THe orioles have a canadian pitcher, BEDARD, who the bluejays faced this year. So mears is not the last one.

Tom's was the first voice on the broadcast at 9:30pm tonight. Ordinary-sounding intro, then a commercial break. After that, Tom said thanks for the emails, calls, etc. and he hopes to get through this tonight. Jerry stayed with the subject, pointing out that both Tom and Jerry's fathers were military men and became good friends. Both lived through the depression and WWII. Jerry's father had a military funeral 10 years ago and Tom's father will have one. (Tom might miss Tuesday's broadcast for the funeral, schedule pending.) Ironically Tom's father had been asked to speak at the D-Day ceremonies in Europe but didn't go because of his wife's health problems. Tom's father actually served in the Pacific; he was asked to speak on the Battle of Midway which he was part of. Tom's voice was a bit choked up at times during this segment, naturally enough. Thanks to Tom and Jerry for sharing this with us, and condolences to the family.

Thank you, Stephen. Very nice.

Harden doesn't even seem to be throwing hard at 97-98; Hinske couldn't catch up. Rich also showed nice touch with his off-speed stuff to get Sparky.

Towers got an easy 6-3 double play to erase the leadoff walk, and it's scoreless through one.

All right! Leadoff triple for Vernon.

I was optimistic, as usual; Wells settled for a double.

Zaun was no match, Phelps grounded out, and Pond lost Round One in the Battle of B.C. -- do we have another pitcher's duel?

It's lookin that way sir....

Bottom two: Nice play by Eric, great pitch to freeze Durazo, then Miller ripped a 2-out, 2-strike double down the line to extend the inning. Towers got the easy roller to short to get out of the inning, but Phelps pulled his foot off the bag too soon and the runner was called safe. No problem; Josh got German to pop out.

Top three: Harden got Gomez to ground out, then made a spectacular leaping catch of a Rios bouncer to take away a single. Menechino lined out to right. Maybe next inning.

did Frank Mention have any authority on that fly ball that dye caught???

Yeah, Matt. It was a rope, right at him.

Crap. Rios had a chance to gun out Byrnes stretching a single, and threw to the wrong side of the bag. Sooner or later, the kid will start making these plays.

Reed Johnson is amazing. What a catch!

Coach, you've coaxed me into going up to my tv... :)

Much better AB for Hinske; took the 2-0 fastball, didn't chase the high heat and took the walk. Unfortunately, Scutaro made a fantastic play on the Johnson hit-and-run line drive up the middle, turning it into a double play. Shoulda been first-and-third, but these things happen.

Is it just me or is Towers getting squeezed a bit by the ump? He's made a number of good pitches on the corners that looked like strikes to me.

Bah... walk walk walk...

Dye got all of that one... 1-0 A's as Towers throws the 2-0 down the middle. Vernon could have caught it, but ran out of room. Josh is going to make the odd mistake; he'll need three or four runs most nights.

Scott, I haven't seen Dan Iassogna call many games. Tonight, I think the zone is reasonable -- it's always hard to see the corners when the CF camera is way off to the side -- but that's typical Towers. When he misses, it's never by much.

thank goodness that one was foul tonight... I thought it was another byrnes-esque 'double'...

I think Rios actually had a chance to catch that foul ball -- it would have been a tremendous play, but he stayed out of Phelps' way. Sure enough, given another life, Scutaro hit a weak bouncer that turns into an infield single, but Towers wriggled out of the jam.

Jerry Howarth suggested that Woodward's stronger arm makes that play, and I agree. Gomez has done a fine job, but he has his limitations.

Indeed. April 24th, 2004. The Erik Bedard page at ESPN is in error and does not list it. So the last three times the Jays have faced Canadian starters, they've won.

Phelps looked very composed the entire AB... even the pitch he missed on, I could not blame him for going after it... the end result, a well earned walk... good to see...

Phelps did show patience, though he swung at the pitcher's pitch (low fastball) on 3-1 before drawing the walk. Pond also worked a walk, then Josh scored on the Gomez roller up the middle to tie it up.

ohhh that looked soooo gone...

It won't break my heart if they send Rios down for more seasoning once they're sure Cat is OK. Let Alex get in a good groove again in AAA, and the next time he's called up, he should find this level a bit easier. Right now, he's pressing.

Dye chased the high heat, now Tosca walks Durazo to get to Miller.

It really says something about the a's offence right now if damian miller is batting 6th...

For sure, Matt. Both these teams are less than full strength, but it's truly remarkable how the Jays have battled lately, with five regulars, their best reliever and their ace on the sidelines.

