Jays Clobber A's... For Real This Time

Well, not the A's, exactly. But they can be called the A's if you're that ignorant...

...Anyway. The Jays were great in their 9-2 win versus the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, or as I like to call them, the LAAoA. It's much shorter, almost.

Shaun Marcum wasn't at his best, but he did pretty well overall. Going 6 innings allowing only 2 runs, Marcum pitched himself in and out of jams all night, but he never got into too much trouble, obviously.

In all honesty, without the help of some good old-fashioned Jays defence, he would have surrendered four runs to the hands of the Angels. Rios started a great relay when he threw out Kendry Morales at the plate in the second for his team-leading 11th outfield assist of the season to keep it a 2-run ballgame.

In the bottom of the fourth, V-Dub threw out Howie Kendrick trying to advance from first to third. Awesomely enough, Zaun informed the homeplate umpire that Maicer Izturis (who was at second) didn't touch homeplate before Kendrick was tagged out at third and the run didn't count.

Cool Guy of the Game

Before the game, Troy Glaus was 0-for-16 at Angel Stadium as a visiting player, as Jamie Campbell constantly, very annoyingly kept on pointing out. But that all ended in a 3-for-5 2 RBI night, a triple shy of the cycle. It's also worth pointing out that it didn't appear that his foot was bothering him, like it has for the last couple days.

Gregg Zaun wins the Co-Cool Guy of the Game Award, in his 1000th career game with his parents in attendance. He went 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs and one amazingly played run. He also made a great heads-up play at the plate when he called that Howie Kendrick was tagged out at third before the non-chalantly jogging Maicer Izturis touched home plate.

The Good

Shaun Marcum did pitch well, even though he wasn't at his best.

Troy Glaus was excellent, finishing a triple shy of the cycle and getting his 17th homerun of the year.

I didn't expect much of this series, considering we're bad on the road and the Angels are excellent at home. But we won two already, amazing considering the circumstances.

Reed Johnson lead off the game with a double, making it 32 consecutive games with a double, a new team record. There were six other doubles in the game, including a back-to-back-to-back rally in the ninth by Glaus, Hill and Zaun.

Ha ha, Joe Saunders got his second loss of the season. The first one came two starts ago versus the Jays as well.

The Bad

Marcum wasn't at his best, but he didn't have to be considering his team backed him up.

The Angels scored in the first inning for the third straight game when Reggie Willits lead off with a double and Orlando Cabrera drove him in with a single.

Rios went 0-for-5, his third straight game without a hit, the longest streak for him this season. As Pat Tabler commented on, he didn't look comfortable at all at the plate. He's 0-for-12 in his last three starts.

The Ugly

Nada.

Oh So Disappointing

It's so disappointing when Roy Halladay could've had his third straight complete game victory if the bats woke the fuck up. In his previous start, he pitched 9 innings of 2 run ball but walked away with a no-decision because the offense couldn't get more than 2 runs themselves. This start was no exception; he went the full 8 innings yet because the Jays couldn't get 3 fucking runs he got a complete game loss.

You gotta feel sympathy for the Doc, it's almost too bad that he doesn't hit too, considering his .500 AVG... The thing is that he's just a pitcher, whether the defence or the offence performs effectively or ineffectively, Halladay can't fix it-- even if he is the doctor.

He pitched the whole game in hopes that the Jays' bats would eventually come alive...

...surprise, they didn't.

The SOBAs

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

...Gregg Zaun. He called a great game but he left 3 on base, including two in the ninth. Zaun didn't really do that badly to be honest, but he was the worst of all the bats... unfortuantely.

The Good

Halladay was great, straight up amazing. His major-league leading sixth complete game of the season was his second complete game loss

The Bad

Don't be surprised that the Jays went 0-for-7 with RISP on the road. Don't even act it. It happens all the fucking time because no coach seems to motivate anybody.

The Ugly

The offence was pretty fucking ugly. Circus-fucking-ugly.

