Deep In the Heart of Nowhere
Thursday, July 06 2006 @ 02:15 AM EDT
Contributed by: Magpie
The glass is half-empty: two quality starts in Arlington, but the Blue Jays were life and death to escape with a single victory.
The glass is half full. Despite playing some pretty bad baseball, the
Blue Jays actually won a game in Arlington, and no one suffered a
season-ending injury. Time to get out of town...
Pretty bad baseball? Well, they didn't hit a lick...
Player AB H R 2b 3b HR RBI BB BAVG SLUG OBP
Hinske 9 3 1 0 0 1 1 1 .333 .667 .400
Adams 7 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 .286 .714 .286
Catalanotto 8 2 1 0 0 1 3 0 .250 .625 .250
Hill 10 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 .400 .400 .400
Mottola 4 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 .250 .500 .250
Johnson 9 2 2 1 0 0 0 1 .222 .333 .300
Zaun 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 .250 .250
Wells 12 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 .167 .250 .167
Hillenbrand 12 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 .167 .167 .167
Overbay 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .125 .125 .125
Glaus 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .000 .000 .167
McDonald 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Molina 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
TOTAL 101 21 7 3 0 3 7 4 .208 .327 .238
And while they did get two quality starts, the rest of the staff did not enjoy their journey deep into the heart of Texas:
Pitchers IP H R ER BB K HR ERA
Halladay, W 7.2 6 0 0 2 4 0 0.00
Lilly, L 6 5 2 2 3 6 1 3.00
Janssen, L 3.1 7 5 5 0 1 3 13.50
Schoeneweis 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 4.50
Tallet 1.2 3 1 1 1 2 0 5.40
Ryan, SV 1.1 3 2 2 0 2 0 13.50
Marcum 1 2 1 1 0 3 0 9.00
Speier 1 2 2 2 0 1 1 18.00
Walker 0.2 3 3 3 3 2 0 40.50
Downs 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.00
TOTAL 25 33 17 17 9 22 5 6.12
Forget it, Jake. It's Arlington.
The Blue Jays are showing a sudden, unexpected vulnerability against left-handed pitching - you know, that portion of the pitching fraternity that they have generally kicked the crap out of all season. Alex Rios, however, has been a large part of that. Rios is hitting .350/.391/.650 against lefties - only Troy Glaus has done as much damage against southpaws. Shea Hillenbrand and Bengie Molina have helped out as well, but while Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay have hit well against LH, their power has gone missing. And of course, Zaun and Catalanotto generally aren't in the lineup and Hill and Adams haven't contributed a whole lot of offense against anyone.
The Royals will be throwing a pair of southpaws at Toronto in the upcoming series, which means either Chad Mottola goes into the starting lineup, or one of Hinske or Catalanotto will be starting against a LHP. This is not normally part of their job descriptions - Hinske has 15 at bats against LH pitching this season, Catalanotto has just 12. And with good reason - Catalanotto would be a lifetime .300 hitter if it weren't for his .248/.332/.350 career line against southpaws, and the Dude hasn't done any better against them over the course of his career - .232/.293/.384.
On the GDP front, it certainly looks like Shea Hillenbrand's challenge to Jim Rice's season record has fizzled out. (Although Miguel Tejada of the Orioles, with 21 GDP already, is not to be counted out.) Hillenbrand has been stuck on 13 GDP since the 6th of June - that's right, it's been almost a month since he last hit into a DP. He's barely holding onto the team lead, as Lyle Overbay now has 12. Maybe all that starting of the runners really is making a difference. At any rate, the Jays are tied with Texas for second in the AL with 79 GDP. Only Oakland has more, but five other AL teams are hot on their heels.
You may have noticed that Brian Tallet has allowed runs in each of his last two appearances. You may also have noticed how both outings played out in a very similar fashion. Last night, after walking the first batter he faced, Tallet retired 5 men in a row. He came out for a third inning and allowed double-single-double before being lifted. In his previous outing, he retired the first 5 men he faced. He then came for a third inning, faced four batters, and gave up a hit and two walks before being lifted. It probably doesn't mean anything, although his ERA would certainly be more impressive if he hadn't come out for those third innings (4.43 instead of 5.96)....
Kenny Rogers won his 11th game last night, tying Roy Halladay and Tom Glavine for the ML lead. Ozzie Guillen said he's thinking about giving Rogers the All-Star start rather than give the assignment to someone scheduled to pitch on the Sunday before the break - like Halladay or Jose Contreras. The fact that it gives Ozzie a chance to use someone from a divisional rival has nothing to do with it, I'm sure. I really don't know if Sparky Anderson, who practically made an art of this particular manoeuver, and Ozzie have spoken recently. Actually, based on first-half performance, either Francisco Liriano or Justin Verlander should probably be the AL starter. But I don't think first-half performance should be the criteria anyway, and at least one of those two probably won't even be there.
Guillen also says that the AL closer for the evening will be Mariano Rivera ("definitely not Bobby Jenks"). Which is fine by me. The Sandman has merely been very good this season, while Papelbon and Ryan have been essentially unhittable - but what the hell. He's Mariano Rivera - you know...the best relief pitcher in the history of the game. I'd say he's earned it.
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