John Farrell maybe heading back to Boston and what maybe the future of the Jays

There is a report that the Blue Jays have given their employees the opportunity to talk to other teams and this time it was not the usually statement of the Jays have given their employees the opportunity to talk about an promotion which means that John Farrell is involved and that he seems to be looking into the Boston manager's job.

So it is looking like John Farrell is interested in the Red Sox job because if he was not very interested in the job than why are the Blue Jays allowing him to talk with Boston and the only thing that could be possible is that he would be unhappy in Toronto if he could be the manager who the Red Sox.

I really do not know if I want John Farrell to leave because it has only been one season with him as the manager and there has been a couple of questionable decision that he made like him putting DH Jose Bautista into right fielder late in a tied game so the Jays may have to continuously replacing pitchers for hitter and the only other times have been with the pitching changes like one pitcher instead of another. On the other hand why have a unhappy decision maker because if they are unhappy they may make more irrational decisions as they do not have a clear head which could very easily destroy the team and bury the young talent like Brett Lawrie.

The other thing what happens if Brian Butterfield gets a manager job in Boston or somewhere else as he has been the pitching coach for a number of seasons and pitchers have been the best part of the team or the last few seasons and right now they have pitchers doing well like Ricky Romero and Henderson Alvarez. Then on the other hand would another pitching coach be able to get Brandon Morrow to be a more well rounded pitcher instead of pitching well either on the road or @ the Rogers Centre but not both and would a new pitching coach help Brett Cecil not constantly given up long balls. Also could a new voice get through to Kyle Drabek who is still very young and not at a point where he is willing to make changes to his pitching style.

In the end if John Farrell heads back to Boston where he was pitching coach and he may have a better relationship with the pitchers that are the major focus of the down fall of the players in Boston to help them free fall out of the playoffs then Brain Butterfield will likely the next Jays manager as he was the runner up last off season when Farrell got the job.

Lets hope the Jays have a new batting coach next season

Tom Mehegan

Jays end the season @ 500 as the Jays need some charges

The 2011 season has finally ended and they ended on a winning note picking up 2 in the ninth from a 2-1 defect off Chi Sox closer Chris Sale as load the bases with one out by intentionally walking J.P. and then just kept by walking in the tying run Mark Teahen walked and then walked in the eventual winning run by walking Adam Loewen and the Jays won 3-2 with Frank Francisco recording his 17 save of the season. So the Jays got on the board first with an Eric Thames double that scored a Mike McCoy walk in the first and the Sox tied it up in the fourth on a Gordon Beckham solo homer his tenth and in the fifth the Soxs took the lead as Alejandro De Aza single and Alexei Ramirez doubled him home to give the Soxs a 2-1 lead.

In his final start of the 2011 season Brandon Morrow was all over the place as he walked 5 batters to go with his 5 hits he gave up to go with his 7Ks and the two earned runs over sixth innings help bring down his ERA to 4.72 and he ended with 11 wins this season a career high. The bullpen of Casey Janssen, Shawn Camp, and Frank Francisco pitched a inning piece and put together 2 hit shutout over three innings. The Chi Soxs starter was Philip Humber and he pitched 6.2 inning and gave up 1 run on 2 hits and 4 walks compared to 9Ks and Matt Thornton pitched 1.1 inning of shutout ball striking out a batter.

Double A says he will be busy during the off-season and should be mixing some better veteran players to give the Jays the chance to better themselves which may include a veteran Shortstop and a better back catcher because Molina did not care about playing defense. They need to add a veteran pitcher with a good pedigree to help the young pitchers become better and strength the bullpen and try and find a shutdown closer which will be hard to do.

The Jays will need to be better at home and it will be better for the home attendance as the Jays has an average attendance of just over 22K because I do not know how much the TV ratings is worth to them because they are losing money with just over 1.8 million fans coming to see the Jays @ the Rogers Centre.

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Tom Mehegan

Jays have cost themselves too many games by leaving runners in scoring position as Buehrle is likely on his way out Chi town on a winning note

Henderson Alvarez pitched another good game ended up with another loss and his record is 1 and 3 with a ERA of 3.53 and has K'd 40 and walked 8 batters in his 9 starts this season and the Jays are looking at a losing season with a lose tomorrow or a 50/50 season with a win. Alvarez pitched 7 innings and gave up 2 runs on 7 hits with 6Ks and a solo homer to Tyler Flowers in the second inning and it is back-to-back games of him hitting a second inning homer to put the Soxs in the lead and the other happened in the sixth inning when A.J. Pierzynski hit a RBI single and the runner trying to score could of been gunned down at the plate but Jose Molina was out of position as he was on the first base side of the plate and brought his glove over the plate to catch the ball and dived for the runner and if he was on the plate the runner would been out.

The Whit Soxs starter was Mark Buehrle in what is maybe his last start as a White Soxs and he got in his 21 outs 10 ground balls with two double plays and 6 Ks and a pop up by J.P. to the catcher, a Butista fly out, and J.P. lined to short but the Jays had a hit in six of the seven innings and had two runners on in the third and seventh but did not score a run against Buehrle. Buehrle gave up 6 hits to go with his 6 Ks and he did not give up a single walk and is now going to be a free agent and Boston and New York Yankees will be knocking at his door very quickly but he would be a great role model for the Jays starters if the cards he right and yes it is not going to happen.

The Jays in the eighth Mike McCoy tried to wake the bats up with a lead off homer for the Jays only run and Eric Thames followed with a walk and after Ks of Bautista and Lind Thames ran into the third out trying to steal second and it was bad timing by someone. In the ninth after Ks of Jose Molina and Colby Rasmus J.P. singled and Farrell went to the bench for Chris Woodward who hit it hard to third and was thrown out but the question is why not let David Cooper hit because the pitcher Chris Sale opponents batting average is about the same against the rights or lefts this season.

The Jays have 307 hits with runners in scoring position this season and batting .237 and 35 of them are jacks and 525 runs scored in 1296 at bats to go with 192 walks and 310 Ks and end up with an on base percentage of .329. This lead to the fact that the Jays do not have enough batters that can actually hit instead of just bombers and that begins with a new hitting game plans which starts with a new hitting coach.

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Tom Mehegan

Jays came very close to letting Ozzie Guillen go out with one more big sound bite in his last game as a White Sox

The Jays started a series against the Chicago White Soxs and it was the final game that Ozzie Guillen would manage the White Soxs as he was released by the team so he could become the manager of the former Florida Marines next season as they rename themselves the Miami Marines and will be a huge celebrity in the Latin community of Miami. It was also another game that John Farrell was away from the team as his son is in surgery to remove a tumor in his brain and he said he might be back with the team for the middle game of the series latter tonight.

The Jays had a big opportunity in the second inning with one out and the bases loaded Colby Rasmus lined a ball and if it an inch this way or that way it would of been two or three runs but instead he hit a laser beam to Tyler Flowers who caught and it was apart of a 0 for 8 going into the ninth inning. In the bottom of the inning the Soxs had Adam Dunn walk and with one out Alejandro De Aza was hit by a pitch and could of been called out because the leg he was hit on was behind the plate and the pitch may of been a strike as he trying to bunt and that lead to Tyler Flowers hitting a three run homer and after that point it was extremely hard to hit a homer as the wind picked up and Adam Lind crushed a ball to lead off the fourth and it was killed by the wind and Alejandro De Aza caught it deep in center field. Carlos Villanueva came in for the fifth and sixth inning and retired 6 of the 7 batters he faced during the two innings but then Kyle Drabek came in and with two outs in the seventh he gave up a RBI double to Dayan Viciedo to make it 4-0 after seven. In the eighth the Jays got on the board as both McCoy and Bautista walked around a Thames foul tip strike out and then Adam Lind the new baby daddy grounded out to make it 4-1 as the Jays finally capitalized on the many walks the Soxs gave them which was seven of them. In the ninth Soxs closer Sergio Santos was unable to find the plate as he walked three batters and the big hit was David Cooper who hit a two run double to make it 4-3 and a wild pitch moved Chris Woodward to third and Thames stayed at first as was asleep and Bautista loaded the bases again but the new baby daddy struck out to end the game as Santos struck out the side to end the game.

The Jays really, really, really need to find a batting coach that focuses on getting hits which would be much different than Dwayne Murphy idea of just hitting long balls which is not the right way to do things as it does not help the Jays win games or even put fans in the seats. The Jays put together hits instead of just looking for jacks the Jays would be able to put together more runs which would lead to more wins and that would most importantly put more fans in the stands.

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Tom Mehegan

Brett Cecil is a pro at given up homers while what will it take for the Jays to get better next season

The Tampa Bay Rays used the long ball to win their 12 game of the season against the Jays and be only a half game behind the vacationing Boston Red Soxs who have won 5 games in September. It started in the first when B.J. Upton and Ben Zobrist went deep and in the third Evan Longoria hit a two-run shot and finally with Jessie Litach on the hill Kelly Shoppach deep in sixth as the Rays took the Jays to wood shed 5-2 and now in Brett Cecil's last 10 of the 2011 season he has given up at least a homer in 9 of the 10 games and has a record of 0 and 7 in those starts. He gave up 4 runs off of the homers on 5 hits with 2 walks and a K in 3.2 innings while the bullpen of Litsch, Shawn Camp, Luis Perez, and Danny Farquhar thrown 4.1 innings and gave up 3 hits and struck out 8 with surrendering a walk and they were lead by Jessie Litsch who pitched 2.1 innings and struck out four and gave up two hits including the solo homer to Shoppach. For the Rays Wade Davis pitched 8 innings and gave up three hits and two walks to go along with his 6Ks but he was touched up by Dwayne Wise who hit his second homer of the season a solo shot in the the fifth and David Cooper doubled in the other run a walk to Kelly Johnson in the second.

So in 72 against the AL east of the Rays (6 and 12), The Soxs (8 and 10), The Yanks (7 and 11), ansd The O's (12-6) are 33 and 39 and the 15 and 21 against the Yanks and Soxs is respectable but losing 6 games to the O's is a little to high as the Jays should of swept them in a series once or twice at least and then losing double digits to the Rays in four straight seasons is not good at all as they are the team we are chasing for a shot at post season. While going 47 and 40 with three more games left against the White Soxs remaining is not at all good because the Jays need to destroy the AL central as really the Tigers are the only good team in the division and are made to look better by the other teams in the division and only finished so far with a 17 and 13 record with 3 games left. The West is almost as bad because the M's are just bad and A's are all pitching and no hitting while the Angels are not as good as on paper and the Rangers are a little bit better than them and the Jays are 22 and 17 against the west and are 5 and 5 against the A's and Angels while 6 and 4 against the division winning Rangers and 6 and 3 against the lonely M's. So the Jays need to be more focused and go for the kill when possible and a veteran starter with a proven record and some better Veteran position players who improve the youngsters.