The four walks (one intentional) in five innings suggest Towers doesn't have his command tonight, but he's been sharp -- much more aggressive than those tentative April starts. Zaun's also called a good game for him.

Harden is still nasty, but he was careful with Sparky. Damn, another line drive finds an infielder's glove.

Trivia tidbit was a list of the 6 Canadians to play for Oakland (McKay father and son, Harden, Horsman, Stairs and ?).

How many have played for the Jays? I've got McKay, Ducey, Rob Butler, Spoljaric, Quantrill, Boucher, Pond. Any others?

No respect for Steve Sinclair?!

Rios has got to get the damn ball airborn.

I'd say Eric caught up to Bradford there!

Hinske homered to right.
Berg who?

I knew I'd forget somebody. There's probably one or two others that had brief stints with the Jays.

Alright then. First a great snag by German, than an awful throw by German. With some great baserunning Sparky scores the run. If this game's at Skydome I doubt the run scores from first.

Reed may be playing above his head, but you gotta love that guy...

I had to look it up - Horsman threw 4 innings for the Jays. That makes 9 players born in Canada that played for the Jays by my count.

Here comes my cousin Vinnie. Did Rich Butler ever play for the Jays?

If this game is anywhere else, the run doesn't score (well, on the next base hit it does, but you know what I mean).

I remember Horsman. In fact, I remember really pulling for him. Couldn't understand why they kept pitching that other guy with the similar name instead of him. Of course, the other guy with the similar name turned out to be Pat Hentgen, and Horsman didn't, so what do I know?

According to the Jays' media guide, these are all the Canadians who played for the Jays:

Dave McKay, Paul Hodgson, Rob Ducey, Denis Boucher, Vince Horsman, Paul Spoljaric, Paul Quantrill, Steve Sinclair, Simon Pond and the Fabulous Butler Boys. Eleven.

Easy inning for the Incredible Chulk. Steve Sinclair approves.



Who comes in to close it out?

I'm officially a Chulk-a-maniac.

How many hits and runs have the Oakland fielders saved tonight?

2/11 is a decent proportion of Maritimers in the group. Unfortunately, neither Stairs nor Cormier were ever Jays.

The A's defense have certainly been saving runs, but also giving out runs at the same pace. Ask Mr. Byrnes.

Guess which wily BBFL GM picked up Towers for today's start? That's right, me!

Welcome back, Eric Hinske!

Who comes in to close it out?

Chulk, I hope. Frasor is unavailable, and Vinny is throwing strikes.

Another rookie brain cramp for Rios, even when he does something "good" -- that was a triple if he had bothered to run to first, and he would have scored on the Menechino infield hit. Hinske just picked him up with another clutch AB.

I disagree about Rios... I think he thought the ball got knocked down by Byrnes, so naturally he was going to stop at first.

What a great slide by Menechino. I thought he would be out for sure when the throw came in

I disagree about Rios... I think he thought the ball got knocked down by Byrnes and he kept it in front of him, so naturally he was going to stop at first.

Common, who wasn't singing "Here I come to save the day" as Menechino was rounding 3rd?

Nonsense, Sneeps. There were two out and Alex should have been running hard out of the box instead of jogging. Anything can happen, and it usually does.

What a great slide by Menechino.

He went to school on Sparky's, which should be shown as an instructional video, like everything else Reed does.

Well, Rios was only loping to first. If he thought the outfielder smothered it, he should have run like stink to first, turned towards second and then stopped and come back to first. You stop running and go back when you see the ball in the outfielder's hand (ready to be thrown) if you think you can't make it to second.

Rios is probably afraid to make a mistake, therefore he's being very tentative.

The National Academy of Reed Johnson Baseball.

Nice to know that they gave Byrnes the postage stamp strikezone.

The lion's share of the credit for this very satisfying win will go, deservedly, to Towers and Hinske, but Johnson's another hero despite an 0-for-4. My kind of player.

Ok, how did you guys see how hard he was running to first? The camera view I saw only showed him slowing down around first.

I thought Zaun should have set up a bit closer to the plate on the 3-2 pitch instead of in the same place as the 2-2. If Chulk had thrown it a half-inch more inside than the 2-2 pitch that would have been the ballgame.

I checked the ESPN stats page today, and don't look now, but the Jays were sixth in the league in ERA, and have improved on that tonight. That ain't bad.

The replay, Sneeps, the replay.

I don't know if it's possible to be a baseball fan and not love how Reed Johnson plays the game.

Pretty fun game, lots of positives for the Jays.
-Hinkse breaks out with a couple of extra base hits, including the game winning homer
-Nice fill in start for Towers
-Chulk looks like a great setup man, although he's still a better starter than Towers and Hentgen
-Rios finally got the ball of the ground

Let's hope we can keep the ball rolling like this, and then keep it going when the big guys get back.

