Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Game 20 - Battle of the Aces: Halladay vs. Ponson

Game 20 - Battle of the Aces: Halladay vs. Ponson

I'm plugged in and loaded
Don't forget to phone in
The self destruct is holding
I'm counting, I'm counting, but only to three

The Jays are sending out a pretty standard lineup, with the notable exception of Reed Johnson starting in right:

TORONTO
1. F. Catalanotto LF .302
2. O. Hudson 2B	     .284
3. V. Wells CF       .233
4. C. Koskie 3B	     .203
5. S. Hillenbrand 1B .390
6. E. Hinske DH      .288
7. G. Zaun C         .327
8. R. Johnson RF     .273
9. R. Adams SS       .214

BALTIMORE
1. B. Roberts 2B     .356
2. M. Mora 3B        .278
3. M. Tejada SS	     .319
4. S. Sosa RF	     .278
5. R. Palmeiro 1B    .226
6. J. Gibbons DH     .255
7. L. Matos CF	     .321
8. L. Bigbie LF	     .250
9. G. Gil C	     .353

Predictions: The Jays win this one by at least five runs and Hillenbrand hits a homer. What are yours?

Posted by Pepper Moffatt on Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 12:34 PM EDT.

Game 20 - Battle of the Aces: Halladay vs. Ponson | 50 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Christopher - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 12:56 PM EDT (#113417) #

The Jays win this one by at least five runs and Hillenbrand hits a homer. What are yours?

Orlando Hudson hits three triples.

JayWay - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 01:20 PM EDT (#113418) #

Looks like they jacked down the brightness on that outfield scoreboard.

Dr. Zarco - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 01:38 PM EDT (#113419) #

Not a good start for the offense. 2 K's and 4 weak ground balls.

JaysFanInCT - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 01:41 PM EDT (#113420) #

Another rocky start. The Jays are in a serious funk after such a promising start. I hope they can turn this around before it starts to steamroll.

Pepper Moffatt - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 01:44 PM EDT (#113421) #

It's still early. Besides, Halladay is getting a fair share of groundballs as well.

Pepper Moffatt - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 01:45 PM EDT (#113422) #

Also, I liked this in the ESPN Box Score:

Stadium: Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON
Temperature: indoors
Wind: 1 mph

Where's all that wind coming from? They shouldn't need the AC on today. :)

JayWay - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 01:47 PM EDT (#113423) #

"Where's all that wind coming from?"

Doc's fastball? :)

Pepper Moffatt - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 01:50 PM EDT (#113424) #

Doc's fastball? :)

LOL! As long as the winds are blowing in and not out, the Jays should be okay. :)

Chuck - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 01:53 PM EDT (#113426) #

With the ultra wide strike zone, 3 runs may be enough to win it today.

Major pet peeve: catcher sets up outside, pitcher hits target perfectly, pitcher is "rewarded" with a strike. Sure. Makes plenty of sense... in the bizarro world.

Andrew K - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 01:57 PM EDT (#113428) #

NFH should have named his child Geronimo. With a name like that, he should have been a skydiver, not a catcher.

Chuck - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:04 PM EDT (#113430) #

On yelling Geronimo when jumping from planes.

A - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:07 PM EDT (#113431) #

Today it looks like HLH is fighting himself. He's throwing a lot of pitches and he's really missing his spots.

The Jays' line up is having a terrible time too. I imagine that's because the coaching staff is on them to take as many pitches as possible and Blue is enforcing a big strike zone. I wonder how today's strike zone might effect the way they swing the bats in their next few games (even less selective than they are now?).

...Chuck, I don't mind seeing a pitch get the call a little off the plate if the catcher set up out there. What always gets me, though, is when the catcher sets up outside and the pitcher just barely hits the inside corner and still gets the call.

CeeBee - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:11 PM EDT (#113432) #

Which is the real Jays team? the one that went 7-3 in the first 10 or the one thats going 2-8 in the 2nd 10? Methinks that back before the season started most of us would have been reasonably happy with a 9-11 record after 20 games, especially with the 9 game road trip thrown in. Another 20 games down the road will be pretty much the quarter mark and we should have a pretty good idea by then how things have progressed or regressed.