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Tom Mehegan

Ricky Romero was let down by his defense in his final start of the season

The Jays were very lucky to be facing Jeff Niemann tonight as he just did not have it in the first inning as he throw 39 pitches and gave up two hits and two walks but the only problem is that they could not take advantage of it as only Jose Bautista really did anything with his 43Rd homer of the season a two run homer and the Jays left two on and Niemann only pitched the first inning.

Ricky Romero in the first inning David Cooper dropped a foul pop up and was charged an error with two out and one on the defense fell apart starting with Mike McCoy's first of two errors in the game by throwing the ball away to score B.J. Upton on a ground ball by Ben Zobrist and that was followed by Colby Rasmus for the second time in three games he was in position to take control and make an out and the ball dropped on the carpet and was credited as a double to Johnny Damon and the game was tied two-all with two unearned runs. Then in the fourth inning Ben Zobrist lead off with a solo homer which was the only earned run credit to Ricky Romero and with a B.J. Upton walk and stole second on a bad defense because Romero picked him off but was still safe and distracted Mike McCoy a few steps off second and the ground ball eat him up and the next batter Johnny Damon hit a three run homer which were all unearned. So Ricky Romero finished the season with the sixth best ERA in the American League with a 2.92 ERA and has 15 wins in his third season and has 84 double plays since '09 and leads the league in double plays.

The Rays traded Scott Kazmir to the Angels and received Sean Rodriguez and Alexander Torres came in to replace Niemann and pitched five innings and gave up only 3 hits and a walk with 5Ks and pitched up his first ever win and then the rest of the bullpen only gave up a hit over the last three innings and these are the kind of moves that have kept the Rays ahead off the Jays.

So I do not know what the Jays fielding coaches actually do but it does not look like practicing catching fly ball or pop ups and more importantly call off the other Jays to make the play because there are way too many almost collisions and tonight J.P. caught a ball over by the railing and that was not the only thing he had to contend with as he had David Cooper's glove in his face as he made the catch.

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Tom Mehegan

Brandon Morrow pitched very well while Price was his own worse enemy

Brandon Morrow pitched 7 innings and he throw 29 pitches in the first inning and he walked two and K'd the side and throw 19 pitches and k'd the side again and he and first baseman David Cooper messed up and Matt Joyce got a single as neither Jay knew who was supposed to get the ball and who was supposed to cover first to along with another walk and he throw 48 pitches over the first two innings. In the next four inning he throw 43 pitches and only hit Evan Longoria in his rib cage and another walk and it was apart of retiring 14 of 16 hitters before the Rays got their second hit Casey Kotchman and Morrow had a two hit shutout with 9K's and 4 walks but the most surprising part of Morrow's performance was that he got a double play on a ground ball by Desmond Jennings and it was the first double play behind Morrow in 30 starts while David Cooper throw high to Mike McCoy which should of been another double in the seventh inning.

David Price was own worse enemy in the third inning with one on and one out David Cooper hit the ball straight to Price who turned and throw the ball to second and it into the outfield and after a McCoy singled to loaded the bases Eric Thames hit the ball to Price who throw it wildly home and it went over the catcher head and two runs scored to open the scoring. Kelly Johnson had a RBI single and then to lead off the sixth inning hit his 21st homer of the season and in between Eric Thames had a RBI single and the Jays had a 5-0 lead.

In the eighth B.J. Upton walked off Joel Carreno and then it got interesting as Upton tried to steal second and was caught stealing as the ball meet Kelly Johnson's glove and Upton's foot at the same time and he was tagged before it reached the base but the other leg eas ahead of it and may of reached the base first and Upton was upset and was quickly ejected from the game. In the ninth Luis Perez came in and he really needs to get his confidence back as he had given up 18 runs in his last 5 appearances and this time he walked Johnny Damon to start the inning and with two outs the Rays broke the shutout when Matt Joyce had a RBI single and then Sean Rodriguez ground out to David Cooper to end the game.

In other news Adam Lind arrived in the middle of the night arrived in Tampa with his team in the middle of the night and at 5 AM he got on a plane again to get back to Toronto to be with his wife who is still expecting their first baby.

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Tom Mehegan

Edwin Encarnacion ends the Jays home schedule as some fans are disappointed that the Players do not come out and say their good-byes

Edwin Encarnacion in the bottom of the 13th inning finally ends the Jays home portion of the schedule as he mashed his 17th homer of the season to give the Jays a 4-3 victory and a home record of 42 and 39 which is not a very good home record because if U want to be a contender U need to win 50 to 60 games at home like if I was at every game 65 or 66 wins because I went to 11 games and they were 9 and 2 in those games. It very long game and it was made even longer by the fact that the Jays took 8 walks and only one of them came around to score a run and that was Jose Bautista who scored on a wild pitch in the seventh inning to tie the game at 3 and Eric Thames had his 12 homer of the season mad it 3-2 in the seventh and Jose Bautista drove in an Eric Thames double to tie the game at 1 in the fifth. Henderson Alvarez pitched well kept pounding the strike zone with 65 S to 30 B 9 ground balls and 4 Ks made up 13 outs of the 21 he got over 7 innings and only 4 fly ball outs and of his 7 hits 2 ground balls and most of the rest were liners that Jays could not make the play and Mike McCoy made a big mistake as he came in a ball and with the third run going home instead went to first for out number two on a Torii Hunter hit and Howard Kendrick scored. The two big hits off Alvarez were a homer by Alberto Callaspo in the top of the second and a Howard Kendrick triple that scored the second run in the sixth inning.

So the Jays looked like they were not taken batting practice today as I got to my seats by 6:00 - 6:05 and nobody was batting at all and John Farrell was a little loosy goosy as in the bottom of the eighth inning he let Molina hit and then have J.P. pinch hit for right fielder Adam Loewen and in the top of the ninth for a defensive replacement he decided not to go with an outfielder like Mark Teahen and more surprisingly Dwayne Wise instead he choose to put DH Jose Bautista into right field. This meant the Jays would have to if and when the game went into extras to pinch hit every time the pitchers spot came up and it could have cost them dearly if the game went even longer and did not replace Molina for J.P. so that J.P. was only used as a pinch hitter which was a real waste.

In other news some fans were upset that the Jays did not come out and say their good-byes as it was their last home game of the season and the Jays are working overtime to try and get season ticket holders as they are offering a Jersey, 100 dollar Roger centre gift card, and that is to go with the usual meet and greets that go on.

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Tom Mehegan

Vernon well taught the Jays a lession while Brett Lawrie's rookie season comes to screeching finale

Even though the Jays have 8 games left after tonight Brett Lawrie already into the off season as fractured his middle finger of his right throwing hand as was taken so ground balls during batting practice before tonight's game. The Jays missed him dearly as the bases were loaded with two outs in the third inning and his spot came up and J.P. was in it and on the first pitch he saw and grounded out to end the inning. Dustin McGowan pitched 5 innings and gave up 2 runs on 5 hits and he had a great 8Ks with his curve ball which was his strike out pitch and his Nemesis was Peter Bourjos who tripled to open the third and after Mike McCoy made a fantastic play off a ground ball by Jeff Mathis and held Bourjos at third and getting Mathis out at first but then Maicer Izturis had a RBI single. Then Bourjos hit his 12 homer in the fifth inning which gave the Angels a 2-0 lead and when McGowan left Vernon took over the game when he had Alberto Callaspo intentionally walked to load the bases to get to him and singled through the infield off Jesse Litsch for two RBIs in the sixth and in the eighth he had his 24 homer off Casey Janssen which was a two run blast to give him four BRIs in the game.

The Angles sent Dan Harden to the mound and he pitched well through eight innings and only gave up 4 hits and 4Ks along with two walks and he gave up a huge solo shot from Eric Thames that was a 200 level shot for his 11 homer to lead off the sixth inning and he left on a bad note as he got hit on his left arm on a scorching line dive by Eric Thames. I think that Dan Harden would be a great role model for the Blue Jays pitchers and the Jays should trade for him and maybe the Angels might be interested in Jose Bautista and if so it might be a good trade for both teams.

Kelly Johnson doubled in Adam Loewen in the ninth inning after Jose Bautista singled and was replaced by Loewen and the final score was 7-2 Angels and the story throughout the game was would Adam Lind have to leave the game as his wife was nearby in a hospital expecting their first children at any moment but stayed in the game for the whole game.

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Tom Mehegan

Angels take apart Blue Jays pitchers with two outs

So the Jays started well and ended up bring the tying run into the on deck circle but everything was a complete mess as Brett Cecil struck out the side in the first around a single by Alberto Callaspo and the in the bottom of the inning as apart of their three hit nights both Mike McCoy and Eric Thames singled and with one out Edwin Encarnacion had a RBI single to give the Jays a 1-0 but that's all they got in the first. In the Second inning Brett Cecil gave up a solo homer to Vernon his 23 homer and 60 RBI on the season as Brett Cecil gave up another homer and after given up a homer in his last game he has now given up homers in 8 of his last 9 games but then the Jays got the lead back as Colby Rasmus doubled and with one out and J.P. walk at second Mike McCoy has a RBI ground out and the Jays lead 2-1 after 2.

In the Top of the third Brett Cecil got to quick outs as Bobby Wilson grounded out and Peter Bourjos tried bunt his way on and J.P. throw him out at first and it looked like Cecil was settling down but then the Angles exploded with 4 hits and a walk from their next five batters including Howard Kendrick RBI ground rule double, Mark Trumbo RBI single, and Vernon Wells RBI ground rule double to give the Angels a 4-2 lead. Brett Cecil left after 3 innings giving up 3 runs, 6 hits, 2 walks, and 3Ks in his first appearance in 11 days and in the fourth Kyle Drabek came in and was everywhere except getting Angels out as Erick Aybar double to open the inning and moved to third on a sac bunt by Bobby Wilson and then stole home. As the inning continued Peter Bourjos singled and was wild pitched to second and when tried to pick him McCoy missed the ball and it went into the outfield and Bourjos advanced to third and came home on a Alberto Callaspo sac fly to make it 6-2. Then with two outs in the inning Howard Kendrick and Torii Hunter both singled and then that was followed up by a Mark Trumbo hitting a three run homer to make it 9-2. The Angels ended up with 7 hits and walk with two out in the third and fourth combined and Kyle Drabek also pitched pitch the fifth with no problems but then could not get an out in the sixth given up doubles to Peter Bourjos and Alberto Callaspo and a walk and leaving given up 6 runs on 7 hits and a walk in two plus innings.

So down by 8 10-2 in the seventh the Jays put up a 3 stop as McCoy and Thames lead off with singles and Bautista walked to load the bases with no outs and Edwin Encarnacion had like his third Sac fly of the season and Kelly Johnson had a RBI single which just before Brett Lawrie scorched a ball down to third where Alberto Callaspo made a brilliant play and got Lawrie out at first when it should of been a two run double down into the left field corner but instead only one run scores and the Jays went to the bottom of the ninth down 10-5.

