome to follow my co-host, you can find him @bennis590.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

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7:37 PM Eastern

Luis Perez emphatically threw his hat in the ring  for a job in the Blue Jays’ future starting rotation with a brilliant outing in his first big-league start.

Given the assignment almost by default because of the utter ineffectiveness of Brad Mills, Perez came out of the bullpen saddled with a limit of around 80 to 85 pitches, and the Blue Jays were hoping they might get five innings out of him.

They did.

Five PERFECT innings.

Perez dominated the Oakland A’s through those first five frames, striking out four, getting three infield pop-ups and inducing six harmless ground balls.  There were only two balls that were struck dangerously, and Jose Bautista made a couple of very nice plays to flag them both down – one coming in, and one going way back and to his right.

While Perez was working his magic, Guillermo Moscoso was stifling the Jays his own self.  Aaron Hill had led off the ballgame with a single (Yunel Escobar was given the day off), and the Jays didn’t manage another hit until J.P. Arencibia’s double to lead off the 6th.  Both runners were stranded.

Perez’ bid for perfection ended when he walked Cliff Pennington to lead off the bottom of the 6th.  He would issue a one-out walk to Scott Sizemore and then finally crack – Jemile Weeks lined a 1-0 fastball right back up the middle, out of the reach of a diving Hill, to break up the no-hit bid.

Not only had Perez finally been touched for a hit, but he suddenly was facing a bases-loaded, one-out situation having thrown 78 pitches and looking like he was working on fumes.  But he’d pitched so well, John Farrell wanted to give him a chance at the win, so he wanted Perez to finish the inning.

Normally, that’s not a move I love.  The team win is far more important than the personal stat, of course.  But in a situation like this – first big-league start, brilliant outing on a pitch count, 0-0 game and a team that’s 12 1/2 games out of a playoff spot in late August – I’m fine with the manager going intangible and making the move that makes all his pitchers believe that he has their back and wants to reward them for a job brilliantly done.

Perez responded to his manager’s faith in him by inducing an inning-ending double-play grounder out of Coco Crisp, and floating to the dugout having thrown six innings of one-hitter.

Neither team had scored, of course, so in order for Perez to get himself a win, the Blue Jays would have to do so in the top of the 7th, because there was no way the rookie lefty was coming back out.

Enter Joey Bats.

Evidently, it wasn’t enough that Bautista had saved the kid’s bid for perfection with a couple of great catches in right field, the slugger had to get the rest of the job done, too.  Bautista seemed to be right on Moscoso leading off the 7th, fouling off five two-strike pitches in a row – all almost straight back – before straightening one out and driving it out of the ballpark for his major league-leading 36th home run of the season.

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if someone had told Bautista during the game that Curtis Granderson had homered in the Yankee game to tie him for the lead.

With Perez finished, Casey Janssen came on and pitched a hitless 7th around a walk, then came back out and pitched a perfect 8th as Frank Francisco warmed behind him, preparing for the save opportunity.  With the score still 1-0 in the 9th, Francisco shut down his warm-ups because his shoulder started hurting him, so Janssen came back out for the 9th and threw another perfect frame, securing just his second save of the season.

A brilliant outing each for Perez and Janssen, who combine on the Blue Jays’ first one-hitter of the season, the 22nd in Blue Jays’ history.  The last one was also in Oakland, Shaun Marcum with the complete game gem almost exactly a year ago, on August 16th, 2010.  Marcum took the no-no into the 7th before Conor Jackson led off that frame by going deep in a 3-1 Jays win.

Now discussions about the bottom of the Jays’ 2012 rotation definitely must include Perez, and with Francisco potentially on the shelf along with Jon Rauch – howzabout Casey Janssen for closer?  He had a Rollie Fingers/Goose Gossage/Jesse Litsch save in this one.

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

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So the Blue Jays wind up splitting the four-game set in Oakland and taking four of seven overall on the western swing.  In the final three games, they managed a grand total of 11 hits and scored twice, but went 1-2.  And don’t tell anyone, but Brett Lawrie has just one hit in his last 11 at-bats.

