Aug. 11-13: Blue Jays vs. A's Series Thread

[Antithesis]

Preview written by special guest correspondant: Brett R. Lawrie

DUDES! My alarm went off this morning and I was SO PUMPED to prepare for the Jays so I threw it against the wall and it BROKE INTO A BILLION PIECES, at least, LITERALLY! Since I was so JACKED UP I pounded back a Red Bull and got the day goin'! Grabbed some breakfast, and downed another Red Bull before leaving the room. On the way to the 'Dome I thought about how JACKED I was to play the Jays and show them that they lost out when they shipped me out so I just roundhouse punched some Granny on the sidewalk! Downed another Red bull on the way to the ballpark, 'cause, YOLO or whatever!!!! Then I saw the park and my brain started doing this weird stuff, yo. Like visions and crap. I think it was that PTSD or whatever. I DUDE COME ON it's not easy to play every day in a ballpark that SMELLS LIKE SEWA

(Editor's note: Our apologies, Mr. Lawrie's contribution was written on the back of a Montana's kids menu in red crayon and ends here.)

Toronto Blue Jays (61-52, conquering Kings of the universe) vs. Oakland A's Mehs (51-62, didn't want Josh Donaldson anymore)

Probable Starters:

Tuesday @5:00 PM Mountain Time: TOR: Drew Hutchison, 10-2, 5.42 ERA; OAK: Kendall Graveman, 6-2, 3.90 ERA
Wednesday @5:00 PM Mountain Time: TOR: Mark Buehrle, 12-5, 3.34 ERA; OAK: Aaron Brooks, 1-0, 2.41 ERA
Thursday @10:30 AM Mountain Time: TOR: R.A. Dickey, 6-10, 3.93 ERA; OAK: Sonny Gray, 12-4, 2.06 ERA

Gotta love watching the Jays sweep the Yankees over the weekend. Hopefully EE can get back in the lineup after sitting on Sunday due to a sore finger. Russell Martin should get back in as well after a couple days of rest.

You know what else you've gotta love? Seeing fans old and new catching the Jays fever. It's great to see so many people watching games and talking Jays - don't be shy - come in and join us! Ask questions, whatever. This is a strict 'no bandwagon shaming' zone.

Great news on a couple fronts for the Jays: First, Marcus Stroman has been cleared to begin throwing off a mound by Dr. James Andrews and will be doing so on Tuesday (I believe). If the Jays can get him back in the lineup, it would be huge indeed. Second, MLB announced today that Josh Donaldson and David Price were the co-winners of the AL Player of the Week. Congrats to them both!

Hopefully the Jays can take things one game at a time and continue making up ground against a team that frankly just isn't very good this year. The Yankees are playing in Cleveland for the next series so are also up against a sub-0.500 team.

Sportsnet shared today that the last 7 Blue Jays broadcasts have had over a million viewers, including Sunday's game which was watched by 1.43 million Canadians, which is huge for a regular season baseball game, and may be the Jays' largest TV audience ever on Rogers.

Here's some stats for you:

Over his career, current Oakland hitters have the following stats vs. Drew Hutchison: 13 AB, 3 H, 0 HR, 2 K, 0.231 AVG, 0.333 OBP, 0.231 SLG, 0.564 OPS
Over his career, current Oakland hitters have the following stats vs. Mark Buehrle: 221 AB, 64 H, 8 HR, 26 K, 0.290 AVG, 0.325 OBP, 0.457 SLG, 0.782 OPS
Over his career, current Oakland hitters have the following stats vs. R.A. Dickey: 108 AB, 20 H, 1 HR, 22 K, 0.185 AVG, 0.239 OBP, 0.250 SLG, 0.489 OPS

OK!

BLUE JAYS!

LETS!

PLAY!

BALL!

[InBurkeWeTrust]

I hope I'm not the only one scurrred for game 1

[jayswin]

Anyone heard anything about tickets sold for this series? I know the Yankees series is virtually sold out, but I'd imagine we're getting to the point where even weekday, non-direct standings rivals are going to start getting some impressive numbers.

Looks like the typical weekday games as of last week were drawing 26-30k, I'm hoping we're looking at 30k+ for every game going forward, with 40k+ for all weekend games, and sellouts for any big series.

[bomber317]

Not sure if it's the same in Baseball, but this is the ultimate trap game in hockey.

