Jays showed fight against the Phillies and will need same effort in series with Red Sox.
My first trip to the DL in 19 seasons afforded me the opportunity to take an uninterrupted look at the Blue Jays for the first time. What I witnessed during the three-day series against the Philadelphia Phillies made me far more optimistic than pessimistic.
Where to start?
Friday afternoon’s Canada Day special – aka Roy Halladay’s Love In – was a battle from the start.
Ricky Romero didn’t have close to his best stuff, but gutted his way through six and a third innings. By stemming the Phils’ red tide, the young ace allowed his team the chance to get back in the game, which they did after Jose Bautista dusted himself off, after getting decked earlier in the game and blasted a two-run bomb to put the Jays in front with six outs to get.
Jon Rauch got three of them, unfortunately Frank Francisco could only get one and they dropped a 7-6 decision.
Saturday was all Halladay, all the time. Doc was B+ at best and the Jays were able to claw back after falling behind 2-0. In one of those classic, best vs. best confrontations that don’t happen too often in the age of five-man rotations and bullpen specialists, Bautista launched a Halladay offering off the Windows restaurant.
Pure magic.
But the Phillies veteran line-up feasts on average pitching, as Chase Utley showed when Luis Perez pitched up in the zone and served him a two-run piece of cheese.
What happened after that was inconsequential towards the outcome but it was entertaining.
Plate umpire Alfonso Marquez had two different strike zones from the outset and the Jays bench jockey’s were chirping in the first, and after Bautista got punched out in the bottom of the opening frame.
He and the umpire had words, with Jose clearly mouthing let’s go.
It all came to a head in the top of the ninth with Rauch trying to hold a one-run deficit. His 2-2 pitch to Ryan Howard could have caught the black on the outside of the plate; the 3-2 fastball split the plate at the knees.
Both were called balls.
After Shane Victorino plated an insurance run with a single to left, Rauch confronted Marquez while backing up the plate and was instantly ejected. It took three coaches/teammates to get Rauch off the field.
Then manager John Farrell stood up for his team and went nose to nose with an aggressive Marquez, after also getting ejected.
Sunday had all the earmarks off a sweep which would have made it 11 losses in the Jays last 14 games at Rogers Centre.
Cliff Lee came in with an ERA of 0.21 over his last five starts, including shutouts in each of his last three starts and a scoreless streak of 32 innings.
Jo-Jo Reyes spotted the Phils four runs in the second but gutted his way through six innings, allowing the Jays to claw their way back in.
But in the bottom of the eighth, in what could prove to be the highlight offensive inning of the season, Eric Thames and Bautista went back-to-back and then Edwin Encarnacion sealed the deal with a two-run bomb, all off Lee.
Octavio Dotel closed it out without incident, to capture the final game of the highly viewed series.
DON’T GET ANY EASIER
Now it’s on to Boston, to avenge the thorough whipping that the Jays endured at the hands of the Red Sox, when they last met at Rogers Centre. It was the most one-sided three-game trouncing in franchise history. The Jays were outscored 35-6, outhit 46-12 ... shall I go on?
But the squad should be buoyed by the comeback against Lee and the return of Travis Snider, after his 49-game Vegas junket. The left-handed hitting outfielder hit .333 at Triple-A, with .890 OPS, 21 doubles and 29 RBI. The roster just got younger and more athletic, with Snider taking Juan Rivera’s spot.
With Adam Lind’s solid return to first base and Rivera’s sub-standard outfield defence, the veteran was clearly expendable. Wishing Juan the best, the Jays had to take him on in order to make the Vernon Wells trade with the Angels work. His body language, for the most part, said he wasn’t thrilled to be with his new team.
He gave them solid play at first when Lind was on the disabled list and chipped in a handful of times at the plate, most recently a three-run homer at St. Louis when the team was having trouble bunching runs together.
MANY THANKS...
To all the well wishers who sent their best after I suffered a stroke during last Tuesday’s broadcast against the Pirates. I will be off the telecasts until the second half begins after the All-Star break. My health is fine. I’m undergoing a major change in lifestyle and getting things in order. All that has been affected is my speech which now has me sounding half way between a robot and Dean Martin, after having three Blue Baja martinis at the Olympic Hotel in Seattle.
Thanks again and peace.
