Yes, you read that right. No, Mick is not paying me to compose bulletin-board material for the New Yorkers. The Jays are fresh off a three-game sweep of the hated Devil Rays, while the Yankees were beaten up (literally and figuratively) in losing 2 of 3 in Fenway. The Jays are slowly but surely getting back into the good groove they were entering when the injury avalanche struck last month, while the Yankees are missing Jay-killer Jason Giambi (out, sadly, with a potentially life-threatening illness) and don't seem to be a team quite equal to their record. Toronto will be focused on this series to regain some face and enact revenge for last week's indignities in Yankee Stadium, while the pinstripers may still be thinking about the BoSox series. The time will never be righter.
Admittedly, tonight's game is the hardest hill to climb, as Sean Douglass takes the mound in what amounts to an emergency start. And he's facing Javier Vazquez, easily the strongest and most consistent Yankee starter this year. But Vazquez has been struggling lately -- a 7.29 ERA in his last four starts -- and he wasn't all that sharp in last week's 10-3 laugher in the Bronx. And if it gets down to the bullpens, closer Mariano Rivera has been overworked lately and may be rested. That doesn't even the lengthy odds, but it makes them more reasonable. And if Toronto can eke out a win tonight, they have Ted Lilly and Miguel Batista going in the final two games against El Duque, who cannot have another 10-K performance in him, and Jon Lieber, whose ERA has been hanging out on 5.00th avenue all year. No guts, no glory: Go Jays! Sweeeep!
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20040726060917999