Come back from a successful road trip beating a top team to come home to face a lowly Athletics team.

With Drew on the mound.... I'm hoping he can turn it around and have a solid outing today.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by flameswin

Anyone heard anything about tickets sold for this series? I know the Yankees series is virtually sold out, but I'd imagine we're getting to the point where even weekday, non-direct standings rivals are going to start getting some impressive numbers.

Looks like the typical weekday games as of last week were drawing 26-30k, I'm hoping we're looking at 30k+ for every game going forward, with 40k+ for all weekend games, and sellouts for any big series.

Thursday (afternoon game) is sold out. Looking at Ticketmaster, my bet is they are looking at around 34k today, and about 30k tomorrow.

The Jays have also already sold out the Sunday game vs. Detroit at the end of the month, and the Saturday game is close. That's going to be six sell outs in our next nine games.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

An extra day of rest will hopefully help Hutch get back on track. He's probably just a little fatigued at this point of the season, because earlier this year he was pretty solid. The road woes are probably more mental than anything since the Rogers Center is a much more hitter friendly ballpark and he has good numbers there.

People are on Hutch lately, and rightly so, but I'm confident he can provide some solid starts down the stretch here. There are a LOT worse options as a 5th starter goes.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by bomber317

Not sure if it's the same in Baseball, but this is the ultimate trap game in hockey.

Come back from a successful road trip beating a top team to come home to face a lowly Athletics team.

With Drew on the mound.... I'm hoping he can turn it around and have a solid outing today.

Exactly what I was getting at.

Hopefully the day off has helped them.

I'm just hoping for a 10-9 slugfest that they can find a way to win.

[Roof-Daddy]

Well, I'm happily back on the band wagon.

I've always been a Jays fan, but admittedly the last 15 years or so I haven't followed the Jays as closely as I follow the Flames (for example) but I've always kept one eye ball on them, and casually followed the MLB as well.

It's great to finally actually have a shot at post season baseball again though, as the Jays WS championships are some of my greatest memories as a sports fan. I played baseball as a kid, and followed the Jays religiously back in the late 80's early 90's.

Anyways, hopefully they continue to play well, this team has been fun to watch lately.

[dustyanddaflames]

Will be important to get games 1 and 2 - as Sonny Gray is that good.

[KelVarnsen]

Shi Davidi ‏@ShiDavidi
Clarifying: #BlueJays flipping RA Dickey and Mark Buehrle in rotation. Dickey goes tomorrow, Buehrle on Thursday.

[FLAMESRULE]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

Shi Davidi ‏@ShiDavidi
Clarifying: #BlueJays flipping RA Dickey and Mark Buehrle in rotation. Dickey goes tomorrow, Buehrle on Thursday.

I'm guessing that's so Dickey's knuckler gets to screw up the Yankees again?

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

Shi Davidi ‏@ShiDavidi
Clarifying: #BlueJays flipping RA Dickey and Mark Buehrle in rotation. Dickey goes tomorrow, Buehrle on Thursday.

Hope so, but it would still mean 3 days rest for him to go Sunday

If that's the reason they're doing this, great. But I thought that Dickey, followed by Price, was an awesome 1-2 punch. 75 MPH knuckleball, followed by a 95 MPH heater from the left side. And that teed up Estrada nicely as well.

[KelVarnsen]

It probably has a lot to do with giving Martin a day off in between the Dickey and Price.

[transplant99]

Yeah no question this is so Dickey goes Sunday.....he gave the Yankees fits last week, so it makes sense.

[MyFlamesFirst]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

It probably has a lot to do with giving Martin a day off in between the Dickey and Price.

Hadn't thought of this but it actually makes a lot of sense. Especially because catching Dickeys Knuckler can be frustrating.

[schooner]

In Toronto for work. Nabbed a single right behind the Jays dugout for Wednesday night. Super pumped.

[SportsJunky]

EE sitting tonight. Finger still bothering him.

Smoak in at 1st - Colabello to DH

[Antithesis]

First pitch strikes are going to be huge for Hutch's confidence tonight. Gotta imagine there's a lot of pressure on him with this start.

[Finger Cookin]

An MLB player with an .091 batting average? And he's walked? :|

[Antithesis]

Ugh. Hutchison has taken the mantle of "Starting Pitcher I Irrationally Dislike". He walks Crisp. Crisp bats 0.091. What the hell.