September 1: Rays 5, Blue Jays 4

Turnaround is fair play as Omar hugs Molina to end the game



Tom Szczererbowski / Getty Images


Yesterday's game featured two outfield assists including a fantastic game-ending play by Moises Sierra and Jeff Mathis to end the game. Unfortunately, the Rays executed poetic justice today, ending the game with their own play from BJ Upton to ex-Jay Jose Molina to tag out a pathetic-looking Omar Visquel in the bottom of the ninth.

The game featured number #5 starter Henderson Alvarez against the returning Jeff Niemann, who fractured his ankle on May 14 on an Adam Lind line drive.

Alvarez and Niemann looked excellent at the start, as Alvarez faced the minimum seven hitters while Niemann retired the first ten.

Alvarez's poor inning came in the 3rd. With one out, Ryan Roberts hit his 9th homer. Henderson then walked Loboton and gave up a single to Desmond Jennings. BJ Upton then hit a slower grounder to Hechavarria that should have been a double play ball. But Johnston's connecting throw to Edwin was very high and caused Edwin to jump for the ball, allowing Upton to reach and prolong the inning. With two out, Ben Zobrist hit a double to the right field corner, scoring Loboton. Alvarez then walked Longoria on four pitches, loading the bases, before giving up a double in the left-gap to Matt Joyce, scoring two. At the middle of three, it was 4-0 Tampa.

Jeff Niemann's comeback was stymied, though. With one out in the bottom of the 4th, Niemann was forced out the game with "arm tightness". It appears to be nothing serious. On came Howell. The Jays immediately took advantage as Colby earned a walk and Edwin hit his 36th no-doubt about it home run to the third level at the dome, a beautiful shot. Lind grounded out, but Torrealba singled and Kelly Johnston walked. At that point, Maddon had seemed enough and brought in Wade Davis to retire Moises with two left on.

Alvarez got into a bit more trouble in the fifth, allowing two to reach with one out before Evan Longoria hit into a double play.

Alvarez's line was not good. 5 innings pitched, 5 hits, four runs, all earned, and 4 walks. He threw only 86 pitches. Alvarez has had five quality starts in his last eighteen starts back to May 20, and is sporting an ERA of 6.37, a WHIP of 1.7, and opposing pitchers are hitting a .908 OPS off of him. His K/BB ratio was 4:3.

Matt Joyce scored a solo homer in the top of the 8th off Brad Lincoln to gave the Rays a 5-2 lead. It was Lincoln's first run scored against in 6 outings.

The Jays left it to the 8th inning to start its comeback. Hechavarria opened the inning with the double off of Peralta. Rajai then hit an infield single to move Hechavarria over to third. Colby struck out. Edwin was walked. Adam Lind then came through with a single to score two and get the Jays within one. Joe Maddon had seemed enough and brought in his closer with one one. Rodney then walked McCoy, but struck out Johnston and Sierra to end the 8th.

The game wasn't over though, and in the 9th, the Jays threatened again. Omar Visquel walked, and Hechavarria sacrified him over two second. Rajai then failed to advance the runner with a fly ball to center. Colby Rasmus then managed to turn over a 100mph heater to stroke a single to centre. Omar, with two out, was running on the pitch. But BJ Upton's throw home ended up a bit high after the bounce. Omar was coming behind Molina to slide into home, but Molina ended up stepping back to catch the ball, inadvertently blocking Visquel's path, causing him to go further outside to avoid a calamatous collision. Molina caught the ball and applied the tag to Visquel as he was crawling back to the plate. Game over.