In the bottom of the ninth the Jays got an Eric Thames single and then both Bautista and Encarnacion struck out but Kelly Johnson reached on an error on first baseman Mark Trumbo who missed the catch and Thames scored. While Brett Lawrie was at the plate Johnson stole second by indifference before walking and finally with J.P. on deck as the tying run Scott Downs came into strike up Colby Rasmus to end the game.

So it was another one of those kind of games where your pitching lets U down as 6 of the Angels 10 runs came with two outs in the inning and both Cecil and Drebek just could not get that final out and it hurt the team.

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Tom Mehegan

Could it be the perfect time to trade Jose Bautista

I know that thinking about trading a guy like Jose Bautista who has played 301 games over the last two seasons with .280 batting average (jump of .44 points between '10 and '11 seasons) with 96 homers (back-to-back 40 plus homer seasons) with 224 RBIs with 58 doubles and 5 triples to go with 224 walks that has given him a huge OBP of .406. The reason why to even consider it because his shoulder that used to be locked now swings open and he has been having a very hard time figure out what is a strike and what is a ball since the all-star break and has been taken strikes that he would of smashed before the break and ends up arguing with the home plate umpire on a nightly basis. Since the all-star break he has played 56 games with a .254 batting average and 11 homers along with 35 RBIs with 8 doubles and a triple and the most surprising that he has walk and struck out 50 times each as in 84 games before the break he had 24 more walks and only 4 more Ks in a third more games.

His trade value will not be anywhere close to this level again especially if he can not settle down his shoulder he will go back to closer to what he was before September '09 when his homer bashing ability began and the Jays could used a very strong veteran pitcher not like a Jo Jo Reyes but a guy who would be a great number two star behind Ricky Romero who would be able to help along the other starter pitchers. The other starts are a little hit and miss as Brandon Morrow is like a box of chocolates U never know what U will get as one season he pitches well @ the Rogers Centre along with pitching well during day games and then the next season he will pitch well on the road and during night games. Then there is Brett Cecil who just ended a streak of 8 straight games of given up a homer and is being killed by the big inning because he can not settle down and minimize the damage and then there is Kyle Drabek who needs to check his ego at the door as he feels he can not learn anything more because he feels he is unbeatable and until he is willing to charge his way of doing things he will not be a major league starter. Finally there is Jesse Litsch who is pitching out of the bullpen and is having more successful outings than he is blowing games and Dustin McGowan is a complete work in progress but at least the Jays have Henderson Alvarez who is getting better and better each outing except that he has been pitching in the majors for a short time and who knows what will happen when the rest of the league figures him out.

Maybe like a Dan Haren or Tim Hudson or a pitcher like them who have been in the league a few seasons and have a strong track record who can set a good example for the other starters and help advance the Jays future to the next step which would be a playoff race next season which would be more realistic with an extra wild card birth became a reality.

The off season might be interesting in Jays land

Tom Mehegan

Ricky Romero almost completely grounds Angels as the Jays win another in ten

Ricky Romero grounded the Angels as he had 19 ground ball outs compared to 2 fly ball outs to go with 3 ground ball singles and 5Ks over his 9 innings made up 27 of his 32 batters so he most complete ground the Angels and it was his no walk game in while. The only enemy he had tonight was the long ball because of those 5 balls hit into the outfield 2 of them found the seats for homers as Torii Hunter hit his 21st homer of the season to lead off the second inning and he also had one of the two fly ball outs along with a fly ball single so he ended up hitting 3 of the 5 balls into the outfield and had two of the six hits of Romero tonight. Mark Trumbo hit the other homer to lead off the fifth his 28th of the season and Vernon Wells had the other fly ball out against Romero and Romero went 9 innings given up 2 runs on 6 hits with 5Ks and left with a no decision as the Jays could only muster up 2 runs of their own on a J.P. two run single in the fourth and was the only hit with runners in scoring position in the game as they went 1 for 11. The only real Angel threat was in the top of the tenth inning when Vernon Wells doubled to open the inning and after a Peter Bourjos sac bunt moved him to third Casey Janssen got a timely strike out of Erick Aybar followed by another ground ball by Alberto Callaspo to a charging Brett Lawrie who throws to first for the third out of the inning. Then in the bottom of the inning Mike McCoy starts the inning reaching on a throwing error to Erick Aybar who throw the ball past the first baseman and Eric Thames singled a ground ball through the infield. McCoy moved to third on a ground ball by Bautista and Thames was force out at second so with runners on the corners Adam Lind stepped up and hit the ball on the ground to Torii Hunter who was the five infielder and was between first and second and he throw wildly home drawing catcher Jeff Mathis away from home plate and his dive attempt at tagging McCoy came late. The Jays have now won all 10 games in extra innings at home and have 13 walk off victories this season and are now 12-4 in extras this season.

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Tom Mehegan

Brandon Morrow shuts down the Yankees power while Adam Lind powered the Blue Jays to a victory

The first of today's game was Brandon Morrow who throw 8 innings of four hit shutout with a walk and 8Ks and throw 107 pitches in the game and if U look deeper U will see that after two innings he had given up 3 hits and a walk on 39 pitches. Then in the next 6 innings the Yankees got two singles from Eduardo Nunez as he had 3 of the Yankees four hits in the game and Morrow retired 18 straight batters including Jose Bautista throwing to first when Nunez went to far rounding first base on his sixth inning single and was a dead duck at second before Nunez singled with two outs in the eighth.Brandon ended up throwing 68 pitches in his last 6 innings on the mound and kept the patient Yankees bats off guard with consistently throwing first ball strikes and he did amazing in the last daytime home game for the Blue Jays in 2011 after being horrible during day games all season.

The Second Star was Adam Lind who in the second inning hit his 25th homer of the season to open the inning off Freddie Garcia and give the Jays a 1-0 lead and with one out in the fourth he hit his 26th homer of the season also off Freddie Garcia and it was the first two hits that Garcia gave up in the game.

The third Star was Eric Thames who had a sac fly in the sixth inning to give the Jays a 3-0 win after he made some brilliant plays in the out field and it was before he fouled a ball off that ended up hitting his eye and split it but he still can see out of it and will be day to day.

Frank Francisco picked up his 16 save in 20 attempts and John Farrell said after the game that they will look into all future decisions including Francisco's in the off season and the Jays ended their 18 games with the Yankees with a 7 win and 11 losses and with three against the Rays still to go the Jays are 32-37 against the AL East this season.

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Tom Mehegan

In a game of to completely different stories Mariano Rivera tied Trevor Hoffman for all time saves

The first four innings of the game was all Blue Jays as Henderson Alvarez was breezing through the Yankees batters as he faced the minimum over the first two innings with Mark Teixeira hitting into a double play to end the first and Nick Swisher hit into the double play in the second. Then the Jays came to bat in the second and 5 of the first 6 batters reaching base and Colby Rasmus RBI double while Brett Lawrie almost beat out a Jeter throw on a ground but picked up a RBI and Jose Molina had a RBI ground rule double and Mike McCoy had sac bunt RBI as the Jays brought 8 batters to the plate and scored 4 to open the scoring. Alvarez faced a batter above minimum through the third inning and a walk and double lead to the first Yankee run in the fourth when Robinson Cano a sac fly dropped by Adam Loewen but Cano gave it right back with one out he thought Rasmus had no chance to catch a Nick Swisher field ball but he did and Cano over ran Teixeira who would of scored the Yankees second run if Cano had not run into a careless out. In the bottom of the fourth Mike McCoy had a two run double to give the Jays a 6-1 lead and Alvarez had shutout the Yankees on 5 hits and a walk and had given up 9 hits and 2 walks in 11 innings of 1 run ball against the Yanks and Soxs in his young MLB career.

Then in the sixth the Yankees showed Alvarez and the Blue Jays how the Yankees are the Yankees as Curtis Granderson begain with a ground rule double and Teixeira single him home and then Alvarez trow a wild pitch and later hit Cano to bring A-Rod to the plate and he hit a no doubter as A-Rod's three run homer cut the Jays lead to 6-5 as the Yankees just started to put their bats together. When Carlos Villanueva came in for the seventh Jeter got a single which lead to Curtis Ganderson stepped up and Carlos must of thought that Ganderson would not end the at bat as he fouled off 7 straight 2 and 2 pitches before he joined Bautista in the 40 homer club as on the 12 pitch he saw was delivered into the center field seats and the two run digger gave the Yankees a 7-6 lead. The Yankees bullpen after Bartolo Colon left after four innings of 6 runs on 7 hits and a walk did not even allow a Jay to reach base and the final scene was Mariano Rivera got Eric Thames to fly out to Curtis Ganderson and the last player to ever wear the No. 42 picked up his 42 save on the season and his 601St in his hall of fame career to tied Trevor Hoffman for the all-timer record in saves as the Yankees won 7-6.

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Tom Mehegan

Blue Jays get to Sabathia and then finish off the Yanks in the bottom of the ninth

So in a game where the Jays faced the second best pitcher as Justin Verlander in the American League is heads and tails better than anyone else which includes CC Sabathia who was facing the Jays tonight and the Jays had the bases juiced in separate innings and they were 1 for 4 with the bases juiced as Adam Lind had a three run double in the fifth inning which was apart of a 8 batter inning for the Jays and it put the Jays up 4-3 at that point. By the end of the game it would be Edwin Encarnacion who would have nightmares about it as he stepped to the plate three times in a row with them juiced and ended the inning each time including a double play in the fourth started by CC as he went home and then Encarnacion was thrown out at first and the only RBI Encarnacion had was a fielders choice with runners on the corners with one out in the bottom of the first. The Jays ended up going to the bottom of the ninth tied at four and the inning scored with Adam Lind facing Boone Logan who in 10 at bats Lind had no hits so he just came inches away from ending the game with a walk off homer but instead had his second double of the game and then Brett Lawrie really had made it to the bigs as he was intentionally walked to get to the returning Colby Rasmus who bunted and the Yankees got pinch runner Adam Loewen at third but when Cory Wade came into face Jose Molina it was time to turn out the lights as Molina gaped it for the winning run in a 5-4 victory. The Jays got 9 of their 13 hits from the combination of Mike McCoy, Adam Lind, and Kelly Johnson and Johnson reached base everytime he came to the plate but it was the pitching performance of Dustin McGowan against a very tough Yankees lineup in a game where any little mistake could lose U the ball game as Sabathia can win a game by going all out for nine innings but McGowan throw 5 innings and gave up 3 runs on 3 hits with two walks and K'd four Yankees and all the runs came to back-to-back hitters in Nick Swisher who had a RBI double and Eric Chavez smacked a two run digger as he throw 75 pitches (43 s - 32 b). CC on the other hand was not the true CC as the Jays for the second wore out their opponent as he throw 120 pitches over 5.2 innings pitched and he gave up 4 runs on 10 hits along with an incredible 4 walks to go with his 8Ks.