Good news on Adam Lind – the x-rays on his right wrist came back negative.  He still didn’t feel well enough to play in this one, though the Jays hope to have him in the line-up on Tuesday, when they open up a weeklong homestand against the Royals and Rays.  The Kansas City folk visit first, starting a three-game set on Tuesday night with Brandon Morrow facing former Blue Jay Bruce Chen.  We’ll be on the air at 7:00 PM Eastern, with Alan Ashby returning to our booth after a week with the TV folk.  Join us, won’t you?

Please give me a follow on The Twitter, you can find me @wilnerness590.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

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1:45 AM Eastern

In a figurative sense, it was Gio Gonzalez who provided the pain in the neck for the Blue Jays Saturday night in Oakland.  The all-star lefty escaped from a precarious first inning in which he allowed one run but left the bases loaded and was good to go the rest of the way.  The Jays managed but two singles over the next seven innings against Gonzalez, a span which included a run of 15 straight Torontos retired.

The literal pain belonged to Jose Bautista, who was scratched less than 10  minutes before the first pitch with tightness in his neck, a recurrence of the spasms that cost him a week of playing time back in May.  He said after the game that these spasms felt like those spasms, though not as severe.  Of course, back in May, he’d said that he didn’t think he’d miss any games.  Hopefully Bautista is back in the line-up when the Jays host the Royals on Tuesday.

Without Bautista in the line-up, Mike McCoy was inserted in the leadoff spot in right field and the struggling Yunel Escobar moved down to the three-hole, where he went 0-for-4.  Escobar’s batting average peaked on July 28th, when he went 2-for-5 against the Orioles and went to bed hitting .311.  Since then, he’s gone a frigid 14-for-80 (.175), though he has walked six times and been hit by a couple of pitches, so at least his OBP is around .250.  His batting average has dropped 24 points, to .287, over those 20 games.

The A’s added injury to injury when Gonzalez drilled Adam Lind in the right wrist in the first inning.  Lind, who was DHing, stayed in the game to run, but couldn’t answer the bell for his next at-bat and at last word, the Blue Jays still hadn’t received the result of his x-rays.  Lind has been struggling mightily as well, but he’s on pace for about a 30HR/100 RBI season.  I know that RBI total doesn’t mean much, but it’s tough to have bad year and still drive in a hundred runs unless you’re Joe Carter.  And even with his struggles, Lind’s .768 OPS is better than Carter’s was in four of Carter’s 100-RBI seasons.

If Lind’s wrist is broken, the question becomes do the Blue Jays call up David Cooper or Travis Snider?  Cooper is hitting .371/.444/.553 with 21 more walks than strikeouts but only 9 homers, though his OPS is just .615 over his last ten games.  Snider has hit .333/.391/.500 since being sent back down to AAA, with a double, two homers and five stolen bases in 10 games.  He has, though, struck out 11 times against just four walks.

If Cooper gets the call, he slides in to first base.  If it’s Snider, he’d play left field, Eric Thames would DH and Edwin Encarnacion would move out to first.

My bias is clear here, I think it’s a no-brainer to call up Snider.  In fact, I think if they don’t, it would cast serious doubt on their assertion last month that it was a coin flip as to who between he and Thames deserved to stay.  But we don’t even know if Lind is going to have to be disabled yet, so we’ll wait and see.

Henderson Alvarez deserved better in having his first big-league decision be a loss.  He gave up one earned run over a well-pitched six innings of work.  Jesse Litsch came out of the bullpen to retire five straight before giving up a double and a single, and then Rommie Lewis’s season-debut saw him give up a pinch-hit homer to the first man he faced, Josh Willingham.

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

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The road trip wraps up on Sunday afternoon, and the Blue Jays are an Even Steven 3-3 heading into the finale.  Luis Perez will make his first big-league start, taking on righty Guillermo Moscoso, in what’s likely to be another very shallow line-up for the Jays.  One wonders whether John Farrell will simply hit Escobar and Edwin Encarnacion 3-4 and move everyone else up, or if he might get more creative with some of the kids.  We’ll be on all across the country at 3:30 PM Eastern for a 4:07 first pitch – those of you listening on Sportsnet Radio The Fan 590 or here on the website get the treat of a half-hour pre-pre-game show starting at 3:00 PM Eastern.  Join us, won’t you?

Please give me a follow on The Twitter, you can find me @wilnerness590.  You can find Alex Seixeiro, with whom I’ll be playing old man softball early Sunday morning, at @alexfan590.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

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