So, some thoughts about Omar Visquel. His "clutch" baserunning is terrible. He got caught stealing 2nd against Valverde as a pinch runner on August 22, for example, but the alternatives left on the bench was Escobar and Mathis. Escobar might have been a better choice, but his baserunning leaves alot to be desired as well. In retrospect, Escobar would have been the better choice, but you have to give Tampa full credit for getting the out at home. Should Visquel have bowled Molina over? Maybe, but Visquel would have lost that battle too, and you can't expect a 45 year old hall-of-famer to bowl over the respected veteran. In fact, after the out, Visquel gave Molina a pat which was very sportsmanlike, and it appears that Molina had some (probably kind)  words to say to Visquel while he was trying to reach for home plate.

And some thoughts about Henderson Alvarez. I think it's time for him to be shut down. He had 155 innings pitched so far this year, after only pitching 63 major league innings last year (and 96 minor league innings). His outings have been inconsistent at best, and his numbers require alot of run support in order for the Jays to have a shot at winning. With his 5+ ERA (that is not improving) and short outings (less than 90 pitches on average), it's time to give Jenkins or Laffey a view. With respect to next year, it's questionable whether Alvarez would make it into the rotation.

Romero, Morrow and Happ are presumable locks. If the Jays sign Villanueva to a contract (and they should) and go out and get a free agent starter in the off season (which they better), then the starting rotation will be complete, and Henderson will either start the season as the journeyman in the bullpen (with lefty Perez) or in the minors.

Offensively, the Jays managed 7 hits and 7 walks against the Tampa pitchers. The Jays left 7 on base. Moises went 0-4 and struck out three times. Rasmus walked twice and got a key hit in the game. Johnson got no hits but walked. Everyone else got a hit.

Tomorrow's outing  features a battle of the aces. Ricky Romero came off a great start over 7 innings against the Yankees, allowing two runs and five hits over seven innings in a tough 2-1 loss. Romero will have his work cut out for him against nemesis David Price, who after 12 quality outings (1.56 ERA, .182 BA, .857 WHIP) had a stinker against the Yankees, letting in 6 runs over 4 innings.

August 27: Blue Jays 8, Yankees 7

Colby Rasmus the hero, Jays only blow save once



Colby's 3 run home run in the top of the 9th
Kathy Kmonicek / AP



I love, absolutely love to see the Yankees lose.

There are lots of things going on with the Jays these days. The litany of injuries continue. Will Lawrie come back? What is the extent of Jose's new injury? How will Hechavarria play? Will Rasmus continue to strike out incessently? What about the rumours around Farrelll and the Red Sox?

Well there was a game to play, and with long man turned starter David Phelps in his third start in a row and the Jays riding a 7 game losing streak and Henderson Alvarez on the mound, things did not look good for the Jays tonight.

And it started off as a bit of a duel, with Cano's first two at bats and two runs being solo home runs. Adam Lind, in his first AB after rehab, also homered pretty much to the same place Cano did, to the bullpen just right of centerfield. Cano's second home run was to the short porch in right to open the bottom of the fourth. Then, the Yankees scored their third run off a deflection off of Henderson's foot that took him out of a game as the ball bounced into right field, scoring Teixiera from second who walked. On came Laffey.

With runners on 1st and third with one out, the Jays conceded a run on a Chavez fielder's choice. After four, it was 4-1 Yankees.

Onto the top of the fifth as a Torrealba hit a two run shot to the short porch (again, in rightfield) to score Johnson who walked to open the inning.

Then Laffey had a terrible bottom of the fifth, walking Jeter, then a Swisher HR (into the second row of stands in left), then got an out, walked, got an out, walked, and then got an out to end the inning. After 5, it was 6-3 Yankees.

Hechavarria got one back at the top of the seventh on a solid single on a low pitch down the third base line to score Torrealba who was on second from a fielder's choice by Moises. 6-4 after 7.

Laffey left the game at the end of the sixth with another injured leg off Jeter. Hopefully, he will be all right as will Alvarez, because the Jays six man rotation would be solved if one of these two got injured.

The Jays kept it clean in the 7th (Delabar / Loup) and 8th (Loup / Lincoln) as the Yankees threatened in the 8th with two out and a runner on third with Ichiro out, but Lincoln induced a ground ball to Escobar.