So the shattered dreams tour continues with Henderson Alvarez going to the mound against Bartolo Colon and Alvarez just impresses more and more every time he steps on the mound and the Jays can shatter a lot of teams dreams this week as they have the Angels followed by the Rays after the Yankees.

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Tom Mehegan

Jays win a error filled game with a 3 spot in the eighth as Romero pitch another good game

Both the Red Soxs and the Jays both had 3 errors in the game as Brett Lawrie had his worst defensive game in his short MLB career as he had two errors when he messed up a force attempt in the second and he had a throwing error in the fourth error and he now has 6 in 38 games at third which is OK for a rookie and in the sixth John Lackey hit him with a pitch and tried to stay in the game but in the end he left for Mark Teahen to start the bottom of the seventh.

In the first after Lackey struck out Mike McCoy to start the game four of the next five Jays reached base including Edwin Encaracion and Kelly Johnson getting two out RBI singles to take an early 2-0 lead. In the second Ricky Romero got into trouble when Pedroia and Youkilis started with singles and Pedroia scored on Lawrie's error on the force play and Jason Varitek tied the game up with RBI ground out and then after given up a triple to Jacoby Ellsbury to open the third Romero retired 9 of the next 10 batters with Lawrie throwing error allowing Ryan Lavarnway to reach and the streak was ended by MVP candidate Adrian Gonzalez hitting his 26th homer of the season to lead off the sixth inning and give the Red Soxs a 4-2 lead. John Lackey pitched into the sixth inning and gave up 2 runs on 7 hits with a walk and 4Ks and the Jays turned the tables on the Red soxs as Lackey throw 115 pitches (79s - 36b) over 5.1 innings pitched meaning that they fouled pitch after pitch and this happened in the first inning where he throw 31 pitches along with at bats like Adam Lind in the fifth who had a 10 pitch at bat and J.P. his finally batter of the game had a 8 pitch at bat.

Ricky Romero pitched throw the seventh inning and had given up 4 runs on 6 hits with a walk and thrown 92 pitches and was still trailing in the game but then in the top of the eighth off of the Jays favorite Red Soxs pitcher Daniel Bard (who blow Wakefield's attempt in the 11-10 Jays win last week) walked the first two batters he faced and only throw a single strike to open the inning. This lead to Mark Teahen putting down a bunt that loaded the bases on a Bard throwing error and J.P. grounded out to score a run which was followed by the hit of the game by Adam Loewen which was a two run single to win the game 5-4 and Ricky pitched up the win and he went on to pitch eight innings and ended up with 4Ks and now has 15 wins. Frank Francisco came in and struck out the first two batters faced and ended the game with a Carl Crawford fly out to Eric Thames for his 15th save in 18 attempts and the Jays finished their season series with the Sox and went 8 and 10 in the 18 games between the two teams.

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Tom Mehegan

Tim Wakefield wins his 200th game as Morrow still can not get things right

Tim Wakefield won his 200th game after David Ortiz gave a wake up call to his teammates when he said "At this point you panic -- hell, yeah" and they came out and dismantle the Blue Jays 18-6 and the Jays where ahead 3-2 after inning and a half and a 5-4 after 3 innings played. Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia had 4 hits each and Ellsbury had three RBIs and a homer while Pedroia had five RBIs and two homers in the game. Jarrod Saltalamacchia had four RBIs in the game and it he had a three run double and Tim Wakefield pitched 6 innings and gave up 5 runs on 6 hits with 2 walks and 6Ks and he was hurt by homers by J.P. (23) who had a three run homer after a review and Jose Bautista (42) hit a two homer and David Cooper had three of the ten hits the Blue Jays had and had the last Jays RBI. Brandon Morrow pitched 5.1 innings and gave up 7 runs (5 earned) on 7 hits with a walk and 2Ks as David Cooper had an throwing error that allowed two runs to score and Luis Perez gave up three runs on four hits including a three run homer to Dustin Pedroia without getting an out. Brad Mills gave up three runs on two hits and a walk and did not record an out and Danny Farquhar made his major league debut and it will be a thing to forget as he gave up four runs (3 earned) on three hits and two walks in a 0.2 inning pitch. The Soxs sent 11 batters to the the plate and they scored 7 runs on 5 hits and three walks and it took a 11-5 gave and made it 18-5 before David Cooper had his RBI double.

Tim Wakefield debuted on July 31st and had a 8-1 record in his debut season and after two failed seasons followed by in 1995 Red Soxs took a flyer on him and has pitched with them for the last 17 seasons and has had two 17 win seasons and two 16 win seasons and has 186 of his 200 wins with Boston and helped them break the Babe's curse in '04 and won another world series 2007 in that season he won 17 games in the regular season.

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Tom Mehegan

The Blue Jays were in seventh heaven

In the seventh inning with the Blue Jays down 5-3 the Jays batters took out their nine irons and drove the ball deep off Orioles starter Tommy Hunter as David Cooper drove his second career homer out of the park to lead off the inning which was followed by JP driving one 400 feet only to have center fielder Matt Angle make a leaping catch to take away extra bases at least and finally the next batter Adam Loewen drove a ball out as well his first career homer and the game was tied at 5. Tommy Hunter would give up a double to Mike McCoy and a single to Eric Thames before leaving the game and he ended up given up 3 runs on four hits in the seventh and he had only given up 3 runs (1 earned) on 5 hits over his first 6 innings on the mound and was credited with the loss when Willie Eyre on a 1 - 1 count Bautista hit a sac fly to center field to score Mike McCoy and give the Jays a 6-5 win and Frank Francisco picked up his 14 save in 17 games and I am very scared he will still be on the Jays next season.

So the Jays picked up two unearned runs in the first when the first Jay Hunter faced Mike McCoy bunted down the first baseline and should of been easy pickings for Mark Reynolds but instead Reynolds must of thought he was playing third (he has close to 25 errors over at third this season) and had the ball go off his glove into foul territory where McCoy and Reynolds drove for the first base bag and McCoy got there first. McCoy would eventually score on a RBI single by Jose Bautista and with two outs Thames scored on a Brett Lawrie ground out to take a 2-1 lead and the Jays took a 3-2 lead in the third when Adam Lind hit a RBI single to score Mike McCoy.

Dustin McGowan started his first game since July 8th, 2008 against these same Orioles and he had a hard time finding the plate to some Oriole batters as he walked 5 of them and four of them came back to score and when he got ahead of hitters he was not able to finish them off as they had foul ball after foul ball and that really worked up his pitch total to 75 over three innings where he gave up only three hits but his 5 walks worked up his balls to strike ratio of 36 ball - to - 39 strikes. When Carlos Villanueva and Shawn Camp came in they kept the walks going as they walked 3 (Carlos 1, Camp 2) and one of Shawn Camps walks came around to score which meant that every run the Orioles scored came off of a walk and the Jays pitchers walked 9 and gave up 7 hits. The Jays bullpen of Joel Carreno (who picked up the win), Casey Janssen, and Frank Francisco did not give up a hit in the final three innings of the game with Frank being the only pitcher of the three to walk a batter and the Jays won the season series 12 to 6 against the Orioles.

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Tom Mehegan

J.P. comes off the bench in the ninth to collect a game winning hit in the bottom of the ninth

So the Jays had three hits going into the ninth inning and he made the beast of it as in with a Yunel Escobar walk on Jose Bautista in the first who got a reprieve when Orioles catcher Craig Tatum dropped the ball that if he had held onto it would of probably called strike three and on the very next pitch he smocked a 200 level two run homer his 41st on the season. While in the second Brett Lawrie hit a solo homer his ninth of the season but the Jays would be down 4-3 going into the bottom of the ninth. With one out Kevin Gregg came in and struck out Brett Lawrie for out number two but then Gregg fell apart as he walked Kelly Johnson which was followed by a Jose Molina single and the bases were loaded by Gregg hitting Adam Loewen and then Gregg throw a wild pitch to tie the game as Kelly Johnson's walked score with J.P. at the plate who hit a game winning RBI single to win the game for the Jays 5-4.

Henderson Alvarez pitched 7 innings and he started the game by getting two quick outs in the first three inning but then the Orioles put together hits to score a single in each of the innings as Chris Davis had a two out RBI single in the first and in the second Matt Angle had a two out RBI single scoring a lead off single by Kyle Hudson. In the third inning Chris Davis did it again with a two out RBI double and in the fourth inning Brett Lawrie made a great play with two outs to end the inning when Craig Tatum hit a soft grounder to third and almost beat it out infield hit and from that point on Alvarez only gave up a single to Matt Angle and a walk to Chris Davis as he ended his start by retiring 12 of the last 14 Orioles to face him and he gave up 3 runs on 9 hits with a walk to go with his 4Ks.

Yunel Escobar was hit a very nasty pitch that ended up almost at second base and was in a lot of pain and maybe sitting down for the tomorrow and could be back Tuesday when Colby Rasmus returns as he is going to be playing in the playoffs with New Hampshire Fisher Cats today and tomorrow and comeback Tuesday against the Red Sox.

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Tom Mehegan

Brett Cecil pitches very well but the Jays bats laid a very smelly stinky egg

Before the game Miss Canada throw out the first pitch to Ricky Romero who is dating Miss USA so he has it very good. Talking about good that would be Brett Cecil tonight as for the first time in 9 games he did not give up a long ball and he even K'd 9 Orioles instead and pitched into the eighth inning and had given up a run on 5 hits and he most got out of the eighth only given up two more hits and that single run but instead Nick Markakis had nine lives as almost hit into a double play and he ran it out and was safe while the Orioles scored their run and then almost got catch stealing with Shawn Camp on the mound. In the ninth inning Kyle Drabek returned to the major league mound and fell behind his batters but went through the Orioles 1-2-3 and you would think that Cecil picked up his fifth victory of the season but instead he picked up his ninth loss on the season as the Orioles won 2-0 as Jeremy Guthrie who was the Orioles work horse and his 4.45 ERA and came out and pitched 7 innings of 3 hit shutout with 3 walks included 5Ks and the Blue Jays had more walks (5) than hits (3). Adam Lind had two of three Jays hits as he had been sucking his thumb on the bench for the last two games and Valdi had a RBI single in the sixth inning as Bautista still is watching too many pitches still even though he had the other hit and a walk to lead off the ninth but finished at third as Brett Lawrie ground out to end the game. The Orioles have won 6 games against the Blue Jays this season after the Jays swept them last season and it looks like the Jays do not take them seriously and will need to win the last two games of this series with Henderson Alvarez will keep trying to extend his 14 inning scoreless streak including eight scoreless innings against the Orioles in a 13-0 Jays wipe wash.

