The Fan 590

OH MY GOD.  Alan Ashby - announcer for the blue jays & the fan 590 - just said "it's gotten to the point where I don't care what Edwin Encarnacion says you just can't let him handle the leather".  Fucking Awesome.  I love the fact that he doesn't hold back!

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

Doc

Romero pitched a complete game shutout today & even got a two RBI single in the process. It was great to see the entire starting staff giving him an ovation from the dugout.

In other news Doc Halliday got his 10th win of the season today and is 30 - 3 lifetime with the Phillies when they give him a lead since leaving the Jays. What an ace that guy is!  Can't wait to see him @ Rogers Center this weekend.

- 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!

McCoy sent down, Thames recalled

It was just announced that Mike McCoy just went back to Vegas & Eric Thames was recalled as if this is supposed to break the Jays out of this hitting slump.

I'll wager, in some alternate universe Brett Lawrie & his swagger were brought up one series earlier than when he broke his hand, and the Jays are soaring 5 games above .500 right now.  Lordie we need Lawrie.

- Rusty

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.

Pitching

The last two days the Jays have received two excellent performances from their starters.  Morrow improved to 3 - 0 on the road!  He pitched 6 & 2/3 innings without giving up a run.  The bullpen came in and shut down the Reds which is good, cause the bullpen has been driving me crazy lately.

Carlos Villanueva pitched a great outing, only giving up 2 runs, but the Jays offence could only produce one run.  Solid effort.  Carlos had a streak of 84 consecutive outings without giving up a loss before today's performance!  Most of that was out of the bullpen but man, he's the complete opposite of Jo Jo Reyes.  How come we heard all about Jo Jo's negative streak, but this is the first time I heard about Carlos' streak?  Odd.

Escobar Extension

The Jays signed Escobar for 2012 & 2013 @ 5 mil a piece.  They also have club options for 2014 & 2015 at the same price.  This seems a lot like the Aaron Hill deal a while back and is a pretty sweet move by the Jays.

The only thing I wonder, is where this puts their "star" cuban shortstop in the minors?  Does Adeiny Hechavarria become trade bait to the Yankees as they try to find a replacement for Jeter?  Do they move him to second base because we've got a gaping hole there if we decide to cut Hill loose at the end of the season (please do)?

- Rusty

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.

Jays vs Orioles Recap

K's & Homers.  Escobar & River had solo homers, Lind with a 2 run shot (he's on fire since coming back).  Ricky matched a career high with 12 K's.  Rumor has it he dropped an "eh" in batting practice a couple days ago - he's now an honorary Canadian and has evened his record to 6-6 while the Jays came back up to .500 as well.

Ashby had a pretty funny comment after he saw the first two pitches in the 9th to Gurrerro "You'd have to check the record books to see the last time Vlad watched two strikes go by without swinging".  Funny guy, great announcer.

Zack Stewart is making his MLB debut tomorrow.  We'll have to tune in to see how that goes.

- Rusty

Drabek

Disappointed. That is the only word I have for the demotion of Kyle Drabek to Vegas.  I feel like he needed to work out his struggles up here, but, I'm not the GM.  I know that Drabeck & Morrow have been having their troubles this season, but I feel like dealing with it up here will only make it better down the line when we're a contender.

Even Jo Jo Reyes has made me a believer after his 28 straight starts without a winner.  This season is for shit, we all know it.  Why not let Drabek, Morrow, Cecil & hell Litsch sort it out up here so two years from now we can destroy all advocates?

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 KC tonight

We go into the seventh inning stretch 6-5 for the Blue Jays.  Drabek didn't pitch bad but he didn't pitch great either.  Five runs over 6 plus innings vs the Royals ain't fantastic.

The first run of the game is the one that really stands out: Escobar attempted to steal second and the throw went into center field.  Escobar then went to third while Melky Cabrera threw into the dugout & Escobar went home.  Sweet "gimme" run, gave me a good feeling about tonight.  And really, now it is the difference in the game.

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

Tough Loss

Oh man that was one tough loss tonight for the Jays.  Plenty of miscues in the 9th inning.  I was wondering if Farrell pulled RR early in the 8th and I guess my intuition was right.  Ah well, afternoon game tomorrow will make the work day go faster....hopefully.

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.

Jays vs Red Sox tonight

Ah ha ha.  Jerry just gave us the game recap on the Fan tonight and said "the Jays just batted around to roll a 5".  Slick.  Love last night's winning game with Cooper's RBI's.  Loving tonight.  A mini-sweep of Boston would be sweet.

Morrow gets Yanked after giving up 2 Runs

I kinda waited to review yesterdays game cause I was a bit pissed off that Farrell yanked Morrow with the bases loaded after giving up two runs.  I figured like Zaun was saying maybe Farrell knows something we don't.

So what did Farrell say?  A: "His arm angle dropped" B: "I would have done that to any pitcher"

First let's address "A".  I don't have the video on this but the Drunk Jays Fans have checked the video vs his last start and said there's no change.  I side with them and I call "BULLSHIT FARRELL".

Next is B.  No, you would not have done this to any pitcher.  I seem to remember you leaving Jo Jo Reyes out there for every one of his starts till the game was well over.   You jumped the gun and I call BULLSHIT on that too.

Also, as pointed out to me by DJF: why the fuck are you sending Dotel out to pitch against lefties?  Are you trying to see how high a On Base Percentage can get vs lefties?  Cause that is the only fucking reason I understand.

As you all can see, I have totally calmed down by waiting 24 hours....

Detroit VS Jays

I'm going to the game tonight so I'm hoping for the win.  Tix are pretty decent, 523, right behind home, row 1.  This will be my fourth game this year after two games opening weekend, and one game vs the Tampa Bay on April 24.  Their record this year while I'm at the park is 1-2, they'd better even it up tonight.

Foul Ball

I caught this foul ball while listening to the game on The Fan 590 @ work.  That's how awesome radio is.  Unfortunately another loss for my Jays.