Not So Far Behind

Yeah, so I didn't write the blogs for the last couple days. Sue me.

Anyway, while I was gone (and by gone I mean right here, just too Goddamn lazy to write up some blogs) the Jays went and swept the Mariners off their feet-- they landed on their asses. Oh, poor Mariners, their ninth loss in a row; sound familiar? I feel bad for them, considering all games were pretty close (7-5, 2-1 and 6-4) and the Jays got some lucky runs and some lucky outs in each and every game. I can really put myself in the M's fans' shoes considering when we decided to go nine straight winless games, a lot of them were close which made it all the worse.

In today's game, to complete the sweep, it was A.J. Burnett burning the Mariners away one-by-one with his high heat (See what I did there?). Constantly reaching 96 MPH on the radar gun at the Centre, Burnett looked phenomenal in his first three innings, not allowing a baserunner until hitting Jose Vidro in the third. Not only that, but he struck out five in the first two, including the ever-so-hard-to-K Ichiro. But in all honesty, the air-show must confuse such tiny-brained adolescents. Not like Ichiro is stupid, he's just small-brained-- only natural from the three foot tall Gold-Glove centre fielder.

Jeff Weaver was a different story, giving up two-run dingers to Gregg Zaun in the second and Matt Stairs in the third, along with a good old fashion batted-in run to give him five earnies on the night in just three very pathetic innings of work. In the fourth, after he already put two runners on in the inning, with M's manager MacLaren on the mound, Mariners' starter Jeff Weaver mouthed off to the manager, who took over as manager for Mike Hargrove on July 1st. I thought it would be another Lilly-Gibbons type fight like last year, but (un)fortunately not.

On a different note, I was near the dugout looking for players to sign my hat like I do sometimes (today Jesse Litsch, Curtis Thigpen and Blue-Jay great Jesse Barfield signed it) I saw J.P. going into the dugout so I yelled out, "Hey J.P., throw me a ball!" The only baseballs even close to him were out of his way, so it was kind of a stupid question, but nonetheless he blurted out, "But I don't have any balls!" Oh, good fun.

Not So Far Behind

Burnett's win today puts the Jays only 5.5 back of the Wild Card leaders, The New York Yankees. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, because it isn't very likely, but the Jays actually do have a shot at winnings the wild card for a playoff berth. Here are the numbers:

• We have 26 games left on the regular season.
• That includes twelve home games and fourteen road games.
  
• We face the Yankees seven times, three times at home.
• We have nine series' left.
  
• Four of those series' are versus sub-.500 teams.
  

With the Yankees' pitchers dropping like flies of the zipping variety, and their offense winding down, their remaining 25 games will probably be a struggle; they only have ten more home games, too.

Hypothetically, if the Yankees play .500 ball from now to the rest of the season (+1 win because it's an odd number), the Jays would need a 19-7 record to tie them and get any hopes of a playoff berth. That's not too impossible is it? If we keep sweeping teams we'll have a not-so-terrible chance.

Call-Up Season... Oh Well

Well it's that time of year, where that big bearded fat man crawls down your chimney and gives you presents. That's right, September Call-Ups! That means the only big, bearded fat man you'll see will be Sal Fasano for the final month of the regular season. He, along with a few young'ns, will join the club on September 1st once the rosters are expanded to 40.

J.P. nor Gibbs have told reporters exactly who is going to be called up, but there's a lot of young talent in the farm that are bound to be called up, such as Robinzon Diaz. Diaz is a young athletic catcher with very little power but he's a slap hitter, I like him though so if Gibbs doesn't call him up, tisk tisk.

The Key to Finding a Successful Call-Up

1. Overall talent: Obviously. If he doesn't have skills defensively or offensively, he probably won't be called up. Fcuk guy, use your head.

2. Minor League Road Stats: It sounds weird, I know... When you're on the road, the disadvantage is unfamiliarity; coming up to the big leagues means that you'll be in completely different, unfamiliar stadiums. If they're successful hitters on the road, they have a better chance of adjusting to a brand new ballpark like the Centre.

3. Type of hitting: For example, if the player's a reknowned power hitter, he'll fit in with the Jays or the Rangers, etc. If the player can relate to the overall team's approach at the plate he'll have much more success in the bigs.

