There are six teams ahead of the Jays in the Wild Card race. If anyone is looking at the standings, it should be the East standings, where there are only three teams ahead of the Jays, but even that is a pipedream.

Good game by the pitching. It's vital to win 3/4 from the Orioles, so the Jays need to support Doc tomorrow and not have another Mitre performance (though Ponson is a veteran with 200 more lbs than Mitre, so maybe there's a chance).

Get to the ASB at four or five games (at the most) back in the loss column. That should be the goal. It's at seven right now.

There are six teams ahead of the Jays in the Wild Card race. If anyone is looking at the standings, it should be the East standings, where there are only three teams ahead of the Jays, but even that is a pipedream.

It's way too early to be that pessimistic! The season isn't half over yet. It's easy to pick up five games in three-plus months.

Nice way to grind out a win. And, ho hum, another highlight-reel play by Hudson in the ninth. Just a routine play for him: five steps to his left, dive, throw from his knees, beat the runner by a step. Yawn. (I'm kidding, of course.)

And when was it, exactly, I stopped worrying when Miguel B came into the game? He's been lights out for some time now.

Did anybody catch Wed with JP? I only caught the last three callers.

It was mentioned in the Game Chat, but when Batista came in in the eigth it felt like a sigh of relief. I'd like to thankl Gil Patterson for the idea. Nobody else could've predicted he would be *this* successful.

As Grandpa Joe once said when Charlie came home with a mysterious loaf of bread:

"It doesn't matter how we got it. The point is, we got it"

Nice win today. And I ain't getting cocky about tomorrow, like somebody did one fateful, Thursday eve.

I was pleased that John Gibbons brought in Batista with 1 out in the eighth in a 1-run game. I hope that this usage will continue.

John Kruk just gave it to Vernon Wells on ESPN's Baseball Tonight, for his lack of hustle on the Tejada hit. It was nasty -- but deserved.

Could someone fill me in on the play, s'il vous plait.

Hard to imagine that John Kruk, JOHN KRUK!, is criticizing Vernon's hustle. I'll have to see it first, though.

It was hit up the middle, and Wells let it roll to him in medium range centre field. But as he did this (without looking up), Tejada turned it on and ran to second basically uncontested.

I was at the game and that O-Dog play in the 9th was incredible. It was also a good stretch by Hinske. But it was terrible of Hinske to drop the ball on that acrobatic effort from Adams earlier in the game. Did that one lead to a run? Don't remember.

About the Vernon play, I too had just assumed it was a single and had turned away and was shocked to see Tejada at second. But, you will notice, I'm not being payed millions of dollars to pay attention. Vernon does have that tendancy, you know, to jog to first base, to stare at the long fly balls he hits and then get caught off guard when they bounce off the wall and are in play. It's just who he is. I guess it's that personality that also doesn't let him get too down when he hits .190 in April and allows him to come back and have a nice year.

Anyhow, that was a brilliant game. I wouldn't have dreamed Batista would have been this great as closer. I think the unsung hero for this season has been Jason Frasor, does this guy pitch in every close game or what? Him and Chulk.

I predicted Batista would be yanked from the closer's role after a couple of months. Yikes. How wrong can you get? But I'm glad I was wrong.

A few tough defensive lapses the last couple of nights. Fortunately the Orioles weren't able to capitalize tonight. Superb job by the 'pen.

One player that hasn't been mentioned in trade rumours (as far as I know) is Walker. I would think most contending teams could use someone like him--experienced, versatile, and pitching extremely well.

Just got back from the ball park. Really nice game tonight. A couple notes...

The first thing I noticed was that all the Jays LH batters seemed to be having very good at bats against Cabrera - even when they were making outs, they seemed to be seeing the ball well, making him work. Whereas the RH hitters - Wells, Hillenbrand, Hill - looked absolutely helpless. Completely overmatched. They were lucky to foul one off. And, ya know, when you have a guy who's 6-7, throws a 99 MPH FB with a pretty decent curve... it might be tough.

This actually worked out for the Jays - With one out and trhe bases loaded, Cabrera completely overpowered Hillenbrand, who couldn't even hit the ball hard enough for the Orioles to turn the inning ending DP.

Anyway, I com home thinking I have to look at Cabrera's platoon splits. And sonuvagun - LH batters are hitting .320 against him, and RH batters are hitting .177.

Interesting bullpen management tonight. We all raised our eyebrows when Frasor came in to work to Palmeiro and Gibbons with one and two on in the 6th. We thought Gibbons might be saving Schoeneweis to face those guys in the 8th. But Frasor got it done, and Gibbons used SS to turn Roberts around in the 7th. Batista would be his man against Raffy and Gibbons if the game was on the line.

Maybe it was the 4 RBI last night, but Russ Adams suddenly looks a whole lot more confident out there, at bat and in the field.

