This stuff happens. When you play 162 games, you're going to lose a whole bunch of them. Sometimes you're going to lose in an utterly grotesque fashion. File and forget. It's not a turning point, the season doesn't depend on how they respond to this game.
The season depends on Roy Halladay's health.
When it was over, Craig posted the following in the Instant Replay thread:
If you ever need to get information out of me, strap me into a chair and put the tape of this game on. I promise you, I'll cave faster than Jason Kenney in a slap-fight.
Agreed. Let's move on.
We're all waiting to hear something definitive about Roy Halladay's status: at post time (!), the most up to date word is that we don't know yet: Halladay's status won't be known until Saturday.
In Doc Shot Down in Texas, the Star's Geoff Baker reports that:
Halladay took the brunt of the ball on his calf muscle and not the bone. But Gibbons said the team and doctors wanted to do "that bone scan thing" and other types of examinations to ensure there was no fracture.
While we're waiting, let us take a tour around the majors and see which starting pitchers have visited the DL this year and for how long.
AL EAST
TOR - Ted Lilly: April 4 - April 9 (5 games)
Roy Halladay: July 8 - current (0 games +)
BAL - Erik Bedard: May 27 - current (39 games +)
BOS - Curt Schilling: April 3 - April 12 (7 games)
Wade Miller: April 3 - May 8 (29 games)
David Wells: April 26 - May 18 (19 games)
Curt Schilling: April 30 - current (62 games +)
NYY - Kevin Brown: April 3 - April 18 (12 games)
Jaret Wright: April 24 - current (66 games +)
Kevin Brown: June 20 - current (16 games +)
Carl Pavano: June 28 - current (7 games +)
TAM - Mark Hendrickson: April 14 - April 29 (14 games)
AL CENTRAL
CWS - Orlando Hernandez: May 17 - June 2 (14 games) Orlando Hernandez: June 15 - current (20 games +) CLE - C.C. Sabathia: April 3 - 18 (13 games) Kevin Millwood: May 27 - June 16 (17 games) KC - Brian Anderson: May 10 - current (53 games +) Denny Bautista: May 15 - current (48 games +) MIN - Carlos Silva: April 7 - April 22 (13 games) DET - None
AL WEST
LAA - Kelvim Escobar: April 3 - April 23 (17 games) Kelvim Escobar: May 12 - May 27 (14 games) Kelvim Escobar: June 11 - current (25 games +) OAK - Rich Harden: May 14 - June 22 (34 games) SEA - Joel Pineiro: April 3 - April 15 (9 games) TEX - Pedro Astacio: April 3 - April 8 (4 games)
NL EAST
ATL - Mike Hampton: May 15 - May 30 (14 games)
John Thomson: May 17 - current (49 games +)
Mike Hampton: June 6 - current (31 games +)
Tim Hudson: June 16 - current (22 games +)
FLA - Josh Beckett: June 16 - June 30 (13 games)
Josh Beckett: July 8 - current (0 games +)
NYM - Steve Trachsel: April 3 - current (86 games +)
Kris Benson: April 3 - May 4 (28 games)
Kaz Ishii: April 19 - May 17 (26 games)
PHA - Vicente Padilla: April 3 - April 18 (13 games)
WSH - Tony Armas: April 3 - May 9 (31 games)
John Patterson: May 16 - May 31 (15 games)
NL CENTRAL
CUBS - Mark Prior: April 4 - April 13 (8 games) Kerry Wood: May 2 - June 29 (51 games) Mark Prior: May 29 - June 25 (25 games) CIN - Ramon Ortiz: April 9 - April 30 (18 games) Paul Wilson: May 17 - current (47 games +) HST - None MIL - Ben Sheets: April 21 - May 19 (28 games) PGH - Oliver Perez: June 29 - current (10 games +) STL - Matt Morris: April 3 - April 20 (12 games)
NL WEST
ARI - Russ Ortiz: June 19 - current (17 games +) COL - Shaun Chacon: June 5 - July 7 (29 games) LAD - Brad Penny: April 3 - April 24 (17 games) Odalis Perez: May 15 - July 4 (44 games) SD - Woody Williams: May 2 - June 5 (31 games) Tim Redding: May 9 - June 22 (39 games) Adam Eaton: June 16 - current (22 games +) SF - Jason Schmidt: May 10 - May 25 (14 games)Of all these pitchers, how many are clearly the team's top starter? Curt Schilling, for sure, but his team is rich and deep enough to have gotten by quite nicely without him. They are in first place, after all, which surely counts as "getting by." No other AL starter who has gone down means anything to his team remotely comparable to what Halladay means to his. Possibly Rich Harden - although Barry Zito is the veteran ace, Harden has been Oakland's best pitcher. The A's struggled mightily while he was out, but Oakland did have a host of other problems in May as well.
Things have been tougher in the other league. Milwaukee had to do without Ben Sheets for a month. Sheets, however, actually has a losing record this year. It's not really his fault, but this year Chris Capuano has pitched roughly as well as Sheets anyway. Pittsburgh has just lost Oliver Perez, but my pre-season pick for NL Cy Young hasn't even been the best pitcher in the Pirates rotation. The Giants lost Jason Schmidt for a couple of weeks. But Schmidt is also having a mediocre year, and the Giants have so many other problems that it barely matters anyway.
The Cubs lost both Mark Prior and Kerry Wood; strangely enough, they managed to keep their heads above water anyway, thanks largely to Carlos Zambrano and Greg Maddux. They have fallen flat on their faces since getting Prior and Wood back. The Braves are making do without three of their five starters, including Tim Hudson and Mike Hampton, but they're the Braves - nothing fazes them anyway. If the entire roster was kidnapped by aliens, Cox and Mazzone could probably grab 25 guys off the street and contend for the division.
The Blue Jays in 2005 have been very, very lucky. Only three teams have lost fewer games to injury from their rotation than Toronto. And that's as it should be: surely, the Jays took enough hits in 2004 to satisfy any malevolent baseball spirits for the rest of the decade.
The thought of Halladay missing any time is profoundly terrifying. Toronto is 14-5 (.737) when Halladay starts a game. They are 30-37 (.448) when anyone not named Halladay is the starter. That dropoff of .289 from the ace to the rest of the rotation is almost certainly the largest in the majors. Florida is 13-5 (.722) when Dontrelle Willis starts, 31-35 (.470) with the rest of the rotation, a dropoff of .252 - I can't think of anyone else who would even come close.
Fingers: crossed.
Wood: touching.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050709021502642