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Tom Mehegan

Ricky Romero and the Rookies are amazing

Ricky Romero came into the game with a 2 and 6 record and an ERA of 8.08 his career against the Red Soxs and tonight he went into the seventh inning working on a three hit shutout with two walks and then in the seventh he walked Jason Varitek with one out and he could of kept his three hit shutout. So with two outs Yunel Escobar had a choice and may of realized it and the choices were to toss to second to get the catcher Varitek or try and get speedy Darnell McDonald at first and he choose first McDonald was safe which lead to a Jacoby Ellsbury RBI double on the next pitch which was Romero's last as he pitched 6.2 and gave up 3 runs on 5 hits with 3 walks and K'd 7 Soxs as Casey Janssen gave up a two run single to Marco Scutaro to give him 11 hits in the series.

Then what was almost as good as Romero were the rookies and they were lead by David Cooper and his triple A batting tittle who made his return tonight after being sent down May 15 with a batting average of 121 (4 for 33) in 13 games with 5 RBIs and he returned in style with a 3 for 4 game with two doubles and two RBIs. Brett Lawrie went 2 for 4 in the game and is now hitting 330 while Eric Thames made use of his one hit as he hit his 10th homer which came right after the Soxs put up their three and J.P. had the big hit of the game as he rocked his 22Nd homer of the season and it was a three run shot which was apart of the Jays four run second inning which came right after David Cooper's first RBI that scored Lawrie. Edwin Encarnacion hit a solo shot his 16th of the season that helped the Jays take a 7-3 lead into the ninth where Frank Francisco came into the game in a non save opportunity where he gave up a lead off homer to Jason Varitek and then it lead to it coming down to Francisco and Dustin Pedroia who was the tying run and Francisco struck him out and Dustin was happy to leave Toronto as he finished 1 for 20 with 5Ks.

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Tom Mehegan

Edwin Encarnacion sours Tim Wakefield as 7 is not lucky for Wakefield

Brandon Morrow looked like he would of reversed his home numbers but instead he just could not do it as he gave up 8 runs on 8 hits with a walk and two hit batters in 4.1` innings pitch and hit Adrian Gonzalez to load the bases with no outs and it looked like he was going to turn it around after he K'd David Ortiz but on the next pitch he hit Kevin Yurkillis to score a run and it was 1-0 with two outs and then Marco Scutaro hit a two run single to make it 3-0. In the fourth inning after retiring 7 in a row before he fell apart again with the Jays up 5-3 and he gave up two doubles around a Scutario walk including a Josh Reddick RBI double and with two outs it looked like he was going to get out of it but instead Jacoby Ellsbury hit a three run homer to give the Sox a 7-5 lead and with one out in the fifth David Ortiz went second deck on Morrow's last pitch. So it was 8-5 going into the bottom of the eighth Daniel Bard the Sox setup guy was in and he could not find the plate as he throw 19 balls compared to 17 strikes as the inning started with BC boys being the first two batters with Brett Lawrie got hit and Adam Lowewen picked up his first major league hit a single which was followed by a J.P. walk to load the bases and then he K'd Dwayne Wise (swinging) and Yunel Escobar (looking). Then walked in two runs to tie the game and soured Tim Wakefield (as he would not get his 200th win his seventh attempt) as Eric Thames and Jose Bautista both walked which brought Edwin Encarnacion to plate and he finished off a 5 RBI game by hitting a bases clearing double to give the Jays a 11-8. Frank Francisco came in to close the game down but did not start well as Adrian Gonzalez hit a solo homer to start the inning and it was followed by David Ortiz who singled and then Francisco got two quick outs before Marco Scutario had a RBI single but his pinch runner Mike Aviles was caught stealing by back-up catcher Jose Molina to end the game.

Tim Wakefield just did not have his knuckle ball working early so he was in trouble as he walked Yunel Escobar and Jose Bautista around a Eric Thames ground out and two wild pitches put runners on the corners for Edwin Encarnacion who picked up his first sac fly since opening day. In the second J.P. muscled a knuckler into the stands for a catcher team record for homers a two run shot to tie the game at 3 and in the bottom of the third Jose Bautista had a RBI ground rule double and then later stole home as Wakefield gave up 5 runs (4 earned) on 3 hits and more importantly 3 walks and two hit batters in 5 innings.

The Bullpen of Carlos Villanueva, Jessie Litsch, and Shawn Camp pitched 3.2 inning of three hit shutout to put the Jays into the position to try and win the game.

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Tom Mehegan

Dustin McGowan a bright light during a dark game for rhe Jays

Dustin McGowan came in to start the 5 inning and the Jays were already down 11-0 and in his first major league appearance in over 3 years and Tommy John surgery and then over the next few years he had a couple more different surgeries and he pitched 4 plus inning ball given up 3 runs on 5 hits with 3 walks and 5Ks. His first inning was a struggle for him as he was a little nervous as gave up three hits to the first four batters including a two run double for Marco Scutaro and then until the ninth inning was a solo homer by Josh Reddick and then in the ninth he walked for first two batters before leaving the game to cheers after entering the game with cheers and through 74 pitches and 44 for strikes. The question to be asked tomorrow and the next couple of days is how will his arm bounce back and recover and will he be able to pitch on Sunday and will he be a starter or coming out of the bullpen.

Except for that it was all the Red Sox as Luis Perez got smoked as he gave up 8 runs on 10 hits with 2 walks over 2.2 innings pitched and Rommie Lewis did not do a lot better as he gave up 3 rens on 5 hits and struck out 3 as the Red Sox ended up with 14 runs on 20 hits and it was lead by Marco Scutario and David Oritz bot had 4 hits in the game and Scutario had four RBIs and Oritz had two RBIs while Adrian Gonzalez had 3 hits and 2 RBIs.

Jon Lester shut down the Blue Jays as he pitched 7 inning of 3 hit shutout and he had 11Ks and a walk and just did not allow the Jays to get any offensive going as Yunel Escobar had two of the hits for the Jays.

Tomorrow Tim Walefield goes for his seventh attempt at 22th win while Morrow will try to reverse his home numbers.

Tom Mehegan

Brett Lawrie almost hits the former Hard Rock Restaurant in extras to end a pitcher's duel

It was superb pitching duel as Henderson Alvarez pitched 6 innings of four hit shutout with a walk and 4Ks and the bullpen of Carlos Villanueva, Casey Janssen, Frank Francisco, and Shawn Camp pitched 5 innings of 3 hit shutout with 3 walks and 5Ks with great defense from the likes of Mike McCoy at shortstop and the play of Dwayne Wise in the top of the ninth that was out number 1 of the bat of Carl Crawford that if he had not made the catch it would likely by a triple and would of broken the scoreless tie when Josh Reddick followed with a double but instead it was another scoreless inning as Frank Francisco stuck out Jason Veritek and former Blue Jay Marco Scutaro flied to left for out # 3 as Thames made the catch. The Red Sox pitching was not worse as Josh Beckett pitched 3.2 innings of 3 hit shutout with a walk and 6Ks and he got hurt when he throw a pitch to Kelly Johnson and like all game the Jays were abusing Veritek behind the plate as they stole bases at will and this time it was Edwin Encarnacion stealing second base as the Jays stole 5 bases in 5 attempts as Encarnacion had 2, McCoy 2, and Lawrie 1. Alfredo Aceves came in for him and pitched 3.2 as well and had an one hit shutout with 3 walks and 4Ks and the rest of the bullpen pitched 3.1 innings of 1 run on two hit with 2 walks and 5Ks.

So it came down to the bottom 11 with two out and Brett Lawrie stepped to the plate and did something he had not done before as a Blue Jay and was get a walk off hit to win the game and he did it in style by almost hitting the abandon Hard Rock Restaurant as he hit his 8th homer of the season to win the game 1-0. The two teams today were a combined 0 for 19 in the game with runners in scoring position and the Sox had 4 doubles apart of their 7 hits and Lawrie had the only extra base hit in the Jays 6 hits.

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Tom Mehegan

John Farrell and Dustin McGowan are both back with the Blue Jays

John Farrell is back and lets hope that the Blue Jays can put together a win streak together and finish just above the 500 mark and this team is unpredictable and when U think there down and out they pick themselves up.

Dustin MacGowan is back and he is back for the first time since July 2008 and has set back after set up with Tommy John surgery which was followed by rotater cup surgery and will be either a starter or a long reliever because it will be less stressful than just come in and get a key out and more important he will not be a closer as that would put a lot of stress on his arm which is extremely fragile. He will be the Blue Jays property until the end of next season and is a project in which if he is able to be a solid pitcher again it would be a plus for the Jays and if not then the Jays do not have much of a financial commitment as he is making 450,000 this season and will not make much more to start next season.

It nice to have Farrell back and lets hope McGowan is able to restart his career

Tom Mehegan

The Yankees get special treatment as they sweep the Jays but Jose Bastista gets back - to - back 40 homer seasons

Brett Cecil throw 84 pitches over his 6 innings and was dealing most of the day as he only gave up 5 hits and a walk along with a hit batter but the problem he had was that it was a walk to the first batter he faced Brett Gardner and then he stole second and scored on a throwing error on Mike McCoy to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Then in the third with the lead off hitter Jesus Montero singling and then Brett Gardner was hit by a Cecil pitch to bring Derek Jeter to the plate and he hit the ball in the same area as his 3000th hit for a three run homer on a ball up in the zone and made sure that Cecil kept his streak of given up a homer as it has reached 8 homer to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead.

Then just like Ricky Romero yesterday CC Sabathia was not getting the close calls early in the game and the Yankees dugout was barking to home plate Umpire Tom Hallion but instead of someone getting tossed like Butterfield Hallion gave the dugout a warning and after Edwin Encarnacion singled and Brett Lawrie walked which allowed Mark Teahen to have a RBI double and then Jose Molina ground out to score Lawrie and it was 4-2 Yankees. Then strangely after that CC got the inside call he was looking for and then A-Rod got a check swing solo homer to give him 16 of the season and in the eighth inning Jose Bautista hit his 40th homer a monster solo shot and Yankees catcher Russell Martin got up into Hallion's grill complaining about a pitch that was called a ball and Martin thought was a strike and Joe Girardi came out to protect his catcher. CC Sabathia went 7.1 innings given up 2 runs on 6 hits and a walk to with his 10 Ks

Nobody was ejected even though they were warned and they were complaining about ball and strikes which is an almost automatic ejection and even more strange when they complained they got the umpire to give them the call and that never happens in baseball so it looks like the Yankees are given special treatment. Tom Hallion was the umpire who came down from first base and ejected Butterfield yesterday when it was not his issue but because he was the crew chief he stuck his noise where it was not supposed and there are more homers hit at new Yankees stadium and lead the league in homers and I do not hear that the Yankees are stealing signs.