But going into the 9th inning with closer Soriano coming into the game facing Torrealba / Sierra / Hechavarria, things looked bleak. But Moises managed a base hit and Hechavarria did not hit into a game ending double play, but with two out, things still looked bleak. Rajai hit a single into left with Moises running on the pitch putting runners on first and third with two out and Colby Rasmus up. 

Colby's troubles have been well documented here. Since he injured his groin in Oakland, he's gone .123 over 57 at bats and has not recognized some pitches. However, he had no problem recognizing Robertson's hanging curveball, and did this, a three run home run to deep right centre. Welcome back, Colby, welcome back. And a very rare blown save by Soriano, who had not let in a run in 10 appearances and got seven saves in a row. This was his third blown save this year. And Colby Rasmus was the hero.

But the game wasn't over yet. On came Casey Janssen against Derek Jeter, who, on the 2nd pitch of the at bat, hit a deep fly ball that just went over the wall in deep right field. Cheap home run, but it tied the game. Blown save for Janssen, and Jays fans all over the nation probably sighed with despair.

But the Jays perservered, and the Jays caught a lucky break. Torrealba singled to open the 11th (after a clean 10th inning by Oliver), and Mike McCoy came on to pinch run. But Derek Lowe threw a ball into the legs of McCoy in a pickoff attempt and the ball went into right field, and McCoy advanced to third with none out. Sierra struck out, but Hechavarria hit a slow ground ball that froze McCoy off third. Nix threw out Hechavarria but McCoy went home on the throw to first and easily beat out the throw home. 8-7 Jays.

Oliver came on for a second inning of relief. He walked Ichiro with one out, but was forced out at second by a Jeter fielder's choice. Olvier then faced Swisher and got him into a full count before Oliver froze Swisher with a 75 mph slider for a called strike 3. Win for Oliver.

So, all in all, a very entertaining game. Torrealba went 3-5, and Rasmus, Lind, and Hechavarria went 2-5. It remains to be seen whether Rasmus will continue his slump-breaking behaviour.

Both Laffey and Alvarez are day-to-day and should be able to continue in their starting and relieving roles.

Tomorrow, it's Ricky Romero off his 2nd worst outing ever vs Phil Hughes.

August 19: Rangers 11, Jays 2

Alverez blows up; Jays pummel Rangers with 2 hit effort.

It's difficult to win games when three base runners get on base for the Jays team in a completely underwhelming effort by the Blue Jays.

Henderson told the club after the game that he had heard before game time that a family member had passed away. Really Henderson, even if you had pitched a five hitter, it would be difficult to win this one when your team's offence is absent without leave.

The team's offence was led by Air Canada spokesman (he seems to always be on the plane between Vegas and Toronto) Mike McCoy with both RBIs, one on a solo home run and another on a ground ball out.

Henderson first couple of innings looked fine but his concentration and his game started to fall apart in the 3rd inning with 4 hits in a row (Murphy double, Soto RBI single, Moreland RBI single, and Kinsler double). In the fourth, Texas scored another run with a three hit combination (Young - Murphy (RBI) - Soto) before getting out of the jam. The fifth was the end of him. With one out, Andrus singled, Hamilton got an RBI double, Beltre walked, Nelson Cruz singled (RBI), and Michael Young belted a 3 run homer. A final David Murphy walk knocked Alvarez out of the game.

It was Alvarez' worst start ever, allowing 8 ER and 12 hits over 4 1/3 innings (and 3 walks). Really, though, no matter, because the Jays offence was absolutely absent, as Matt Harrison had a great start going 8 innings of 2 hit ball. Texas retired fourteen batters in a row from Mike McCoy's solo shot in the 5th to the end of the game.