"Holy Handgrenades Bat-Boy! The Defence Was Effective?!"

"Why yes, yes it was."

It was the third straight start that Jesse "Robin" Litsch got an unearned run because of the bad defence backing him up. Fortunately, this time it was only one and he still got the W. With a shaky start, including an error charged to Ray Olmedo (although replays showed that the runner was still out despite Olmedo dropping the ball) Litsch gave up two runs and we all thought, "fuck, not again." Litsch being the soldier-figure he is took it like a man and settled down right away.

It was a totally different story for the Angels' starter Ervin Santana... the very same Santana that nearly got traded for the Jays' lone all-star Alex Rios. Santana started strong but melted down later to straighten his numbers out and put up a nice 5 on the board to raise his ERA above 6.00.

Admittedly, I wasn't confident about this game. Not only was my least favourite starter on the mound (I still like him though, just not as much as the other four) but my two favourite players, Rios and McDonald, got the day off. The fill-ins did great though; Matty Stairs and Ray Olmedo. Matt Stairs provided the much-needed run support for Litsch and Olmedo provided the defence, although he did make an error to give Litsch an unearned run for the third straight start.

Stairs belted a 2-run double into the right-centre field gap in the fifth, and immediately after advanced to third on a wild pitch and came home on the air-mailed throw of C Ryan Budde. Olmedo made a number of great defensive plays, the first was in the first where he dropped the ball and still managed to beat ther unner to the bag, but because the first-base-umpire missed the call and Olmedo got charged with an error. He also made a play where he took a sharply hit ball on the backhand and spun around to throw out the runner. The big play was in the seventh when Maicer Izturis was on second and 1B Quinlan grounded to Olmedo. Being the daredevil-risky-yet-confident guy Olmedo is he threw to third to get Quinlan for the second out. The next batter, Ryan Budde, singled.

Also, Zaun had a brand new stylish blue chest protector. Oh Zaun, you do impress.

The Good

The defence was finally effective behind Litsch and so was the offense. One of those rare road games where everything actually worked.

Litsch pitched a great game, going six and a third allowing only 2 earnies for his 5th win of the season/ his career. Despite a shaky start loaded with bad control of his cutter (his best pitch) Litsch settled down quickly to shut down the Angels.

Fuck effective, the defence was finger-lickin-good. Not only was The Wizard Johnny Mac's replacement, Olmedo great defensively but so was Aaron Hill-- which we haven't seen much of lately. Troy Glaus even made a great play or two... Reed Johnson also made a bonerific play in left where he dove and spread out completely to take away extra bases from Garrett Anderson.

V-Dub, Stairs and Overbay each got doubles, extending the team's doubles-streak to 30 games. If somebody doubles in tonights game they will tie the team record.

The Bad

I don't see why Troy was in the lineup, he's obviously still in pain, he limped back to the dugout when he grounded out.

The Ugly

Really just Litsch's rough start, but he did settle down which was pretty.

Jays Clobber A's

...I wish.

It was another disappointing start from an M&M boy, McGowan this time (pictured smelling himself). He pitched worse than his line indicates, he went 5 innings of 3 run ball, but he walked four and usually fell behind in counts from the get-go. This really made me think, though...

Can the rotation be based on the models that the pitchers set? Marcum mentioned that he pays attention to what Halladay does, and usually succeeds the day after because he took mental notes on Halladay's game. Is it possible that McGowan pitches well when he takes mental notes about Marcum's game? No, you're dumb.

They're both great, granted, but I think it's the different A's style that threw off the young right-handers. Let's hope a veteran pitcher in A.J. Burnett can set an example...

Tip of the Night: if you're gonna sneak food into the Centre, don't sit near the aisles. That lesbian bitch in field level gave me shit for it when she walked down the aisle between innings.

