Three Day Weekend

Saw the Jays in person this weekend Friday, Saturday & Sunday.  I thought the only shot they had at winning was friday when Kyle Kendrick faced off against Ricky Romero but I was wrong cause the bullpen blew that game.

We only won sunday.  Cliff Lee gave up two home runs in an inning quite uncharacteristically to Thames & Bautista.  However, it brought my Bautista witnessing homer games to 3 in a row this weekend.  He hit one EVERY SINGLE GAME THIS WEEKEND.   I'm so glad June is over so he can get back to clobbering the ball.

Personally I came out of this weekend on a sweet note.  I'd never been to three Jays games in a row.  Plus, I nabbed a Canada Day T-Shirt, A Mr Sub Bag, A Vote Jose button (for a three $ donation) and a batting practice foul ball!  The foul ball can get wiped off my bucket list and the rest is just gravy!!!

- Rusty

Bautista BOMB!

Wow.  9th inning Bautista Bomb to take the lead 5-4 in St. Louis.  Wow.  Hopefully he's coming out of that slump going to be on fire going into July.  Way to pick up Morrow who gave up an uncharacteristic two homers tonight.  Go Jays Go!

Bautista HR Leader Still

Bautista had not hit a homer in 8 games, he hits one today to stay on top of the leader board in homers in all of MLB.  How frigging awesome was the first two months of the season that he can have only 2 dingers in June and still lead all of MLB.  That is pretty effin incredible.

Zach Stewart

Zach Stewart made his MLB debut in a game vs the Orioles yesterday.  I listened to the game at work on The Fan 590 and I liked what I heard.  Stewart only gave up 1 hit in the first five innings, but the next hit in the sixth was a home run.  Still, a very impressive debut, hopefully we get many more shut out innings in the future from him.

Of course, the bullpen came in to a tie game and handed it over to the Orioles.  Their first win at Skydome since August 2009.  A pity since Mr Stewart gave such a commanding performance in the early going.

Lind had a 2 run shot and is still very much on fire.  I still can't wait for Lawrie to get healed & into this line up.  I'd love to see him hit second, Bautista third, Lind fourth & Arencibia hit fifth.

The Jays are in WKRP Cincinnati tonight, and while I will (of course) be rooting for the Jays, I still hope fellow Canadian Joey Votto puts on a good show for us.  Go Jays Go.

Blue Jays vs Red Sux

I went to the game yesterday - a 16 to 4 win for the Red Sox.  It sucked cause it was the first game I'd seen Morrow pitch this year & I was wearing my Morrow jersey. My boss gave me his Row 1 tickets so I decided we were going to put up K's in Morrow's honor.  Well, after 4 K's we gave up cause the score was like 12 -2 for the Red Sux or something stupid.  Morrow had been yanked and had given up 9 runs in the process.  He was a slow starter last year & I can only pray it's the same way this year.

I guess the only silver lining from the day was that I started taking pictures & eventually video with my i-touch.  Below are some shots of Morrow pitching, Bautista hitting & Lind avoiding a fastball (for the ladies).  I will post some video a bit later after I've edited it.

Jays Vs Orioles today

The game just ended, excellent game on a lot of fronts, highlights include:

- Jo Jo Reyes 2nd win in a row

- Escobar's three run HR

- Lind goes 4/4 his second game back with 2 hr's.  Well done Lind!

Bautista's hitting .354 with 20 hrs but I can't remember when his last homer was.  Feels like it's been a good week.  I'll be looking for him to explode with 4 hrs in the next three games with Lind protecting him.  

- Rusty

John Harper's Jealousy

I'm not sure if you've been keeping tabs on this story from the NY Times, but it seems that John Harper has all but made up his mind that Bautista is on performance enhancing drugs.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2011/05/24/2011-05-24_new_hr_king_swats_some_doubters_not_all.html

Now I admit I don't know jack about Harper but would he be asking these same questions if Bautista was a Yankee?  Did he ask these same questions about Giambi, A-Rod, Pettitte or Clemens at the time they were actually doing steroids & playing for the Yankees?

I guess Harper must have missed the part where Bautista said recently that he had been tested twice in the last month for performance enhancers along with some of his teammates.

Harper ends his piece saying "Bautista is a great story. Let's hope he's legit".

I end this piece by saying "Harper is a jealous asshole.  Even if he's legit".

Rusty.

5 in a MORROW!

Jays won today bringing the tally to five straight wins!  Keep up the good work boys.

