23 August 2008: Confusion Turns Me Upside Down

Saturday, August 23 2008 @ 05:20 AM EDT

Contributed by: Alex Obal

Lost as quickly as I'm found
But soon enough it turns around

Red Sox 8, Jays 4. Ouch. Glass ceiling wins again. Without his best location, Shaun Marcum holds off the avalanche for three innings. In the fourth, with the Jays up 2-1, Jason Bay leads off with a single and then the other shoe drops. Jed Lowrie draws a seven-pitch walk. Up next is Captain Defensive Intangibles, who falls behind 1-2, but since Tek had scalded a 3-2 changeup for a single his last time up, Marcum courteously tries to put him away with a curveball (ball), cutter (ball) and fastball (ball) to load the bases. Then he plants the menacing Alex Cora with an RBI beanball, and it doesn't get any better from there. Marcum lasts 3.2 innings, allowing five runs plus one baserunner who Brian Tallet stranded. Probably Marcum's worst result of the year, which is absolutely a compliment.

Eventful day for Joe Inglett, who started out with a walk, two singles and a stolen base. Unfortunately, his day also included yet another pickoff and two untimely double plays, both of which erased John McDonald.

Johnny Mac's season line is up to .231/.277/.308.

The Jays are now two games out of third place, as the Yankees won last night in Baltimore. Trailing 4-3 in the eighth inning, they somehow managed to break through against proven veteran Jamie Walker, poised youngster Kameron Mickolio (minor league stats) and sidewinding lefty Alberto Castillo. The final score was 9-4. The surging Bobby Abreu went 5-5. Derek Jeter singled for career hit #2500. The legendary Carl Pavano starts today for the Yanks; I guess he likes baseball more than Ian Kennedy does and that's the new market inefficiency. Baltimore counters with Jeremy Guthrie.

Brad Wilkerson was DL'd to accommodate the newest Jay, Jose Bautista, who's 0-for-1 in Toronto after grounding out against Hideki Okajima in his first at-bat as a Jay. Bautista, who's spent the last five seasons with the Orioles, Devil Rays, Royals and Pirates, brings a wealth of experience in meaningless games to the Jays' clubhouse. It should serve them well the rest of the way. Wilkerson's trip to the DL also means that the Kevin Mench Era will probably last at least the rest of the season. Good. Hey, if the fates nudge JP in the right direction every now and then, I'm not gonna complain.

It'll be interesting to see what the Jays' lineup looks like today against lefty Jon Lester. Rios and Wells will man two outfield spots. Barajas will catch. Stairs and Zaun will sit. Because there are so many righties who need playing time, Inglett is very likely to sit too.

That leaves seven players to fight over LF, DH and the four infield slots:

IF - Overbay, Bautista, McDonald, Eckstein, Scutaro
OF - Lind, Mench

Who sits? According to BR's handy lineup tool, McDonald hasn't sat in exactly three weeks, Overbay hasn't sat since July 9, and Lind hasn't sat since June 30(!). Scutaro hasn't sat since two Fridays ago. Mench, Bautista and Eckstein all pretty much have to start - if they don't, why are they here? It's a bit of a pickle. Since Scutaro has no splits (2008 and career - he's effectively a switch hitter), maybe he plays the lefty role in a third-base platoon with Bautista and sits today. That'd probably be my brilliant solution. Really, though, since Scutaro and Eckstein are involved, there are no right or wrong answers.

Lester takes on Jesse Litsch, making his first home start since his recall from Syracuse. Game time is 1:07.

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