Jon Rauch came in for the bottom of the eighth inning and had nothing as he gave up a two run homer to Nick Swisher as he pitched 0.2 inning pitched as he gave up 2 hits and a walk as the Yankees took a 7-3 lead as the Yankees put up 4 in the eighth to make the final 9-3 to sweep away the Jays.

Bautista is the first back - to - back 40 homer season the first time since David Oritz had three straight 40 + homer season between 2004 - to - 2006 (41, 47, 54) and first Jay since Carlos in'99 and '00 (44 and 41)

Tom Mehegan

Ricky Romero was taken out of the game to early and was not getting the calls from the umpire

Don Wakamatsu made a huge mistake by taken Ricky Romero out of the game in the seventh inning after Ricky Romero made a mistake pitch to Curtis Garnerson with two strikes on him as his pitch started too far outside and hit him in the numbers and there were two out as well and then he walked A-Rod on four pitches and Robinson Cano came up and that is when Wakamatsu took Romero out immediately as soon as he stepped out of the dugout. He ended up bringing Casey Janssen in and the only problem with this move was that Robinson Cano was 3 for 7 against Janssen in his career and he ended up down 0 and 2 and battled back to hit a two run double to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead. Ricky Romero was fighting the Yankees hitter along with the home plate umpire who was not giving Romero the pitches on the corners and he pitched 6.2 and gave up 5 runs on 8 hits with 3 walks and just over a 100 pitches and on the other hand Bartono Calon was getting called strikes off the plate to the point where Kelly Johnson had the finally two pitches were down and inside followed a high strike a called strike three and at this point Johnson thought what is going on and asked the Umpire what the deal and then third base coach Brain Butterfield picked up his cause and ended up being ejected from the game in the third. The Jays got an amazing performance from Brett Lawrie who had a fielders choice in the second as he ran out a double play ball and then went first to third on a dying quail that dropped in between three Yankees and then had a diving play to start a double play to end the eighth inning and finally he hit a ball to the wall and almost a triple.

The Jays lost Eric Thames after he was the middle of 1-2-3 striking out first inning by Calon and left the game because he took a big bite out of the big apple last night and was now dizzy and Dwayne Wise replaced him and had a triple that was singled in by Jose Bautista and later he hit a solo homer. The Jays got another homer from Adam Lind who has now got 24 homers on the season and J.P. had a sac fly as well but the Jays still lost 6-4 as Cano scored on a Nick Swisher RBI single. Yunel Escobar also left the game with a sprained wrist after catching Francisco Cervelli stealing second base in the fourth inning.

Now the Jays face CeCe tomorrow in hope to get a single win in the Big Apple and 500 road trip and remember to vote Tom Check into the baseball hall of fame by National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on facebook

Tom Mehegan

The Jays take early lead but then the Yankees outfielders were magic along with Nova

So with the first three Blue Jay batters reaching base it was looking like Ivan Nova who was looking for a 10 game win streak it looked like the Jays would get something off him but instead the Yankees outfielders defense were the ones to step up and take control of the game as Adam Lind hit a dying duck to Brett Gardner who made a sliding catch and a second run scored as Lind had a Sac fly and Jose Bautista had a RBI single. Then Edwin Encarnacion hit a ball into the left field corner but Gardner made another diving catch and doubled up Bautista at first as he had thought that it was going to drop and if he got a jump he would score and the Jays had a 2-0 lead but then over the next 6 innings Nova allowed three Jays to reach base as Eric Thames had a second hit a double in the sixth after which Bautista was intentionally walked and the only other Jay to reach with Nova on the mound was Mike McCoy who reached base on a fielding error by Derek Jeter and he also was the only one to get a hit off the Yankees bullpen. It from not getting contact on the ball but instead it was the Yankees outfielders as Jose Bautista rocketed out to right field and it had the distance but not the height as Andrew Jones took number 40 as from Bautista leading off the fourth and in the fifth Brett Gardner was back and this time he robbed Brett Lawrie of a hit.

The Jays had Brandon Morrow on the mound and it was not the Rogers Centre and it was also night time so it looked like Morrow would be in his element tonight and it was looking good early as he retired the first five Yankees he faced and K'd three of them but then he walked his first of three Yankees in his 6 innings as he walked Eric Chavez but Andrew Jones grounded out no damage. In the the third he walked Canadian Russell Martin to open the inning and with one out Brett Gardner was at it again as he made Morrow pay in spades as he launched his sixth homer of the season to tie the game at 2 and then Derek Jeter reached on a Yunel Escobar throwing error and it got Yunel Escobar so hot that the home plate umpire changed his call that he almost got tossed and then in between innings Jose Bautista and Luis Rivera (who has replaced John Farrell in the dugout and will stay in the dugout until the Jays return home on labor day) talked to Escobar and got him to come down. Then in the bottom of the fifth inning Derek Jeter singled and moved to second on Morrow's third and final walk to that slugger Curtis Granderson (like this season of Bautista) and then home run derby winner Robinson Cano collected a RBI single to give the Yankees a 3-2 win with Rivera coming in for the ninth and picking up his 37th save of the season. Brandon Morrow pitched 6 innings and allowed 3 runs on 4 hits while walking 3 and K'd 8 and he had difficulty with the patient Yankees hitters as he throw 116 pitches and 70 for strikes while Ivan Nova is saving the Yankees bacon with 10 straight wins and a 15-4 record and has made up for another sub par season by that 500 pitcher A.J. Burnett as he pitched 7 innings and gave up 2 runs on 3 hits with 2 walks and K'd 4 Jays tonight.

Ricky Romero needs to put his best foot forward just like his last visit to the BIG APPLE

Tom Mehegan

Brett Lawrie falls a triple short of the cycle as he now has a 9 game hitting streak

So Brett Lawrie went 3 for 5 with 2 RBIs that was the difference in the 8-6 Jays win in the rubber match and he was the one who was looking for that triple to get the cycle today and now has a 9 game hitting streak batting 389 (14 for 36) with 4 home runs and 10 RBIs. While Kelly Johnson really loved playing in Baltimore as he hit second homer as a Blue Jay in as many nights which a solo shot and had 3 more hits as hit 462 (6 for 13) with two homers and 4 RBIs and Yunel Escobar went 4 for 5 today with 2 RBIs while hit 600 in the lead off spot (9 for 15) with 3 RBIs in the three game series.Then there id the middle of the order today (two through five in the order) where a combined 1 for 19 with 2 RBIs to with a walk and 3Ks as Bautista had the only hit a RBI single in the third which had followed a RBI ground out by Eric Thames but they also had all 3 Ks (Bautista 2 and Thames 1). J.P. end the series batting 500 (6 for 12) with a 3 RBIs including a RBI double for his only hit today. While Luis Perez just did not have the right stuff today as he gave up 5 runs on 6 hits with 3 walks and 6 Ks and he was still pounding the strike zone but when he left three pitches in the wrong spots he got hurt by them as Matt Wieters had a RBI double and then Valdi and Matt Wieters went back to back homers in the Fourth and by the time he got to the sixth he was gassed in the inning as he throw 6 pitches to Nick Markakis and 8 to Adam Jones before Vadi had a two run double and then left after walking Matt Wieters. Valdi was an one man wrecking machine for the Orioles tonight as he went 3 for 4 with 4 RBIs while Matt Wieters and Robert Andino both had two hits and were the only other Orioles to have hits as they had 7 hits in the game compared to the Jays 13.

Jon Rauch came in and had a clean eighth inning and then Frank Francisco came in and started off not being able to find the plate as he fell behind 3 and 0 and had Carlos Villanueva warming behind him before fighting back against Robert Andino and getting him to fly out Mike McCoy in center and then got J.J.Hardy and Nick Markakis to ground out and don't look now he has 12 saves and 14 straight scoreless innings and I hope the Jays don't get duked by it.

On to the BIG APPLE with the Jays big three on the mound

Tom Mehegan

Henderson Alvarez wins his first major league win as the Jays bats schooled Jo Jo

Henderson Alvarez picked up his first major league win as he pitched 8 innings and retired 7 Orioles to start the game and when he did give up a hit or a walk they were usually erased by a double play ball as he retired 19 of 21 Orioles throw seven innings and the only hit by Ryan Adams in the third and Matt Angle reached on Yunel Escobar throwing error in the seventh were both erased by a double play. He ended with a three hit shutout over eight innings with no walks and 5Ks as he only faced 26 batters and the Jays had sent 25 batters through 4 innings.

So the Jays ended up with 13 runs on 20 hits and Jo Jo Reyes said he had a chip on his shoulder and by the time he left after 2.2 innings pitched it was more like a mountain and the Jays took aim at it time after time and even Kelly Johnson said I remember U from the time we spent together in Atlanta and hammered his first homer as a Blue Jay which was a three run homer and Jose Molina launched Jo Jo's final pitch of the night into the seats. Jo Jo left the game given up 8 runs on 7 hits with 2 walks along with 2Ks and it did not end there as by the end of the fourth inning Edwin Encarnacion was 3 for 3 with 2 RBIs and for the next five innings he would be looking for a triple for the cycle but instead he went 4 for 5 and tied his career high in doubles (33) as he had two doubles in the game. Eric Thames had 4 hits including two more doubles to give him 20 on the season to give him 6 hits and four doubles in the first two games of the series while Jo Jo former Braves teammate Yanul Escobar also had four hits as well in the game. Jose Bautista was like the only batter other than Mike McCoy who had problems with Jo Jo but when Troy Patton came into the game Bautista was licking his chops as he was 2 for 4 against him with 2 homers so what does Bautista do he hits a two run homer to give him 39 on the season and including a RBI ground out he ended up with 3 RBIs in the game.

Then there was Adam Lind who was 2 for 4 with a double and two RBIs in the game but it was what happened when he finished with the ball late in the game when it basically filler time and he brought the ball back to the dugout and just tosses the ball into the crowd and just pays no attention to where it lands and goes down the dugout steps and the ball does not make it to the crowd and it comes down hitting the cameraman beside the Jays dugout in the noise. So the Jays trainer comes over and cleans him up and he ends up wearing one of the catchers mask for show before he gave it up but all in all it was a fun game.

So now the Jays hand the ball to Luis Perez for the rubber match of the series before heading to the big apple

Tom Mehegan

Carlos Villanueva replaces Brain Tallet on the roaster as there are a few September call ups

Brain Tallet was designated for assignment after last night when he made his return to the Blue Jays and was put into a no win situation as he was asked to close down the game and he had five save opportunity and blow each one and he did again last night.

He had 25 starts in 2009 and was 7 and 8 and had 15 starts of at least 6 inning and then saw shot down for a dead arm for 16 days in the middle of July and now he is being sent out and will be replaced by Carlos Villanueva who has done the same thing this season that Tallet did in 2009 by starting 13 games and had 7 straight starts of at least 6 innings and had a 5-3 record as a starter along with starting with a 3 and 0 record as a starter and then missed four weeks because of a dead arm. He will go back to the bullpen for the reminder of the season.

