The Blue Jays Thread.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by habernac

maybe if he lost about 100 pounds.

Then he wouldn't throw 99 MPH in the late innings.

[Frequitude]

Good day for the Jays. They win and Boston, NYY and Seattle lose.

[habernac]

125 pitches for Halladay today and he still doesn't get the win (Downs got it in the 10th).

[Jiggy_12]

John Mcdonald has been playing some unbelievable D this last little while. That play he made tonight on Rios' throw to 3rd wasn't spectacular, but it was one of the most heads up plays you could hope to see. Not many short-stops would have pulled that off.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Jiggy_12

John Mcdonald has been playing some unbelievable D this last little while. That play he made tonight on Rios' throw to 3rd wasn't spectacular, but it was one of the most heads up plays you could hope to see. Not many short-stops would have pulled that off.

Yeah, I think this is one of those cases where accept that he is going to be a .250-.260 hitter and play him for his defense up the middle. I don't think it is his light hitting out of the 9 hole that is costing the Jays games, but his plays like this one may be saving a few.

[Flickered Flame]

Man, that sweep sure feels good. Good pitching matchup today...happy to see Loaiza better Burnett.

[Sylvanfan]

Well after being swept against the A's the Jays have won 2 of 3 so far vs. the Angels. For the most part the Jays continue to get pretty good pitching as Litsch and Marcum both went 6 innings (6 and 1/3 for Litsch) and allow 2 earned runs. Halladay allowed 3 runs in the 8 inning complete game loss.

Right now the Jays have 4 of their 5 starters with an ERA under 4 and McGowans 4.19 is hardly terrible by American League standards. Jesse Litsch in particular continues to surprise as I thought the wheels would have fallen off for him by now. But he continues to go out and not give up many earned runs although he's had a lot of unearned ones count against him. In the bullpen the likes of Accardo, Janssen, Downs, and Wolf have all been pretty solid too. When you look at the numbers the Jays pitching has been better than they probably would have ever dreamed, especially since they're big money closer missed pretty much all of the season. If only the offence had been any good. Heck, if the rest of the offence had picked it up in August like Frank Thomas has the team might have made a charge to get back into it as they weren't that far out. But they didn't. Too bad their pitching staff has as good or better numbers than most of the teams who'll go to the playoffs.

[Flickered Flame]

The baby Jays were booting the ball around the other day, I would suggest this is not the way to get called up. 10 errors is mind boggling.

http://sports.espn.go.com/minorlbb/n...ory?id=2992465

[habernac]

great 8th inning, 3 runs so far for a 5-2 lead. Another solid Litsch outing.

[Sylvanfan]

Litsch continues to turn in pretty solid outings. No win to show for it again but 6 innings and only 2 runs allowed. This road trip has been a good one for Jays starters so far as 6 games in all guys have given 6 or more innings and allowed 3 or less runs. Accardo didn't have the intensity up in the 9th though and it ended up pretty close there in the end though. Halladay goes tommorrow in an attempt to turn the favor back on the A's for that sweep last week.

[flambers]

Interesting game today, Jays were behind 4-3 in the top of the 9th with Johnny Mac due up and two out. Jays instead had Matt Stairs pitch hit for J-Mac. Of course the good old Canadian boy hit it over the Center field wall to tie at 4-4.

Game is now in the bottom of the 9th.....

Go Matt Go........

[Sylvanfan]

Well Halladay really struggled yet still fought through to get 9 innings in and the no descision. But Downs comes in can't get his curve ball over and the A's take it in 11. Overall the pitching on this road trip was good enough...just couldn't get enough hits with guys on base.

[habernac]

I'm conflicted. I'd love to see Seattle do well and win the wildcard, but it's also good to see the Jays win a few. What a terrible time to go into a skid. 8 straight losses now for the M's.

[Flickered Flame]

Not Jays related by Clay Buchholz of the Sox just not hit the O's. I believe it was his 2nd career start.

[flames_1987]

So a Jays win tonight and there only 4 1/2 back with the Yanks losing today. They also have 7 games left against the Bronx Bombers. So who knows. This team only seems to play well when they've dug themselves to big of a hole, so I'm not putting to much into this team doing anything. There's still a chance though

[Caged Great]

I'll care again when the pass the tigers and get to within 3 games.

Otherwise, why get your hopes up just to get them crushed again...

[JiriHrdina]

Wild game tonight. Sox were up 10-1 at one time. Jays scored 8 in the top of the 6 to make it 10-9. Score now is 13-10 in the bottom of the 7th.

[habernac]

Matt Stairs, 4 for 4, always on base, always getting hits. It's too bad the rest of the team doesn't play like this guy always seems to. Crazy game, sad I missed the top of the 6th inning.

[Sylvanfan]

Why the Jays haven't resigned Stairs for next year yet is beyond me. When he's been in the lineup he's been their most productive bat by a country mile. Unfortunately a pretty long streak of good starts from the rotation came to an end tonight. Although it's not completely surprising as I'm surprised Litsch survived this many games without being lit up. Unfortunately even when they came back a bit the pen couldn't hold the Sox down. Hopefully Halladay has the gooods tommorrow.

[habernac]

Stairs has never been a 300 hitter in his career. Maybe part-time agrees with him. And yes, they do need to resign him, just to keep another left handed bat in there.

I also have to send some love to the Big Hurt. I was definitely not a big fan but he's come through and is our top RBI guy.