Y'know what I find weird? We have so many great catchers in our farm system (like Diaz and Thigpen and Sal minus the bat) but Gregg Zaun sucks so much. I hope we sign Paul Lo Duca and trade Zaun away with Chacin for a cool shorstop prospect... I'll shut up now.

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.

Jays Clobber A's ACTUALLY!

In all honesty, I was pretty damn surprised that the Jays actually won that game, seeing as we went into extras and we put Jason Frasor on the mound to hold up the fort. Plus, we were on the road facing a good pitching staff. Anyway.

We won, 6-2 in 12 innings of complete fucking boredom, except for of course the two innings that we actually got soemthing done in, the 3rd and the 12th. Burnett did great, though, even though it wasn't one of those sexy sexy 13 strikeout Burnett performances we've seen, he got the job done. It was going great until Casey Janssen had one of those rare fuckups and undoned the job. That's right, undoned.

In the 8th after another fine start for A.J. where he only allowed a run over five hits, Casey came in to give up a leadoff double off the left-centre field wall to former-Blue Jay-- now Blue Jay killer, Shannon "Mongoose" Stewart. He was knocked in by Dan Johnson (a lefty) to tie up the ballgame before Gibbons decided to send in the lefty specialist Downs.

But it was all good because while the A's used closer Huston Street in the ninth and tenth to ware him out completely, the Jays used seldom-used Jason Frasor to hold the fort up for Jeremy Accardo in the eleventh (who got the win after The Big Bad Wolfe put up a spotless twelfth). Troy Glaus knocked in Vernon for the go-ahead run which kept the line moving for a four-run rally in the twelfth to secure the victory for T.O.

Tip of the Night: Don't drink Coke and eat Mentos... oh fuck, it's awful.

Surprise Surprise

Well it's finally happened, Gustavo "Baldy" Chacin (pictured) underwent exploratory surgery in his left testi-- shoulder today. As a solution, the Jays signed former A's pitcher Joe Kennedy pitcher to a minor-league contract, but he's a free-agent next year so it's kinda stupid.

Anyway, Chacin's season is definitely over and, in my oppinion, so is his career in Toronto. With a very solid bullpen and J.P. hinting that the Jays are going to look for free-agent pitching in the offseason, it looks as if Gustavo will not be a Jay for much longer. The starting rotation and the bullpen looks pretty damn awesome to this point, which means having Gustavo would just be a liability, really. I still don't see why fans like the Venezuelan right-hander so much, he has a high Towers-like ERA but more wins because we gets run-support. Maybe it's because of his promising rookie-year that fans have taken a shine to the shiny-headed injury-prone young'n.

Cool Guy of the Game

A.J. Burnett, for obvious reasons... he looked great over 7 innings, and while he only struck out three he also worked his way out of jams. The only blips on his radar would be Nick Swisher's 17th homerun of the season and the five walks he gave up; but he kept the Jays in the game the whole way through.

The Good

The pitching was excellent, straight up great-- except for Casey Janssen of course, but he's entitled to a fuck-up after all he's done this season.

The offence was still pretty good, only Matt Stairs and Gregg Zaun went 0-for, and Matt Stairs got 2 walks as the leadoff man.

Speaking of, J.P. said that he has every intention of resigning Matt Stairs, and Matty said that he has every intention of ending his career in Toronto, so it looks like he's staying, folks.

The Bad

Gregg Zaun went clean-shaven and immediately went hitless. Oh, so ironic, right? Wrong, you're stupid.

The Ugly

Marco Scutaro went 0-for-6 leaving 8 on, ha ha! It's ugly for him, but pretty damn prettiful for us.

Tonight's Matchup: Jesse Litsch pitches for Blue Jays versus former Blue Jay Chad Gaudin. May I remind you, though, that former-Jay pitchers have metaphorically raped us this month... Escobar, Loaiza, Clemens and Trachsel have gone 5-0 with a 1.78 ERA against the Jays in August. Don't drop the soap Jays...

However, Gaudin only pitched 13 innings for the Jays, with a 13.15 ERA on him, so I think we might matchup, ha ha.

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.