It's dark
The jungle is your head
Can't rule your heart
I'm feeling so much stronger
Than I thought
Your eyes are wide
And though your soul
it can't be bought
your mind can wander
* Jays lose 4-2. They trail the Devil Rays by 1.5 games, including 2 in the loss column with 11 games remaining.
Recaps:
* Towers' promise falls short - Gagliano
Towers limited Tampa Bay to a pair of hits in the first four innings, but Carl Crawford launched a 451-foot, two-out homer in the fifth to tie the score at 2-2. Then in the sixth, Towers again quickly registered the first two outs. However, a single and a double put two men in scoring position, and Julio Lugo's shallow single to center plated the winning runs for the Devil Rays in Friday's 4-2 victory.
* Devil Rays drive Jays further into basement - Baker
(Towers') biggest concern is over his nine victories — one shy of the double-digit win total that gets teams interested in off-season free agents.
"It's real important, that's probably why I'm so (ticked) off right now," Towers said after Toronto's 4-2 loss dropped the team 1 1/2 games back of the fourth-place D-Rays. "Especially in my position, I think double digits is a good thing. I think (getting) 10 wins is good, it's something I've never done and something I'd like to do now."
* Game One to Tampa - Rutsey
The loser of the three-game series will enter the final week in fifth spot in the East, a position the Jays have occupied for the past 67 days.
At this point in the season, though, 'We're No. 4' is not the rallying cry found in either clubhouse.
"There was no team meeting," Jays interim manager John Gibbons said with a smile when the subject was raised.
* Hendrickson solid in Devil Rays win - AP
Hendrickson (10-15) gave up two runs and five hits. Danys Baez pitched the ninth for his 29th save in 31 opportunities.
Notes:
* Blue Jays go forth - Gagliano
Rookie catcher Guillermo Quiroz has played in 11 games so far and that number should increase rapidly during the final 10 days of the season. Veteran Gregg Zaun is nursing a bruise on the arch of his foot. Zaun figures to continue as Ted Lilly's personal catcher, but Gibbons said to count on Quiroz doing the bulk of the work behind the plate.
* Blue Jay Watch - Miller Takes To Bullpen Life - Rutsey
The thing that excites Miller is that as a reliever he becomes a two-pitch guy throwing his sinking fastball and his slider and dropping his chanegup and his split-finger.
"I never threw a changeup and a split until I reached the big leagues anyway," he said. "I'm basically a sinker-slider guy. That's what I'm comfortable with."
Misc.
* It's not often you come across a player profile of a veteran this late in the season that tells you something you didn't already know. However, Geoff Baker does this in his excellent article 'Season Without Booze' on Gregg Zaun.
The numbing sensation in which Zaun had so often found comfort slowly began to blur his evening into deepest night. It wasn't until the next morning, his head hazy, temples throbbing and mouth bitter, that Zaun lay in bed "feeling like garbage" and wondered why he kept on doing this to himself.
He hasn't touched a drop of alcohol since.
Zaun has gone on to enjoy his finest season in the majors over the past seven months, joining the Blue Jays and finally becoming an everyday catcher at age 33. But getting a shot at his dream, after eight frustrating seasons spent almost entirely as a backup, only happened after Zaun decided to deal head-on with a lust for alcohol affecting his life on and off the field.
It probably wouldn't be a bad idea for Zaun to talk with Curtis Thigpen in spring training.
* Today's Game: - Dave Bush takes the hill against Dewon Brazelton. Game time is 6:15 pm.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20040925100623999