The Jays are now 5-15 in their last 20, beginning from the time that many team members gathered at Travis Snider's home in Mill Valley, Washington, for what turned out to be a farewell barbecue. Perhaps Travis' steaks had some formula in it to make the Jays' bats useless, because this is exactly what has happened to most of the Jays bats, including the regulars.

August 14: White Sox 3, Jays 2

White Sox hang on to win

Why would Charlie Sheen throw out the first pitch? I mean, why not Joe Carter? As it turned out the Jays would need more than two and a half runs to win this ball game.

Henderson Alvarez pitched a pretty solid effort as the Chicago White Sox turned away the Jays' threats in each of the last five innings.

Alvarez's first four innings went smoothly as the Jays took a 2-0 lead into the top of the 5th.

In the bottom of the first, Yunel Escobar singled home Mike McCoy who unsuccessfully sacrified Davis who led the game with a single. Why you attempt to bunt in the bottom of the first with none on and your fastest runner on first I wonder? I really don't know that answer to that one. It's too early to trade an out for a iffy shot at moving over your runner, and it was unsuccessful. Remember that the sacrifice does not always work!!! The Jays left 2 on in the 1st.

In the bottom of the third, Mike McCoy scored Rajai Davis who doubled and then took third for his 34th stolen base (3 behind Mike Trout) and his 15th steal of 3rd base, 5 ahead of Coco Crisp.

Here's the amazing thing about the 2.5 million dollar man aka Rajai Davis: Rajai has had only 74 stolen base opportunities, while Mike Trout has had 180. Mike Trout tries to steal in about 22% of his opportunites, while Rajai attempts to steal in in about 55% of opportunties. If Rajai had the same opportunities as Mike Trout, he would have about 80 stolen bases by now! No one in the AL even comes close to this. So, Rajai should just work on getting on base, and he should be the regular left fielder, day in, day out. When he does get on base, he takes extra bases on 68% of hits, third in the AL among regulars. Simply put, this guy is aggressive, and he wreaks more havoc on the bases than anyone else in the AL. Add to that the fact that he went 3-4 tonight and he's really proving himself to be the regular dude in left, questionable defense aside (he needs to hit his cutoff man, and sometimes he loses focus, despite the catch of the year on the Sunday).

Anyway, enough about Rajai. On to the top of the 5th. A series of four singles by Pierzynski, Viciedo, De Aza (to knock in Pierzynski), and ex-Jay DeWayne Wise (to knock in Viciedo) put runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 out. Henderson tried the "patented" move to third - move to 1st play in order to catch one of the runners sleeping, a reasonable move with two very fast runners. He ended up throwing to first and sailed it high to Cooper, who jumped in an attempt to catch the ball, but it went off of David's glove about 10 feet behind him, which allowed the speedy De Aza to score and take the lead at 3-2.

The Jays threatened in each inning. In the bottom of the 5th, the Jays loaded the bases with one out and Edwin up. But Edwin hit a sharp liner to Kevin Youkilis who made a great catch and a great throw to 2nd to double off Rajai. End of rally. Bad luck.

Moises reached in the 6th with two out but Kelly Johnson couldn't do anything. In the 7th with one out, Hechavarria doubled (his first extra base hit) in the 7th and Rajai walked, but Mike McCoy (who is hitting 2nd in the order, ouch!) and Edwin couldn't do anything. And in the 8th, a lead off double by David Cooper (replaced by Gose) couldn't be cashed as Yunel and Moises lined out while Yan Gomes struck out, leaving Gose on third.  And Colby, on to pinch hit for Hechavarria hit a single in the 9th with one out but couldn't be cashed as Reed recorded his 21st save.

Henderson was strong tonight, pitching 7 innings and throwing only 84 pitches (59 for strikes) while striking out only two, walking none, and scattering out 3 other hits besides the 4 in the 5th over the other six innings. This would qualify as one of his very good outings (his 4th in his last 10th starts). Consistency now is the key for Alvarez. He needs to keep his sinking fast ball down and develop an out pitch so that he can record more strikeouts. Without the strikeout, more balls go into play, and these result in more hits. 21 home runs certainly is alot (9th in the AL) while is K/9 at 3.2 is near the bottom of the list.