RiosGrande - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:15 PM EDT (#113433) #

oh great, we're getting perfect gamed by Sidney Ponson of all people...

Gardiner West - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:16 PM EDT (#113434) #

Is it just me, or does post-Juice Sosa look significantly smaller than in the past?

Might be a good day for all of us to pick up a book, turn off the TV and turn the game on the radio. At least we can spare our eyes the ugliness of the Jays 5th straight home loss.

Is this the same Koskie that played for the Twins?

Does anyone have a good recipe for Ceranno peppers?

So many questions...so few answers.

RiosGrande - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:17 PM EDT (#113435) #

oh great, we're getting no hit by Sidney Ponson of all people....

Andrew K - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:18 PM EDT (#113436) #

Well, at least Hinske broke up Sidney's perfect game. And now Zaunie has walked as well. Time to scrap together a run or two.

Brian W - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:22 PM EDT (#113437) #

Another 5 walks and it's all tied up!

dmac - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:23 PM EDT (#113438) #

Another horrid at bat by Russ Adams. He's not ready for the bigs at all.

ScottTS - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:24 PM EDT (#113439) #

Sigh. Someone needs to tell the rookie that when a guy has just walked the bases loaded, you don't swing at anything until he's demonstrated that he can find the strikezone again.

Gardiner West - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:34 PM EDT (#113442) #

Time to give Doc the hook and save him for another day

Andrew K - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:36 PM EDT (#113443) #

I agree -- they should take Doc out, and use him again 5 days from now, so that someone skips a start (preferably Towers).

At least the no-hitter is gone.

Gardiner West - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:38 PM EDT (#113444) #

Thank you O-Dog...getting no-hit by a judge beater and drunk driver might have sent our hometown heroes into a real tailspin.

ScottTS - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:41 PM EDT (#113445) #

Man oh man. It is just painful watching Koskie at the plate right now. He looks completely overmatched.

dmac - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:43 PM EDT (#113446) #

Koskie has been terrible. 23 strike outs on the season so far.

Magpie - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:44 PM EDT (#113447) #

Ponson has Koskie absolutely baffled. Koskie has swung at 8 pitches this afternoon, and missed completely seven times. Which never happens. Ponson has been geting a lot of swing-and-miss all afternoon.

Dr. Zarco - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:47 PM EDT (#113448) #

Everyone else has been either given a day off or moved from their normal spot in the lineup when struggling. I think it's long past time to do that for Koskie. He's made a lot of outs (mostly DP's/K's) in some big situations. Twice in the last week has he gone 0-4 with 3 K's and a GIDP. He's on his way to that again today with 3 K's. Yesterday vs. the lefty seemed the perfect time to slide him down to 5th or 6th.

My God, the Orioles have had about a month's worth of bloop/broken bat hits this series.

Mick Doherty - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:54 PM EDT (#113449) #

NFH should have named his child Geronimo. With a name like that, he should have been a skydiver, not a catcher.

Actually, wouldn't that make him a gold-glove caliber center fielder?

Magpie - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 02:57 PM EDT (#113450) #

Baseball. Tejada and Sosa get fooled, and pop little flares over the infield for hits. Palmeiro lines one that Hudson turns into a remarkable double play.

Missing the bat. Doc missed three bats all day: Matos and Gil in the 4th, Sosa in the 5th. All 4 Ks were looking.

Whereas Ponson got Wells twice in the 1st; Koskie twice and Hinske once in the 2nd; Zaun, Johnson, Adams in the 3rd; Catalanotto in the 4th; Koskie three times and Adams once in the 5th; Hudson once and Koskie twice in the 6th; Johnson in the 7th. That's 17 swings and misses through 7 innings, and that is a lot.

He only got in trouble when he had to pitch from the stretch. It had been so long since he'd had to, he'd forgotten how...

R Billie - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 03:03 PM EDT (#113452) #

I think I've mentioned this before but Russ Adams seems to have a looping uppercut swing. He's hit three balls in the air today. He's not a power hitter so I'm not sure why such a swing would be good for him. It's got to be hard to hit a ball on the line like that, particularly to the opposite field where I think Adams has to get a lot of his hits. He's gotten pitches to hit today but he's swinging up on them.

