Shaun Marcum's defence of Jose Bautista Sunday shows the young Jays are banding together.
Some interesting sub-plots taking place as the Blue Jays swept away the Orioles on the final home weekend of the 2010 regular season.
A couple of the players - Brett Cecil and Aaron Hill - had confrontations out in the view of the cameras and fans, something that I'm sure didn't sit well with manager Cito Gaston who likes to deal with these things within the sanctity of his clubhouse.
Unfortunately, the modern-day athlete, despite making obscene amounts of money, tend to get their backs when they feel they are being disrespected, or "dissed" in that lazy "slang-lang" that y'all kids like to speak/text.
In both cases, poor performances led to the players being removed from the game, nothing more, nothing less. Cecil didn't miss many bats on Friday night and should have gladly given the ball up. Sure he wasn't getting much help from the left side of his infield, but that doesn't mean that you don't hand the ball to the skipper properly and walk off, instead of stalking past Cito without even looking him in the eye. That led to a one-sided discussion with Cito doing all the talking. They later cleared it all up, where they should have, in the manager's office. Hopefully a lesson was learned.
As for Hill, his nightmarish season is almost over and he can head home and forget about it. Currently mired in a 6-for-55 slide, the 2009 Silver Slugger and Comeback Player of the Year is now batting just .206, third lowest among everyday players in the Majors, and his .080 drop in his average from a year ago leads all hitters. No wonder Hill looks miserable every time he pops up or strikes out. Unfortunately, his troubles at the plate have also been transported out to the field; witness the ground ball in the ninth of a tie game on Saturday that went through his wickets for an error.
The most important piece of business, in my mind, was Shaun Marcum playing tit-for-tat on Sunday by throwing inside on Baltimore's Luke Scott with his first pitch of the fourth after Jose Bautista was drilled in the bottom half of the previous inning. This is the type of reaction expected from a team's ace, something that Marcum hasn't been anointed, more given the title by default in the Jays' young and evolving rotation. That throwing at hitters should have ended there, but unfortunately O's manager Buck Showalter summoned late inning reliever Alfredo Simon from the bullpen mid-game and his afternoon lasted just three pitches. Simon came inside on Bautista with his second pitch and then, despite Matt Wieters' target being outside, fired a fastball three feet from where it was called for. He was ejected immediately as was his manager and, based upon their body language, it was clear that Bautista was thrown at one purpose.
Bautista shied away from making pointed comments to the media, but not Marcum. Using phrases like "It's something we'll remember for next year" and "I guess that's the way they do things over there", certainly has ratcheted up the heat on this head-to-head matchup which the Jays dominated 15-3 this season. If the Orioles were trying to send a message, the Blue Jays heard it loud and clear.
So the Blue Jays season comes down to a final seven games, all against a pair of teams that will be playing in the post-season this time next week. For the Jays, just a single win this week will guarantee at least a .500 record, something that the pundits and the prognosticators thought would be impossible in the first season after Roy Halladay was dispatched to the Phillies. Cito Gaston's second go-round as manager will also draw to a close, with a new manager expected to be named near the end of October and the team will embark on new challenges in a different era.
But the way things have wound down tells me that this team is growing up before our eyes and that can't be a bad thing. I guess that's what happens when you've got each other's backs.