When Morrow comes up, who is going to be off of the rotation? There are about 9 starts left for each starter in a 5 player rotation. At 6 innings per start, Romero, Morrow and Happ will be fine. Villanueva will be at his innings limit (which should be 130) after 8 starts so he'll make it pretty much to the end. Henderson Alvarez has pitched 143 major league innings and threw 159 innings (63 MLB innings) and should top out at the most 190 innings, which gives him 9 more starts to take him pretty much to the end. That leaves Aaron Laffey, who threw only 85 innings in 2010 and 56 in 2011, has already thrown 125 innings this year. I think he will be the odd man out when Morrow returns.

Injury updates

Colby pinch hit in the 9th innings and looked sore. His groin will need more healing before he can come back and play center - I am guessing about a week. In the meantime, they are looking at Colby to DH.

Brett Lawrie comes off the DL on Sunday, August 19 (Baltimore) and Floridians can celebrate as he gets a couple of rehab starts down in Dunedin. Just put up alot of warning tape near any hazards so he doesn't dive into a ditch. I think he'll be back for the road trip and look forward to seeing him in Detroit on Tuesday night next week.

Jose Bautista is swinging off a tee. He will need rehab starts too, and soon, before the minor leagues shut down at the end of the month. My bet is that he will be back at the end of August.

Brandon Morrow pitched a fine start tonight in AA New Hampshire (striking out 6 in 4.1 innings with 65 pitches) and will make one more start and will probably make his return in Baltimore during the August 24-26 series.

Adam Lind should be ready to play but with Cooper doing well at first, he's being kept from hitting for now.

JP Arencibia should be back in mid-September. His cast comes off later today and they will evaluate from there.

Transactions and Comments

The Jays extended Jeff Mathis by two years, meaning that he will likely be the regular backup catcher in 2013 and 2014. And they also signed veteran catcher Jeff Torrealba to a minor league contract, which means that with JP Arencibia, Jeff Mathis, and Travis D'Arnaud all expected to be major league quality next year, who is going to catch. There's speculation that JPA will move to DH but that would just be a waste of his catching talent. So, I think an off-season trade is in the offing and it won't involve Jeff Mathis. Quite simply, despite JPA's offensive capability to hit home runs, he has far better value as a catcher than a DH. Edwin is the capable DH/1B, and JPA's numbers and lack of experience does not warrant him value as a DH. One will be traded. The Jays would be far better off in an new and improved Adam Lind at 1st or even David Cooper and leave Edwin at DH.

August 9: Jays 1, Rays 7

Henderson Alvarez fails, Jays muster three hits, limp home.

The Blue Jays limp home from their road trip going 2 - 8 against three very good pitching teams. The road trip looked promising enough, but after Lawries and Rasmus' exit in the Oakland game 6 nights ago, things looked bleak indeed, and the team was only able to eke out a couple of very lucky wins on Saturday and Sunday.

The Jays opened scoring with a lead off double by Rajai, followed by a stolen base, walk and a balk. Henderson looked good in the first, but then seemed to unravel. The second inning started with an Encarnacion error at 1st, followed by an out at first, single, walk, single (scoring 2), walk (to load the bases), out (to score). Alverez then let in a run each in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th inning and exited early.

Henderson's line was bad, letting in 6 runs (4 earned), giving up 11 hits and 3 walks over 4 and 2/3rds, throwing 83 pitches. Loup finished the 5th and 6th, Oliver pitched the 7th, and Janssen pitched the 8th, giving up a run on two doubles (the second appeared to be a home run, but hit the top of the glass in CF to be a double). Janssen let in his third earned run in his last 22 appearnances in a meaningless appearance.