NDG - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 03:07 PM EDT (#113454) #

Sigh. Someone needs to tell the rookie that when a guy has just walked the bases loaded, you don't swing at anything until he's demonstrated that he can find the strikezone again.

Are your two guys actually watching the game? I don't blame Adams at all on that one. Ponson just walked three guys, and had a big mound pow-wow with his pitching coach and infield. Usually in this case the starter lays one over the middle to get ahead (and I'm sure that's what Russ was thinking). Instead Ponson throws by far his best pitch of the day. I'm not even sure what it was because the gun had it at 93mph but it must have broke 6 inches. Just a fantastic pitch.

Magpie - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 03:08 PM EDT (#113455) #

Ponson, by the way, has had better games in Toronto than this one. June 28, 2001 if someone wants to check...

Dunny - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 03:23 PM EDT (#113458) #

Rios/Johnson/Cattalanotto

You need ONE of those guys, and ONE only
If you're gonna let Rios learn on the job, why not let it be Gross instead? Atleast your gonna get the odd Home Run out of the guy. The Blue Jays corner outfielders have to be some kind of running joke with pitchers.

Koskie looks like Paul Sorrento all of a sudden, is it just me or is he looking at the RF fifth deck on every swing?

Bullpen is as bad as last years, JP has no clue when it comes to signing FA relievers.

timpinder - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 03:54 PM EDT (#113462) #

This is becoming painful to watch. Will Koskie get back to his .280 career average? I hope so considering the investment in him. Hinske's been struggling and now I'm wondering if his hot start was for real or not, and I'm a big Hinske fan. No power from either corner outfielder, none from the DH, and inconsistant power from 1B. These are your power positions! July 31st will not come fast enough.

Chuck - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 04:06 PM EDT (#113463) #

...Chuck, I don't mind seeing a pitch get the call a little off the plate if the catcher set up out there. What always gets me, though, is when the catcher sets up outside and the pitcher just barely hits the inside corner and still gets the call.

I don't get this. If a pitcher intentionally misses the plate, you're okay with a strike call. But if he aims at one corner and accidentally hits the other, you're not okay with a strike call?

Why should his intent matter a whit when it comes to deciding whether his pitch passed through the strike zone or not?

Mick Doherty - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 05:22 PM EDT (#113465) #

Koskie looks like Paul Sorrento all of a sudden

That's a bad thing? Gosh, I'd think the Jays and their fans would be very, very pleased with 1992-1997 (the bulk of his career) Paul Sorrento-like offensive numbers from Koskie.

Greg - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 05:26 PM EDT (#113466) #

Yes
Shouldn't the batter be of primary concern with calling strikes?

How does he know where the catcher is set up?
An inside pitch is still an inside pitch to him

Dunny - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 06:04 PM EDT (#113468) #

1998: .225/.313/.405 130 some K's

That's the Sorrento I remember from TB...

VBF - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 06:11 PM EDT (#113469) #

Although I am confident that Koskie will rebound, he looked very wooden at the plate today. His swing was very robotic and it looked like he had trouble adjusting to Ponson's pitches.

I believe the Jays are due for an offensive burst and Dewon Brazelton will be the victim.

Useless Tyler - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 06:18 PM EDT (#113470) #

Hey, VBF! You told us you'd drop the cowbells off in 518 and we never saw you! What happened?

We heard the cowbell nontheless, though - it truly is quite audible.

TorontoDan - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 06:21 PM EDT (#113471) #

I can't imagine it was a good day for cowbells anyway. :( Sorry I didn't make it, something came up. I was sure we'd win today...

VBF - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 06:46 PM EDT (#113472) #

Uggh. I thought about it but then I remembered that I'd have to walk up five ramps and then walk back down them a short time later.

Plus I had a guest unfailiar with Rogers Centre's confines whom I didn't want to abandon nor make walk five ramps.