"All I brought in was this coke, that's okay right?" "WRONG"

The SOBAs

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

...who else? Brian Tallet. You clumsy son-of-a-bitch, go back to Cleveland. You're not wanted here. On a totally unrelated note, the Jays' record when Tallet's in the game is an astonishing 10-31; he obviously wasn't to blame for all 31 losses, but he did take 3 of them... the other 28 were Towers' fault.

The Good

Frank Thomas took the lead in the Jays' homerun race with his 20th and 21st homeruns of the season... and we were disappointed in him...

Vernon got a homerun too, his long awaited 15th to tie Matt Stairs on the team... hoorah? I don't know if that counts as a good thing.

Yet another double, that's 28 straight games.

Yet another amazing fucking play from Johnny Mac, a sliding over-the-shoulder Willy Mays-type holy-fuck play in foul grounds.

The Bad

The bullpen, our most reliable bullpen, gave up the lead. Fuckin' Tallet, stop sucking.

McGowan pitched pretty crappy, even though he was an inning away from a quality start. I think Gibbs should've left him in, and put Wolfe in the next inning. McGowan was on a roll, retiring the last 9 batters he faced before he was pulled with 95 pitches. By the way, he averages about 102 pitches each start.

We didn't do well at all with RISP, going 0-for-10. Every run scored was by a homerun.

The Ugly

Brian Tallets ugly-ass pitching. I understand why Gibbs put Tallet in rather than Downs versus Swisher. Swisher would turn to the right side and Tallet has been good against righties this year, but in reality Tallet sucks when it's his turn to save the game, even versus righties. He choked against Juan Uribe in Chicago, and he choked against Nick Swisher in Toronto.

Michael Vick's situation. Holy crap, what a sick bastard. I hope he never plays again.

It Ain't Complete 'til It's Complete... or Other Variations

Extra inning wins are always great, because they're guaranteed walk-offs, which are nice since we're lacking them this year (not a single walk-off homerun this season). Roy Halladay pitched a great ballgame to keep us in it, even though he had a shaky third to give the O's a 2-0 lead for a whole inning. I bet we got their hopes us too...

Anyway, with Aaron Hill's walkoff sac fly, that gives us our 6th extra ining victory this season and a series win over the O's after the Jays fucked it up for everybody last night with their gloves. Troy Glaus homered for the first time since July 22nd and still, amazingly, is on pace for the crappiest season of his career; not counting his injury-plagued seasons where he played >70 games of course.

Kevin Manson

Is it just me, or does Kevin Millar look like Marilyn Monroe with his crappy crappy paintjob?


Why not?

Why haven't we resigned anybody like Matt Stairs or John McDonald yet, they're MVPs, in a sense. Fuck J.P., hurry the fuck up.

Tip of the Night: if you're going to buy a whole pizza at the Centre, make absolutely sure you and friends can finish it. You can't fit the box in the garbage cans and it's a bitch to carry around.

The Good

The Jays, believe it or not, were great with runners on-- only two were left on base, and only once were runners left in scooring position with two ut: when V-Dub doubled Rios home in the fifth he was stranded with the Big Hurt at-bat.

Troy Glaus finally got a fucking homerun...

No errors? Really? Cool! Now it's 9 errors in our last seven games, hoorah.

Usually, every other game Johnny Mac makes another strangely erotic play-- but today, would be no exception. I go to games to watch him flash the leather now, it's that good. He stabbed the ball and threw out Ramon Hernandez at first with ease... also, he made a crazy heads-up play when he cut-off a throw from Rios and caught J.R. House rounding too much at first base.

Yet another double, coming off the bat of Vernon, to extend the streak to 26 games with at least one double. 31 is the club-record.

Halladay was his usual exceptional self, pitching nine innings of two-run ball...

The Bad

Halladay was his usual exceptional self, pitching nine innings of two-run ball... but because the Jays couldn't solve Jeremy Guthrie he didn't get his well deserved 15th win of the season, or his 6th complete game of the season; second in a row.

The Ugly

Nada. In fact, I'd say this game was overall very sexy.