So, the Jays once again fall victim to poor pitching and no offense, mustering up a very paltry three hits (Davis, Sierra, Cooper) in the afternoon's outing.

The Blue Jays take their AC Jetz plane home from Tampa after this game, to open a welcome home stand against the Yankees, White Sox, and Baltimore, all good teams.

I'll talk about the Blue Jays hitting woes in another post. But man, what a disappointing road trip.

Tampa Bay - Jays series preview

Jays hope to salvage road trip - not likely

After getting swept in Seattle and losing Travis Snider, then seeing Colby Rasmus and Brett Lawrie exit the same game, things looked pretty hopeless for the Jays for the road trip.

The Jays last series win at Tropicana
was in April 2007

But the team pulled out two very gutsy (and lucky) wins on Saturday and Sunday to give them some confidence for the plane ride to Tampa. The Trop has been very unfriendly to the Jays. The last time the Jays won a series at Tropicana Field: April 2007, when Roy Halladay took the deciding game 6-3. Casey Janssen made the save. So, I think a 1-2 performance in Florida, while disappointing, is the new par for the course.

It's difficult to win the AL East without going through Tampa, and when you can't win a series on the road, the best you can really hope to do against Tampa is go 7-11 or 8-10 for the year.

Tampa is suffering from a hitting outage as well, scoring 25 runs in the past 10 games and getting shut out by Baltimore in their last two games. However, Longoria is being activated for the game and his .329/.433/.561 bat will be a very welcome return.

Colby Rasmus and Brett Lawrie likely will be back for the series in Tampa, though I would expect to see Hechavarria, Gomes, and Sierra make a start perhaps. Jose Bautista and Adam Lind will not make appearances this series, and Arencibia won't be back anytime soon.

Look for a starting lines up of Lawrie - Rasmus - Edwin - Johnson - Escobar - Cooper - Davis - Mathis  - Gose for tonight and Wendesday's game and a different look for the Thursday afternoon game against the lefthander.

Tonight's matchup features J.A Happ in his first start as a Blue Jay. Farrell stated that the relief appearances really don't count as he is not a reliever, and certainly, Happ has had a rougher first inning in his relief appearances, which is normal for a starter. Don't expect Happ to wow you. He has been inconsistent this year pitching for Houston, having bad outings (>3 runs, <6 IP) in 6 of 18 of his starts. He will walk 2.5/9 and strike out 8.5/9. If he has a consistent start, look for him to hang in there against Tampa. There will the benefit of pitching in the AL for the first time, so the hitters haven't really seen him. And The Rays counter with James Shield (on 6 days rest), who shut out Oakland in a 3 hitter in his last outing, but in the previous 7 outings, has had only one quality start.

Expect a low scoring game, but I think the Rays will pull out a 4-3 squeaker tonight.

Tomorrows matchup features Carlos Villanueva who is 6-1 with a 3.19 ERA and Alex Cobb (5-8, 4.60 ERA). Cobb has had two very good starts following a couple of poor outings. Villanueva has been very very good as a starter so far for the Jays. I think this one will be close as well and the result of the game depends on which Cobb shows up. I think the Jays will take this one 6-3.

Finally, Thursday afternoon's game features Henderson Alvarez (7-8, 4.47 ERA) vs Matt Moore (8-7, 3.84 ERA) in a lefty-lefty matchup. Matt Moore has had 17 scoreless innings, but in the last two games, he threw alot of pitches (103 and 104) to get throw 6.1 and 5.1 innings respectively. Nevertheless, he has been very very good in his last four starts. Henderson had been fairly inconsistent this year. Look for Tampa to take this one in a 6-2 victory.

Things to look forward to this series is the return of Lawrie and Rasmus to the lineup, the continued play of David Cooper, and the major league debut of Chad Jenkins. Anthony Gose will get some more play and we'll see if his bat continues to improve.

Don't expect Toronto to win the series in Tampa.