It is weird that they did not wait like 12 hours to bring Carlos back up from Triple A were he was warming up his arm again and tomorrow the Jays will take Jon Rauch off the 15 day DL while there will also be a Dustin McGowan sighting to see if he has the chance to get anywhere near the starting rotation next season or if next seasons he will be in the Jays bullpen as he has a 1.90 ERA in 23.2 inning with a 24/10 ration of Ks to balls. Also David Cooper will have a return engagement this season as he tearing up Las Vegas hitting .375 (which is way better than when he first came up), 9 homers with 95 RBIs to go with 49 doubles and 60 walks to 40Ks so he may get playing time at first and Lind may get time to focus on hammering the ball as DH.

Finally Adam Loewen should be given a chance to get up to the big league as the Canadian from Vancouver, BC and was a fourth overall draft pick by the Orioles in the 2002 entree draft and has turned from being a pitcher when he made his Major League Debut on May 23, 2006 with the Orioles to now being an outfielder. He hit .305 (152 for 499) with 16 homers and 81 RBIs while have 44 doubles along with 3 triples to go with 57 walks compared 128 in 128 games.

Lets see if the Jays can have a better September than August

Tom Mehegan

Eric Thames muscled the ball around Camden Yards but Jays still lose in extras

Eric Thames had a night to remember as he was tattooing the baseball all over Camden yards as went 2 for 5 with two doubles and if he had hit the ball a little higher in the first he would of had his 10th homer of the season but instead Nolan Reimold reaches above his head with his glove and if he missed it was gone as the fence at Camden Yards is 6 feet tall. Brett Lawrie in the second is a couple of walks on hit it a little bit higher for a three run homer to give the Jays a 3-0 lead and it was one of the two hits with runners in scoring position as they went 2 for 14 in the game. In the second for the Orioles Matt Wieters hit a two run shot that just cleared the wall and it was noticeable that Jays center fielder Mike McCoy was way shorter than 6 feet as he was not even close to as tall as the wall and it was 3-2 Jays and it was the seventh straight game that Brett Cecil gave up a homer and he was struggling to get the ball down for most of the game. In the fourth inning Nolan Reimold hits it softly to Brett Cecil and he should of eaten the ball as Reimond was safe at first but instead he throws the ball away and Robert Andino scored as he ws on second when the ball was hit to tie the game at 3. Then in the top of the fifth inning the Jays had bases loaded with no outs and Edwin Encarnacion hit the ball right back to the pitcher Jeremy Guthrie who throws home and Wiethers throw to first to complete a double play and Kelly Johnson flied out to end the inning and the Jays got no runs in the inning but then in the bottom of the inning Valdi got a RBI double to score a Adam Jones walk so that the Orioles a 4-3 lead. It stayed that way till the ninth when Kevin Gregg came in and did not have it as J.P. singled and was replaced Dwayne Wise as a runner and Mike McCoy walked and with Yunel squaring to bunt nobody was covering second or third so the Jays had two runners in scoring position and Yunel had a sac fly that would of almost a two run double but McCoy at third with one out he was unable to driven in because Eric Thames hit the softest ball he hit all game to shallow left field and McCoy was not able to score and the Orioles walked both Bautista and Lind to get to Encarnacion who grounded out to end the inning. Then in the tenth Kelly Johnson tripled and scored on a wild pitch ball four to Jose Molina to give the Jays the lead 5-4 and in the bottom of the inning saw the return of Brain Tallet who in 5 save opportunities had not picked up a save and just did not have it as he walked Matt Wieters and Mark Reynolds to open the inning and with one out Jake Fox singled to tie the game and then Ryan Adams a game winning ground rule double so that Tallet faced 5 Orioles and 4 of them reached base. Brett Cecil gave up 4 runs on 8 hits with 2 walks along with 4Ks in 6 innings and in the same 6 innings Jeremy Guthrie gave up 3 runs on 6 hits and walked 2 along with 5 Ks as the Jays had 9 hits and 6 walks tonight and left 10 runners on base while the Orioles were even worse leaving a 11 on base in the game.

Henderson Alvarez who is getting better every start goes up against the Guy he replaced in the rotation Jo Jo Reyes who is now 2 and 2 with the Orioles in a must win middle game for the Jays

Tom Mehegan

Dwayne Murphy tells his hitters to stop whining and they got the message as hammered 14 hits

Dwayne Murphy did an interview for the Blue Jays radio network he said now I am going back to the club house and have a talk with the hitters and ask them to stop whining to the umpire and his point got across as the Jays ended up with 14 hits in the game. In the game the Jays had two two homers which were Adam Lind's 23Rd homer a two-run shot to take the lead for good as the Jays lead 3-2 and after awkward beginning of the night for Jose Bautista who watched a 2 and 0 pitch that he would of turned on earlier this season just go by without a swing and then had a phantom hit by pitch just like Casey Kotchman yesterday but then had a solo shot in the sixth to tie Curtis Granderson with 38 homers.

In the 14 hits J.P. got awake up call from the message as he went 3 for 4 with 2 RBIs and fell a homer short of the cycle and was on deck when Brett Lawrie flying out to end the eighth and then there was Kelly Johnson who had 3 hits in the game and had come into the game with the Jays 2 for 13. While Yunel Escobar (including a RBI) and Eric Thames had two hits each as Dwayne Wise was the only Jay to not get a hit and when he had a chance to relive his moment in the sun as he ran back to the wall on a ball hit by B.J. Upton and jumped and he barely missed it and Upton ended up with a triple. the Jays ended up starting slowly again as with 2 walks on Adam Lind hit into an inning ending double play but then they put up 3 in the third, 2 runs in the fourth, and finally put up single runs in the fifth and sixth on their way to a 7-3 victory.

Ricky Romero kept the Jays in the game as he pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks along with 2Ks but he also used his glove as an extra infielder as he was able to knock the ball down and catch Upton after his triple as a dead duck and got him out. He was working from the stretch all game long as he was unable to have a 1-2-3 inning tonight but the only to hurt him in the game was Johnny Damon who hit a two-run homer with a Desmond Jennings walk on in the first and then had a solo shot to lead off the fifth inning and now Ricky Romero is 13 and 9 this season.

In other news John Farrell will not be going to Baltimore for the three game series against the Orioles as he is still recovering from pneumonia and will hopefully rejoin the team in the big apple this weekend but until then Don Wakamatsu will continue being the Jays manager. Also Brain Tallet has finally returned to the Jays as he has come off the 15 day DL after injuring himself after a hard sneeze and will be taken Wil Ledezma spot in the bullpen after Ledezma was designated for assignment.

Jays need to keep this hitting outburst going into Baltimore

Tom Mehegan

The Jays need a hitting coach instead of a home run coach

Dwayne Murphy has been the hitting coach since the past two seasons where last season the Jays hit 257 homers and the Jays had the third worst American League batting average with a .247 batting average and then so far this season in 133 games the Jays has hit 152 homers and is batting .252 which is in the middle of American League in batting.

It is nice to see home runs and keep the fans are excited about 409 homers in 295 games but if the Jays do not hit better they will not be able to get more runs and win more games and get into the playoff race with maybe another playoff spot in the works for next season. The thing about the Blue Jays is that almost all the Jays are sluggers but if they do not hit it and out then they are not getting on base as there are only two players and maybe three who can get on base. The two players are Jose Bautista is hitting .312 and when he does not hit he still gets on base as has 106 walks along with Brett Lawrie even though it is a small sample size he is still 26 for 77 with four doubles and four triples to go with his five homers and he has a very good eye even if he has only walked 5 times. The third player is lead off hitter Yunel Escobar who is hitting .282 (134 for 475) and with his 54 walks helps his on base percentage of .359 and if Eric Thames still has more patience he will get better than his 15 walks and his 266 batting average and on base percentage 310. Adam Lind has 20% of hits being homers so that if he does not get a homer then he hits into an out as he has a batting average 257 and with his 26 walks in 105 games and then they have hot and cold DH in Edwin Encaracion as he is hitting 316 (49 for 155) and 12 doubles and his 8 homers is 17% of his hits since the all-star break but before that he hit 239 (59 for 247) so U really do not know what kind of hitter U will get and that is his major league history. Kelly Johnson and Colby Rasmus still has not hit their stride as Rasmus is hitting 218 with more strike outs (22) to hits (19) in 23 games and then there is J.P. who is about to break the record for homers as a catcher and a couple off the all time rookie record for homers but he is hitting 212 (76 for 359) and his 20 homers is 26% of his hits.

So the thing is that the Jays need to find themselves a hitting coach and not just a homer coach and that means that Dwayne Murphy needs to go and someone else who can work with the younger hitters to make them better and if the Jays homers go down to like 125-30 homers a season while the batting average jumps up to 265-270 team batting average. This would get more runners on base and with combined hits it would help the Jays score more runs which would hopefully lead to more wins especially at home because winning 50 - 60 games at home like the Brewers will do this season instead of being around 500 at home like the Jays which look like they are going to do this season.

Jays are awesome but need more runners on base

Tom Mehegan

Brandon Morrow is horrible at the Rogers Centre

At the Rogers Centre Brandon Morrow in 14 starts this season is 4 and 8 with an inflated ERA of 6.38 which is outrageous up against his 5 and 1 record with a 2.83 ERA on the road which is a full 3.45 higher and has given up 11 of his 15 homers at the Rogers Centre and has given up more than twice the amounts of hits as on the road 89 compared to 43 in his 10 road starts this season. While also walks more batters at home than on the road as he has walked 2.4 batters per start at to 2 per start on the road and he strikes out more batters on the road (7.2 per start) compared to at home (6.5 per start). He lasts longer in games on the road 6.1 compared to at home 5.2 and the opponents batting average at home 277 compared to on the road 189.

So this the direct opposite to last season where his ERA on the road was almost 4 runs worst than his home ERA was (6.72 compared to 2.74) in 13 games both on the road and @ home and had a record of 2 and 6 on the road while having a 8 and 1 record at home while pitching 6.1 inning a start @ home to 5 innings a start on the road. With basically the same amounts of hits with 70 on the road and 66 at home but almost twice as as many runs scored 50 on the road to 26 @ home and the walks went from 24 @ home to 42 on the road with strike outs 97 @ home and then dropping to 81 on the road which is more than a strike out a game. While the opposites batting average @ home was 221 and than jumped 60 points to 281 on the road so where he felt comfortable last season he now does not and where he did not feel comfort last season he now loves it.

So he either needs to figure out what worked for him last season and do that same exact thing or he needs to live in a hotel the next before a game and get away from the distractions @ home and just focus about the game like he most do on the road this season. Also needs to stop doing whatever he does on the weekend because his weekend numbers are worse than his home numbers as he is 2 and 3 with an ERA of 6.55 and lasts 5.1 innings in his 8 days games this season with an opposites batting average of 284.

