After the nice big blowout normal service is sadly resumed as the Jays lose 6-5 to the Reds. Halladay and Harang battled each other to a five-each standstill through 7 last night, with Downs stepping in handily to pick up Doc and get the last out of the 7th. It was nip and tuck from then on until Wolfe was ineffective in the top of the 10th, allowing the Reds to get a one-run lead and the Jays were unable to get it back against Cordero. Same as usual for the year, the Jays had a few chances to get the go-ahead run but couldn't cash anyone in. Only the Jays could have an Inning like the 7th, in 6 pitches they managed to load the bases with no outs and fail to score.
pitch 1 Rios single to centre
pitch 2 Wells single to left
pitch 3 Stairs single to centre
pitch 4 Rolen popup to second
pitch 5 Overbay takes a ball
pitch 6 Overbay bounces one to the pitcher. 1-2-3 DP
Under the Gary Denbo Regime it would have taken them at least, oh, 20 pitches to get all that done.
And on a completely unrelated note, let's catch up with a few old friends.
Josh Towers is in deepest Colorado Springs, joining fellow MLB vets Mark Redman and Glendon Rusch in the Sky Sox rotation (old friend Valerio De Los Santos is in the bullpen). The PCL is not being kind to Josh who has an ERA of 6.48 in 83 Innings.
Howie Clark is in the Twins organisation, and is having a nice season for Rochester hitting .296/.349/.459. He had a cup of coffee with the big club late in May but was designated for assignment and returned to Rochester on June 1st. He was almost called back up ten days later when the Twins wanted to end their 13 man bullpen insanity and get another hitter up, but he had a strained rib cage muscle and missed the chance.
Eric Crozier is in the Independent Atlantic League with the South Maryland Blue Crabs, where he's being managed by former Sox Skipper Butch Hobson. Crozier is patrolling the outfield these days (next to another former big leaguer Curtis Pride) and is hitting .219/.355/.425.
Ken Huckaby signed with the Royals in January, he was released on May 10th and doesn't seem to have caught on anywhere else.
There's a Tom Wilson serving as the hitting coach for the Trenton Thunder. I'm not sure if this is the former Jays catcher, but it seems pretty likely as I can't find any evidence of him playing anywhere.
Corey Koskie. The Brewers bought our Koskie's contract afer the 2007 season, and he now seems to have effectively retired from baseball. Corey was of course suffering greatly from post-concussion syndrome which forced him to miss all of last year. He has been mentioned in the news a little recently with the concussion problems suffered by Ryan Church and Aaron Hill. As of April he was apparently suffering from naseau and dizzyness less frequently, but was still not entirely symptom free, which rules out any imminent return to baseball.
Frank Menechino was with the Portland Beavers last year, he became a free agent at the end of the season, but doesn't seem to have caught on anywhere.
Josh Phelps is with the Memphis Redbirds in the Cardinals organisation. He's not having a great season, hitting just .259/.335/.424. Cliff Pollitte is also on the Redbirds this year.
Guillermo Quiroz is with the Orioles serving as the backup to Ramon Hernandez. He's had just 66 at bats and is hitting a weak .197/.264/.318.
Chris Woodward is easing into his 13th professional season having signed with the Nashville Sounds as a free agent on May 31. He's hitting .279/.315/.382 in just 68 at bats. He was briefly in the Yankee and Phillie organisations earlier this year.
Tanyon Sturtze is still soldiering on, he's 37 now and hasn't pitched in the bigs since throwing 10 Innings for the Yankees in 2006. He's now in the Dodgers system, he started the year with AA Jacksonville and was recently moved up to AAA Las Vegas (tough life). In 28 Innings thus far he's put up a 4.50 ERA with an 18/7 K/BB.
Jason Smith is playing third for the Omaha Royals in the PCL, and doing a pretty nice job of it hitting .270/.315/.544 in 281 at-bats.
Couldn't track down: Dave Berg, Jason Kershner, Billy Koch (although Justin Miller's Koch tattoo has been getting some press coverage recently), Greg Myers,
Game Day: Volquez against Litsch 7:07PM
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