Hi Dad!!!

I don't have a coherent theme or anything for you this time. I don't have page after page of numbers (but I do have a few.) I just have a few odds and ends to pass along...

Oh baby, don’t it feel like heaven right now
Don’t it feel like somethin’ from a dream
Yeah, I’ve never known nothing quite like this
Don’t it feel like tonight might never be again

You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part.

My 2005 Game Report record: 1 golden win, 5 losses. Thank you, Theodore Lilly.

Not even Tuesday Burley mojo could cope with this. Hell hath no fury, etc., etc. Chris Carpenter returned to Toronto and kicked some Blue Jay butt. He faced one batter over the minimum, and his Game Score of 94 was the best in the major leagues this year.

But... you have to consider who he was facing.

I know, you're all thinking, "Aw, it's a Rob Game Report again. I'm getting sick of these Game Score Charts. What else is on the Internet?"

Not so fast. It's another Pinch-Hit Game Report.

That's right, we're slackers. Though perhaps nobody is a bigger slacker than the man behind today's Game Report...

"This was the worst [expletive] road trip I have ever been on.". - Josh Towers

Today, we're launching a new feature here at Batter's Box: the Pinch-Hit Game Report. We recognized that we have some of the smartest baseball fans on the Net frequenting our site, so we decided to invite some of those readers to show off their analytical and writing abilities by occasionally producing a post-Game Report.

Today's account comes to you courtesy of Box regular Elijah, who explores John Gibbons' ninth-inning managerial decisions in the context of a poker game. If you'd like to try your hand at a Pinch-Hit Game Report, write us and we'll add your name to the list of potential contributors. If you haven't posted to Da Box regularly, we may ask you for a writing sample.

Thanks, and take it away, Elijah!

The path of least resistance
is the dead end of the road
I hate to say I told you so
But hey, I told you so

This was a game that the Blue Jays needed to win.

The Jays had the day off yesterday, but it has been 2 weeks since the last bullpen report, so it's that time again. No rest for the weary.

On May 29, Roy Halladay took the mound against the Minnesota Twins in the Rogers Centre. Two hours and eight minutes later, Matt LeCroy swung and missed at Halladay's 99th pitch, completing the two-hit shutout. Halladay's game score that game was 93, the highest game score to date this season. Halladay is also in a tie for second-highest game score this season (with Brad Radke), from his complete-game 3-hit shutout of the Yankees on April 29.

Well, that Halladay didn't show up yesterday. Just like his last game, Roy struggled to shut out his opponent. Unlike in Oakland, though, Roy received no run support from his 7 batters and Huckaby, and he get saddled with the loss.

This afternoon, the baseball world paid rapt attention as Day One of the draft unfolded. Where would Justin Upton, Alex Gordon, and all the other Highly Touted prospects wind up? Who would fall from first round glory, through the cracks, to be snapped up in the second round? And so on and so forth.

Whenever Gustavo Chacin faces a team for the first time, he pitches well. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Let's see if it's true:

A game and a series to forget.

I remember the night the kid cut off his right arm
In a fit to save a bit of power
He got fifty thousand watts
In a big acoustic tower

When Frank Catalanotto hit his lead-off homer in the 4th to open the scoring, somehow I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one thinking “OK! This game is now ours, babies!”

Or, as Vince Carter once said in happier times, “IT’S OVER!”