Of course, the big story today is three home runs in three straight at bats for Hip Hip Jose Bautista.  This guy is killing the ball right now.  His average is around .360, his OPS is 1.315 (usually .800 is good) and he's got 16 home runs, which is 9 more than he had at this point last year.  Frigging unreal.  So I guess he's on pace to pass triple digits in home runs this year!  Sweet.

You gotta wonder if the Yankees & Boston are trying to steal samples of his DNA so they can clone him 9 times each.

Bautista OUT

Holy Crap the Jays are in some serious trouble with Bautista undergoing an MRI.  He's not expected to return to the lineup until the weekend.  FACK.  This could be bad.  I'm still betting it relates to that shot at his head sometime last week.  And I just got freebie tickets for Friday night.  Hope he's back.

I've just tuned into the game now and somehow we're winning without Bautista.  Still wish Hayhurst was up with the Rays instead of being in triple A.  I was listening to the Rays announcers for a bit and holy crap those guys sound FLAT.  No excitement what-so-ever.

Weekend vs the Yankees

I haven't said much about the last couple games cause I haven't caught much of the last two games.  I did see McCoy on Saturday going full tilt into right field catching a fly ball basket style.  I didn't think he had a shot at it - well freakin done!

I was listening to the game today but I fell asleep when we were winning 2-1 and awoke to us losing 5-2.  Then Bautista left the game with neck stiffness which is probably related to that ball he almost took in the head the other day.  Hopefully it's nothing and he doesn't end up on the DL for a stretch cause that would suck royally.

Rivera's getting hot and playing left field.  I'd still way rather have Snider struggling at the plate and playing left because I can't give a crap about Juan "Vernon Wells II" Rivera.  He's old, slow, and uh, old and slow and I don't believe for a second this guy gives a crap about this team (I can't say I blame him cause he knows we don't want him).  I mean, do we really think he can get hot enough that we dump him at the deadline and get prospects.....I highly doubt he's going to be in demand.  The only way I can see that happening is if we give up someone valuable and make them take his sorry ass.

Speaking of Snider, I hear he's 6 for 6 in Vegas.

Rally Gone Wrong turns into Rally Gone Right

HOLY FUCK!  I was ready to go hit the bar with the sales department when Bautista hits a two run jack in the next half of the inning!  Woo hoo!  9 frigging homers in April!  Could this guy be the first one to hit triple digit numbers in the home run column in one year?  Only time will tell.

What Did I Miss?

What did I miss?  Well, as soon as Dotel came into the game last night I shut it off.  That's simply my rule.  I can't watch that guy pitch....it should be my rule for Frasor as well, and maybe Franky Fransisco cause he takes three years to make a single pitch but we'll see how it goes next time.  So I missed the loss yesterday.  I'd say it was a shame but Jo Jo fell apart in the third after E3's error but let's face it he wouldn't be here if he wasn't out of options.

What else did I miss?  The whole day game.  I forgot it was getaway day and I missed Morrow pitch.  I was at a router seminar which is somewhat of an excuse but I stupidly forgot about getaway day so I probably would've missed it at work too.  Missing Morrow pitch is equal to treason in my books.  His 17K one hitter last year makes me believe he is the Stieb of right now.  I believe in this guy, I know he can succeed.

I also missed Hip Hip Jose taking a ball off the wrist that everyone thought he took off the head.  He says he's okay on Twitter - and let's hope that he is - cause he's the most consistent, best, kick ass, god-like player we have right now.

Alright, and last but not least............I have been avoiding Getting Blanked & Drunk Jays Fans lately because of all the Farrell bashing.  It's his first year, he's gonna make mistakes, and I can live with that but apparently those guys can't.  Fact of the matter is, we all think we could run this team better than the manager, or the GM or whomever.

That being said........I have to agree with these guys on the demotion of Snider.  I can't fathom this move.  I have no idea why Rivera has been in the lineup (regardless of him being hot for three days), or Edwin at third ever (even with injuries) but for crying out loud Snider's only problem was that he shaved his moustache going into Seattle.  Ever since he shaved that thing off he hasn't hit.  I can't blame him for shaving it off cause it looked like shit (I know cause I'm 10 years older and all I can grow is that same shit moustache) but for the love of God you're a baseball player and superstition is a part of your existence.  When you're on a hot streak you can't change a thing - you can't change your socks, wash the underwear you're wearing, let a black cat cross your path, cut your hair and most importantly - you CAN'T SHAVE!  I can only hope that @lunchboxhero45 loses his razor & finds his groove again so he's back up with the club permanently.


~ Rusty Army

Hip Hip Jose

2 Run RBI single by Bautista!!!  Sweet.  The Jays pull back within 1.

Memo to Corey Patterson: catch the frigging ball, don't fear the wall.

- Rusty Army