The cowbell did a good job today but saw limited use. Luis Matos complimented me on it in the ninth. Sammy Sosa remembered me from Friday and stuck his tongue out at me again. I stared down B.J. Ryan and I don't think he forgot our incident this time last year.

Anyways, the bell will be in full force on Toonie Tuesday.

TorontoDan - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 06:56 PM EDT (#113474) #

Speaking of the upcoming series....Does anyone know why thursday's start time is 12:37? It doesn't make much sense to have an afternoon game (let alone one that early) on an April weekday.

VBF - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 07:04 PM EDT (#113475) #

One other note about the game. Halladay's curve was not particularily effective today. The O's lineup just kept fouling and fouling them off and eventually capitalized on his mistake pitches and fastballs. I give Baltimore credit though, they really earned this sweep.

Thursday is School Day, TD. I bought tickets for Thursday off ebay hoping that I could switch them for an alternate day. Unfortunately the tickets I bought were "promotional tickets" (unable to be exchanged) so I'm going to have to go and take a day off school.

Useless Tyler - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 07:32 PM EDT (#113476) #

Take a day off school? You poor, poor man. :-)

King Ryan - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 07:33 PM EDT (#113477) #

It's an excuse, but maybe the Jays are just tired after playing 2,000,000 striaght games in every single MLB city. Day off tomorrow should do them some good (I hope.)

timpinder - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 10:52 PM EDT (#113479) #

Is it just me or have the number of comments posted here dropped significantly as a result of this 5 game losing streak?

Rob - Sunday, April 24 2005 @ 10:54 PM EDT (#113480) #

Thursday's game is at 12:37 because it's a Getaway Day -- the early start (and finish) time allows the Jays to get into New York for the next series before 3 or 4 in the morning, which would be the case if a game ends at 10:00 and they had to fly all night.

For that matter, it allows Tampa Bay to do the same thing on their way to Baltimore.

Ryan B. - Monday, April 25 2005 @ 01:21 AM EDT (#113485) #

So I just took a dump and out came more talent then Corey Koskie has been showing this season.

LOL, I'm kidding of course. I'm not going to jump around or go on a rant about how bad this team is. We all knew they were playing better then they actully are at the begining of the year and now they're playing worse then they actully are. All things will even out and the Jays will end the year around the .500 mark.

Thank goodness the Devil Rays are coming to town.

Oh, wait... the Jays have trouble beating them too...

bird droppings - Monday, April 25 2005 @ 04:27 AM EDT (#113486) #

Alright. Viva La Blue Jays! I am sick and tired of the filth and smut that I have been reading on here over the past few days. I damand better.

Why, after a few and a couple loses, are we so down on our beloved Fighting Jays?

The Cabal came to me in my intoxicated dreams last night. It told me that, "There Is No Cabal." It also gave me a list of reasons why the Jays are not to be dissed...

1. GGZ has 7 R and 13 RBI. Thirteen Runs Batted In. Posada and Varitek have nine RBI's each. Crazy. Remember Kevin Cash? I don't either.

2. Although cooled off to respectability, Mr. Hillenbrand has had an excellent first run in the T Dot. 16 Runs from this guy so far is outstanding. Albert Pujols eat your heart out.

3. The O Dog is proving yet again why he's JP's guy on the bag behind the mound. Awesome defense and a decent batting average. It's also humourous to see pictures of our starting nine (or is it eleven with the platoons?) together. White Jays anyone?

4. Player A - AVG .288 R 13 HR 3 RBI 13 SB 2

Player B - AVG .269 R 14 HR 4 RBI 14 SB 2

Player A is Hinske. Player B is A Rod. Enough said.

5. Morpheus has been OUTSTANDING. My new favourite passtime has become scouring the internet for stories on this guy... most start with "Chacin Who?"

6. Pete Walker is my personal hero. What a story, what a pitcher. If I was a middle aged single woman I'd marry this man.

There are plenty of reasons to smile the next time you think ill thoughts about OUR team.

Finally, Rich Harden is 2-0 with a 0.44 ERA. Insane.

PS. I am Vienna right now. I miss the O Drum.

Game 20 - Battle of the Aces: Halladay vs. Ponson | 50 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.