Four excellent defensive plays - Cat's sliding catch on Palmeiro leading off the second; Adam's ranging deep behind to grab Matos grounder leading off the 6th, and getting off a decent throw running away from the play - alas, Hinske couldn't scoop it; Hudson's tag on Matos trying to steal in the 8th; Hudson's astonishing diving stop on Gibbons leading off the 9th.

I've been paying attention lately to how starting pitchers warm up before the game, and I was especially curious tonight. Pete Walker, unlike Doc and Towers, has done a lot of work out of the pen. Where you're required to get ready quickly. Anyway, here's what Walker did tonight:

635 - Walker begins loosening up by running. No stretches, no yoga moves. He does little 25 sprints from the foul line into left-centre, walks back and does it again.

640 - Zaun wanders out. They stand around for a while.

643 - Walker and Zaun start playing catch, with Walker backing up after evry throw. Within a minute, they've stretched the distance to 110-120 feet. He keeps backing up, ends up throwing from maybe 125-130 feet. Even farther than Towers.

645 - They stop and head for the bullpen. 647 - Starts throwing off the bullpen mound. Throws 12 pitches quickly, in less than two minutes. Stops for a drink. Throws another 14 pitches, same quick pace. Stops to talk with Arnsberg.

652 - Starts throwing from the stretch. Very slow and deliberate, three pitches a minute. After 9 pitches, he stops to talk with Arnsberg for a couple minutes. 656 - Resumes as above, six pitches from the stretch in two minutes. After 39 pitches, he's ready (Doc and Towers both threw almost 50.) 658 - They walk in from the pen. I tried to pay attention to Jason Frasor, when he got up in the pen. Those guys don't exactly get to run or stretch much. As far as I could tell (the game was going on, I had to keep score!), Frasor went straight to the mound and started pumping in about 8 pitches a minute. This was at about 840, and he was in the game less than 10 minutes later.

The Blue Jays now have 200 Career Wins against the Baltimore Orioles.
This is the first time Toronto has achieved 200 Wins against any club in the American League. It's quite an accomplishment.

*About the Vernon play, I too had just assumed it was a single and had turned away and was shocked to see Tejada at second. But, you will notice, I'm not being payed millions of dollars to pay attention. Vernon does have that tendancy, you know, to jog to first base, to stare at the long fly balls he hits and then get caught off guard when they bounce off the wall and are in play. It's just who he is.*

This is really starting to bother me. If there's one thing I really love about this ballclub, it's the intensity. Gregg Zaun is furious when he doesn't execute. Eric Hinske hates to strike out (despite the fact that he does it all the time). Reed Johnson and Shea Hillenbrand are hard-nosed guys that put out the effort on every play (or so it seems). Russ Adams, from what I can tell so far, appears to be the same way. To me, Vernon looks COMFORTABLE out there, and that's a problem. Athletes need to constantly seek to improve themselves - you can't be satisfied once you hit the Show. It almost feels like now that he's made it, had a big season, gotten the recognition for his defense, and signed a multi-million dollar contract, he feels like he's succeeded. Where's that aggresiveness, those stolen bases he promised? I'm sure I'm overstating it some, because I don't know the guy, and I'm sure he does care. But failure doesn't seem to faze him like it fazes the other guys. Ever watch him walk back to the dugout after a clutch strikeout? He doesn't scowl and throw his helmet away in disgust - he placidly makes his way over to the dugout and prepares for the next inning.

What? Do you want him to throw a garbage can just so fans can so "Look, that guy's so intense. I love that". I mean, C'mon. As Keith talent mentioned, it's his ability not to be overcome emotions that allows him to persevere through slumps and such. And besides, just because he doesn't throw a watercooler doesn't mean he's intense in the first place. You have absolutely no idea what he's thinking, and so to assume that he doesn't play with intensity and heart is just wrong.

And look. Eric Hinske used to throw stuff, and people made him out to have an attitude problem. Give the guy a break.

Clearly I can't tell what he's thinking, but the problem to me is that it almost seems like he doesn't...care. It doesn't mean he has to throw a hissy fit every time he makes an out, but most guys WANT that clutch hit, NEED it, and feel like they've failed if they don't get it. It doesn't faze him.

The play on the Tejada double the other day stood out to me. He calmly came in and made the play, assuming that Tejada would stay at first. Of course, I'm sure that a lot of this comes from who Vernon is as a person, but I sometimes wish he would show a bit more emotion.

Emotion? I can name numerous instances when during a slump he has slammed a bat to the ground or yelled or something, if that's what you have to see to decide he he cares or not.

If player A is hitting .190 and gets yells out something every time he strikes out, and player B walks to the dugout and says nothing, there is no indication that any of the two players shows more emotion than the other.

This is not a shot at Carlos Delgado, but what you don't see is Vernon Wells going 0-4, hitting .244, smilling, and having a conversation with the other players. This is an example of how seriously Vernon Wells takes baseball.

And if Vernon Wells doesn't get that clutch hit, how do you know if he's fazed or not?

We should take this argument over to the other topic (bullpen report), where precisely the same thing is being discussed.