John Gibbons and his players will band together to do whatever it takes to pull off a win in season that has been equal parts success and failure to this point.
Painful to watch but a win in the end, it took the Blue Jays six hours to dispose of the Phillies on Sunday. Two rain delays, totalling two hours and 43 minutes, turned this into a long, drawn out affair, especially when relief pitchers take half a minute between pitches, umpires have strike zones the size of small coconuts and batters continually step out for no apparent reason.
Sunday's 6-5 win showed that manager John Gibbons and his players will band together to do whatever it takes to pull off a win in a season that has been equal parts success and failure to this point. That's why Roy Halladay came out of the bullpen on what would normally be his throw day between starts. After the second rain delay with the game seemingly slipping away, Halladay settled things down, pitching 2.1 innings one hit, shutout ball and bridging the gap between their overused middle relievers and Scott Downs and B.J. Ryan.
The road trip through Cleveland, Minnesota and Philadelphia turned out to be a qualified success. After dropping the first three games of the trip when the offense could only muster only run thanks, in most part, to hitting just .111 (2 for 18) with runners in scoring position, the Jays won six of the final seven games on the trip to return to the .500 mark for the first time since April 21st. They key? Not pitching, this time, but some veteran hitters finally getting clutch hits. With Vernon Wells on the shelf indefinitely due to a broken left wrist and Alex Rios in the grips of a 20-game slump where he's hit only .172 with one home run and four RBI, it was time for others to step up. And they have in spades. Over the team's recent hot streak, Rod Barajas, Shannon Stewart and Matt Stairs have combined to hit .370 (20 for 54) with four home runs and 15 RBI. It was this lack of production from the veterans in this uneven start to the season that was keeping the Jays from getting on a serious run, no matter how well they pitched.
Without the aid of a crystal ball, it remains to be seen just how much grind out wins like Sunday's will take on this team. I'm a bit concerned that this group might run out of gas come August, what with Gibbons managing every game like it's the seventh game of the World Series. In this post-steroid/post-amphetamine era, it's becoming clear throughout baseball that players, especially the hitters, might not have the same stamina that they exhibited when firing back a 'greenie' with a cup of coffee was all that you need to get 'up' for a game.
Finally out of the basement in the A.L. East and with the Yankees now two games behind them, their next group of games will go a long way towards whether or not the Jays are, indeed, contenders or just pretenders. After the Angels and Royals visit the Rogers Centre for a week's worth of games, it's off to the West Coast for series in Oakland and Anaheim, followed a return to New York. Following yet another three-city trip, the Jays lot in life will become clearer.
Let's just hope that it takes shorter than six hours to get through the games. I'm not paid an hourly wage.
THIS & THAT
After watching the umpire's blow the home run call on a Carlos Delgado's shot down the left field line at Yankee Stadium on Sunday night, it's about time that baseball comes out of the middle ages and institutes instant replay on plays like this. And the fact that plate umpire Bob David son overruled third base ump Mike Reilly on the play and called the ball foul, even though it's not his call, is another example of how mediocre the game's arbiters have become...
Without Alex Rodriguez, sidelined since April 28th with a right quad strain, the Yankees have lost 11 of their last 17 games to fall into the basement of the A.L. East. When he returns, we should see if they are a serious contender or if the great equalizers - age and injury - have finally turned the Yankees into an also-ran...
I know it's all fine and dandy that Joba Chamberlain is just showing emotion - and not showing up opponents - by going through his histrionics following a strikeout, but I wonder what the reaction would be if he was a hitter...
I can't believe I'm writing this, but after watching the Rays play so far this season, this team is for real. They have some of the best young talent in the game and they finally have the pitching to match the hitters. And best of all, this team is fun to watch and their manager - Joe Maddon - is truly one of the game's good guys...
