Oh, So Close

While I didn't have much faith in the Jays winning the extra inning bout versus the A's, it was nice to be there at least. And hell, being there because we fucked with a great closer in Huston Street is just like icing on the cake. It was in the ninth when Lyle Overbay hit a monster-fucking-homerun off of Street that got my hopes up. If Overbay can hit a monstrous second-deck homer off him like that, than hey, maybe he's coming out of his slump and Street's having an off-day, right? Exactly. So I must admit, when I saw Matt Stairs, another lefty, come to the plate, I expected the best. And the best I got... I think the ball was near his fucking ankles too, how the hell did he get that ball out of there? It was like a golf-swing a straightaway centre field.

Anyway, the rest of the game was kind of a disappointment. Halladay was definitely not at his best, walking a career single-game high 6 batters and allowing four runs-- he did go another nine innings though, miraculously. The offense was pretty crap, honestly, since all four runs came by means of solo-homerun, not that that's bad, but it would've been nice if there was some situational hitting in there somewhere. Alex Rios homered for his 21st of the season, and first since July 23rd, Lyle Overbay homered for his 9th of the season, and his first since late May. The other two came off the bats of hot-hitters Aaron Hill and the hero of the day, Matt Stairs.

Victoria's Secret

Err... Vernon's secret; he apparently has been dealing with shoulder tightness since late last season, explaining his struggles at the plate and in the field. In other news, Vernon's our new leadoff guy. I guess it's one of those "if it's not broken, don't fix it" things. He's been batting pretty damn well in the leadoff spot this season, hitting around .300 with 7 HR and 16 RBI. I get what Gibbs is getting at, seeing as how Vernon's batting much better in the one-hole than the three-hole where he's batting .228 with 5 HR and 25 RBI (that's so fucked up) but it really messes up the lineup. That means that Reed Johnson will be the number-two hitter, and Overbay will be the number six hitter, even though he has next to no power in his bat this year because of his hand troubles.

The SOBAs

The "It's-All-Your-Fault-You-Son-Of-a-Bitch" Award goes to...

...Roy Halladay. I know, he went the distance and he just wasn't at his best but his walks killed us. Of the six walks, 3 of the walked batters came in to score. He let in four runs, and if he had his control he could've walked away victorious, but instead he'll walk away with a SOBA.

The Good

We demonstrated good powerful clutch hitting, which we haven't done all year. With Lyle Overbay's homerun, Matt Stairs followed up with one with two out in the ninth to tie it up against his former team.

Although there weren't many batters on base to knock in, we still got four solo-shots to piss of Huston Street and tie the game. I'd say this is pretty damn good considering we got four homeruns during a power shortage for the whole month of August.

Halladay went nine, even though he wasn't himself.

The Bad

Roy Halladay couldn't command at all, but he still did relatively well. He walked a career single-game high six batters and gave up four earnies in the first few innings.

Our doubles streak is over, I think it stopped at 35 games.

The Ugly

Halladay's command was pretty damn ugly, but you can't be perfect I guess...

Reed Johnson went 0-for-5 versus a lefty and 0-for-1 versus a righty.