Morrow is still young and it is his second full season as a starter and when he can mix and match his pitches better he will become a better all around pitcher

Tom Mehegan

Price too high for the Jays liking as he sets a Rays record for Ks in a game

So David Price came into the Roger Centre and believed he owned it and for the day he did after walking the first batter he faced Mike McCoy he then proceeded to strike out the next 5 straight batters and he struck out 9 of the first 11 Blue Jays he faced in the game as he went 7 innings and had a 3 hit shutout. He also set a new strike outs for a game record with 14Ks and the Jays basically watched his fast ball and it was almost an automatic strike as he throw 75 s compared to 36 b and the Jays were looking at a lot of 0 and 2 counts and the Rays need was for Brandon Morrow to throw his first pitch on the game a fastball to Desmond Jennings who really likes Jays pitching as he hit his 7 homer of the season to give the Rays the lead and all the runs they would need as they went ahead 1-0.

Brandon Morrow did not have his crisp stuff today as he was leaving his pitches up and when the Rays got a hold of one it went yard and the second inning was a disaster for him as with one out he walked B.J. Upton and he wild pitched him to second and then had Upton steal third of him give J.P. no chance to get him and with two out the pitch of the game happened as Morrow missed placed a slider to catcher John Jaso who singled through the infield on a 1 and 2 pitch to score Upton and make it 2-0 Rays. Then Sean Rodriguez stepped to the plate and on a 1 and 1 pitch he smacked a two-run homer and that was followed immediately by Desmond Jennings stepped to the plate and smacking his third homer of the series and 8th on the season and it was 5-0 Jays. Brandon Morrow settled down and went another 3.1 innings pitched and gave up 2 hits and 2 walks along with a Phantom hit by a pitch to Casey Kotchman as the only thing it hit was the nob of the bat and he was awarded first base and later in the game with Rommie Lewis now pitching for the Jays Kotchman may of been hit on a button on his uniform if that for another easy walk to first. The Rays with the game already decided 6-0 in the top of the ninth put up a six spot on Wil Ledezma who throw 45 pitches and 24 balls and 21 strikes in his inning of work and he gave up 6 runs on 5 hits with three walks and the Rays before coming to the friendly confines of the Rogers Centre were down the road in the less friendly confines of Detroit as in a three game series they got a total of five runs against the AL Central leading Tigers.

Desmond Jennings had 4 hits in the game and his 5 of his 8 homers against Blue Jays pitching while Matt Joyce is back to swinging a hot bat again and as he was up there with Jose Bautista in league leaders in batting batting average and had follow completely off the map for a good chunk of time.

Brett Lawrie is still swinging a hot bat as he had two hits as he visited with Team Canada from the little league world series from his home town of Langley, BC while Jose Bautista still is not getting a great view of the ball as he is still watching strike three's and is still extremely frustrated with his own performance and even charged a ball today and over ran the ball something he never does.

Tomorrow the ACE of the Jays pitching staff Ricky Romero has to put his last outing behind him and get the Jays back on track by winning the finale of the series before meeting more AL East opponents

Tom Mehegan

Jays almost turn a triple play but still lost the game

When Kelly Shoppach bunted to Shawn Camp in a 2-2 game and he throw to Brett Lawrie stepped on third and throw to Kelly Johnson at first to get Shoppach and then Kelly Johnson throw back to third but Brett Lawrie caught to far away from the base and had to dive for Sean Rodriguez and he was safe by a second (then scored on a Elliot Johnson RBI single to break the tie) the Jays were that close to getting a triple play. There was a lot of talk between Brett Lawrie and Adam Lind after the play because it was that close and if Brett Lawrie had been more aware at third for the return throw and was closer to the bag they could of had a triple play or kept Rodriduez at second.

B.J. had a monster shot in the sixth inning and it was reviewed by the umpires and it ruled foul and it was a monster shot because it was higher than the foul pole and then on the next pitch he was hit by a pitch by Shawn Camp. So then Upton came back up again in the seventh and this time he faced Jesse Litch and for the first time out of the bullpen Litsch was wild as he walked two straight batters with a K on either side of them and then Upton took him deep on his pitch of the game for a three run shot to give the Rays a 6-2 lead.

The Jays made a come back as Brett Lawrie lead off with a triple and J.P. drove him in with a ground out and then in the eighth inning Eric Thames lead off the inning with a nine pitch at bat against Jake McGee and took him deep for his 9th homer and then with two out Juan Cruz came into the game against Edwin Encarnacion and he took him deep for a solo shot and his 14th homer to make it 6-5. Then Joel Peralta came in and J. P., Dwayne Wise, and Yanul Escobar hit him hard but right to Rays outfielders and the Rays won 6-5.

Luis Perez pitch well enough to keep the Jays in the game as he left with a 2-2 tie after five with Sean Rodriduez hit a two-run ground rule double in the fourth to take the lead 2-1 as Jose Bautista had a RBI double to open the scoring in the first but that was it for the Jays in the first even though there were only one out but after Lind put runners on the corners Encarnacion pop out and Kelly Johnson grounded out to Rays pitcher Jeff Niemann. Perez got out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth as he struck out Ben Zobrist on his 90th and last pitch he throw for his fourth strike out of the game and he end up given up 2 runs on 5 hits with 4 walks including an intentionally walk to Evan Longoria to load the bases in the fifth while Jeff Niemann pitched 6.1 innings and gave up 3 on 5 hits with 2 walks and 6Ks.

Eric Thames had 2 hits in the game while J.P. had two RBIs included and RBI ground rule double and now the Jays need to have Brandon Morrow help to get back on the right track again and the bats need to come alive

Tom Mehegan

Jose Bautista ejected from the game but it does not inspire the rest of the team

In the sixth inning Jose Bautista after striking out swing for his third strike out of the game went back to the dugout and took his bat and pound the living delights out of a cardboard sign and the home plate umpire Bill Welke said I have had enough of this (as he decided to listen to Bautista in the first when Bautista felt the pitch he called out on was off the plate) and tossed him from the game. That's not all as Jays fans witnessed something they had not seen out of the model citizen Jose Bautista disgraced himself by throwing anything he could onto the field and sadly it did not inspire the rest of the team as the Jays were down 4-1 going into the last third of the game and did not put up any more runs.

Rays starter Jake Shields gave up a solo homer to Brett Lawrie with one out in the second inning and the Jays took a 1-0 lead and then Jake Shields gave up 5 hits and a walk the rest of the game in which he completed his tenth complete game of the season which leads the majors as Roy Halladay has 7 to lead the NL and a group in the AL has 4 to be second to Shields. Jake Shields gave up his 22Nd homer on the season to go with 7 hits along with a walk to go with 12K in the game and he throw 125 pitches (83 s - 42 b).

Jays starter Henderson Alvarez started well and retired the first 7 batters he faced and got a head of 14 of the 25 batters he faced as he fell behind 7 batters and 4 batters put the ball into play on the first pitch which all put together he got ahead of more batters than in any other game. Henderson hit the eighth batter he faced John Jaso got hit by a pitch and then a few minutes of complaining by Joe Madden as Bill Welke did not think he was hit and then Jays interim manager Don Wakamatsu came out to argue and then with two outs Desmond Jennings broke up Henderson's no hitter and just like against Ricky Romero in Tampa he did in style by hammering a homer and this one was a two-run homer to take a 2-1 lead after three innings. Then after that it was the Evan Longoria show as he lead off the fourth and the sixth inning with solo homers to give him 10 homers in August and he had 14 before August and Henderson left after six innings and gave up 4 runs on 4 hits with 2 walks along with 6 strike outs. Then John Jaso homered to lead off Joel Carreno and he pitched two innings and gave up a run and 2 hits with 2Ks and Wil Ledezma was wild in the ninth and throw a number of wild pitches after Matt Joyce lead off the inning with a double and Matt Joyce went to third on the first wild pitch and then he scored on a wild pitch that bounced off the board behind Molina and came back to him and if he dove for the plate he could of been out but he waited a split sec thinking about if he wanted to toss the ball to Wil and the Rays won 6-1.

In the last week the Jays have scored 11 runs in 6 games and the most surprising thing is that the Jays are only 2 and 4 in those games and the Jays are not hitting like with Adam Lind who is 17 for 90 in August (22 games) and is 17 for 103 in his last 25 games and to go with Edwin Encarnacion who is 7 for 38 in his last 10 games. This is the kind of thing that is making Jose Bautista go crazy along with Bautista not getting the calls he had gotten over the past season and a bit even though he is still hitting strong as he is hitting .355 (11 for 31) with 3 homers and 5 RBIs with 12 walks and 11Ks in his past 10 games.

Lets see how Luis Perez does in his second Major League start

Tom Mehegan

Jeff Francis plays his first game in his major league career in Canada and puts on a show

So the Royals came into the game in the series out hitting the Jays 25-11 in the first two games and the Jays had not out hit the Royals in either game and the Jays were lucky to be even in the series and tonight it was all about Vancouver, BC own Jeff Francis who came into the game 4 and 14 with a 4 ERA and he just controlled the Jays to only three hits in the first 6 inning which was his first ever Major League appearance in Canada. While Brett Cecil in 6 plus innings gave up 5 runs on 9 hits and a walk with 3Ks and gave up 3 more singles before the end of the top of the seventh inning and the Royals were out hitting the Jays 12-3 and the Royals were lead by a Francoeur RBI single, Salvador Perez RBI single, Mike Moustakas RBI single, Johnny Giavotella RBI single, Melky Cabrera had a solo homer his 17 on the season along two hits, and Billy Butler had 2 hits. Then the Jays bats woke up during the last three innings as in the seventh J.P. hit his 20th homer which was a two-run shot, in the eighth Brett Lawrie had a RBI triple and came home on a J.P. sac fly, and in the ninth Edwin Encarnacion hit his 13th homer another two-run shot while the Jays had 7 hits in the last three innings. The Royals matched the Jays move for move as Billy Butler had his third of four hits in the game and it was a two run RBI double in the eighth and in the ninth Mike Moustakas had a RBI double while Mitch Maier had a sac fly. So the bullpen could not hold the Royals down as Shawn Camp gave up 2 runs on 6 hits in 1.1 inning pitched, Rommie Lewis gave up two runs in 0.1 inning pitched but Jesse Litsch pitched 1-2-3 in the ninth inning.

The Royals came into the series 19-39 on the road this season and had lost the last 9 series in the Rogers Centre and left with the series win and the Royals won the season series 4 and 3 this season which is not good if the Jays want to be a contender in the wild card picture they need to dominate the teams like the Royals. Also John Farrell left the bench with pain in his side and was taken away from the team early to get checked out and more info to come later about this.

The Jays need to show everybody this is their house and need to take the Rays down in the four game series

Tom Mehegan