LOL... well I didn't see that particular replay, but i'm out-numbered so you guys win.

how did you guys see how hard he was running to first?

It took him six seconds to get there; like Robert says, he should have made an aggressive turn toward second by then. It hardly matters; at least he scored, thanks to Eric, and the good guys won.

I would like to propose a nick name change for Vinny Chulk.
from the Incredible Chulk to the Vincredible Chulk.

Jose Guillen is a jackass.
Vlady got thrown at tonight by David Riske. Later in the game Guillen hits a homerun of Riske, and proceeds to stare down Riske as he runs the bases. Then when he gets home he decides to take a few steps towards the mound promping the benches to clear.
If I'm the commissioner, and I'm trying to find guys are steriods, I'm thinkin' Guillen is the first guy to have the cup passed to him.

Wilner is blasting the hell out of Rios.

I can't access the fans website right now. What's he saying?

Towers comes up huge, not just for my fantasy squad, but for the Jays. With Hentgen and Kershner pitching the next two games, it was imperative that Towers pitch deep into this game--eventhough asking that of him was asking a lot. I have a feeling this weekend's games will hearken back to those halcyon early April games where Tosca would use 5-6 pitchers a night. Of course, I'll do cartwheels if Hentgen pitches deep into tomorrow's game and proves me wrong.

There was no excuse for Rios not to hustle. What else would Mike say?

(Chulk's) still a better starter than Towers and Hentgen

I disagree again, Sneeps. Vinny may be fine in a Triple-A rotation but the bullpen is his ticket to a big-league career. It's been obvious since spring training that he's throwing harder and attacking the strike zone. He just might become a reliable setup man, which would be a very pleasant surprise.

Amen re: Guillen's jackassedness. It wasn't even Riske that threw behind Vlad (it was Davis), and that throw was due to a lack of control, not malice.

I think Mike Wilner was overly harsh on Rios. The kid is raw and he's made many mistakes so far. But so far he hasn't make the same mistake twice. He made a couple of nice plays in right last night after his misadventure in the first inning.

He'll be taken aside and admonished for his baserunning and the key will be to see if he learns from it. Let's wait and see.

Hey Coach, go easy on me.

I'm listening to the post-game call-in segment. I find the callers to be quite negative, considering the Jays have won 8 of their last 11 games versus the AL West despite playing without many key players.

Instead of talking about the many positives of this game and previous ones, the callers, by-and-large, are focusing on the few negatives that are still in evidence.

For example, Rios is being villified because he's made mistakes, but no one has mentioned that he's only struck out twice in nine games - something that is remarkable for a player with 2 months experience above AA.

Rios has become a victim of his own success. People have to relax.

Why has the network's associate colliseum been so empty latley. I think they announced 12K today and 10K yesterday. Thats bad even by Skydome standards. I thought the A's drawed pretty well in Oakland.

http://me.woot.net
Just wait until the next game the Jays lose, as you'll see the same negativity right here on Da Box. People were yelling firesale after the Jays went 0-2 to begin the season, and they'll continue to exaggerate faults and mistakes until it's all that anybody can percieve.

Personally, I come from the school of Named For Hank cheering. What faults?

If the jays can split with Oakland with this tattered bunch, I'll be doing somersaults of joy. It shows alot of character.

Well, guys, the B team came up big tonight. I thought the umpires seemed to be biased toward Oakland. There were some pitches thrown by Vinnie that should have been strikes for sure. It's kind of depressing how infrequently the lads are hitting anything out of the infield, though.
The highlight for me was Sparky's catch near the line, that was a beaut. All in all, a good evening.

To anyone being negative:

Did you happen to look at the lineup today?

Menechino
Hinske
Johnson
Wells
Zaun
Phelps
Pond
Gomez
Rios

The fact that this team scored 6 runs today and has been successful over the last 2 weeks with lineups similar to this one is fantastic IMO.

I wonder what JP thinks of Rios so far? He struggled at AAA and he's struggled at the majors. He doesn't look major league ready but it's not his fault JP called him up.

As for attendance, the A's have had bad attendance for awhile now. Even though the team is in the playoffs every year that's not enough for the fans.

I was just thinking the SAME thing about Reed Johnson tonight while I was thinking about that slide... I know 'the man who IS hustle' is a bit of a cliche' but this man really IS the embodiement of such.

You just can't help but wear a smile on your face after watching plays like that... Every night he's out there he pulls one off... You really have to love it... there is no choice in the matter....