Today it was the Yankees $21 million dollar man who could only record three outs. The Jays hit ten singles, three sac flies, and accepted with glee a couple of defensive miscues.

And Miguel Batista struck out Jason Giambi with the bases loaded in the eighth en route to his 30th save.

So how was Ted the Tease tonight?

New York - Bottom of 1st
D Jeter homered to right.
R Cano homered to left.
G Sheffield flied out to center.
A Rodriguez to second on wild pitch by T Lilly.
H Matsui doubled to deep right, A Rodriguez scored.
J Posada walked.
B Williams fouled out to catcher.
T Martinez singled to center, H Matsui scored, J Posada to second.
B Crosby grounded out to pitcher.

New York - Bottom of 2nd
D Jeter walked.
R Cano singled to center, D Jeter to third.
S Marcum relieved T Lilly.

Any questions?

The Blue Jays closed out their season finale against the Seattle Mariners with a 7-5 victory. I haven't watched the game yet -- it's waiting for me on a DVD here -- but it doesn't look like Chacin did his Rookie of the Year chances any favours with his outing today: Five earned runs in four and a third innings.

How was that a base hit? The ball struck the shortstop in the wrist, because he misjudged the trajectory and jumped too soon. If this ballgame were being played in Seattle, that's an E-6 and Felix Hernandez still has a chance to make history. Anyway, lots to talk about tonight, including Dave Bush's quick hook, Brandon League's rebirth, and a near-comeback torpedoed by a fine Jeremy Reed catch. That's as good a game as you can ask for between two also-rans in late September.

Game on. Seattle got three unearned runs in the first off Josh Towers, but Vernon Wells got two of them back with one swing in the bottom of the inning. Wells had two hits, a walk, a stolen base, and threw out a runner at home plate for a nice night's work.

Anyway, Koskie doubled in Wells to tie it up in the fourth, and Russ Adams put the Jays up to stay with an RBI double in the fifth. Josh Towers held the line through six, Going Going Zaun chipped in a two-run homer, Schoeneweis and Chulk bridged the gap until the ninth inning - when Jason Frasor worked an uneventful and scoreless inning for his first save of the season.

I know what you're thinking, but no - Batista was just getting the night off after pitching in three straight games.

Ho hum, just anoth--wait, what? Grand slam? Hmm?

Oh. Oh, I see. Blown to bits, you say? Could you recover any of the--

Oh. Oh, I see.

The Jays send Teasing Ted to the mound to take on Jaret Wright and the Yankees at Yankee Stadium North the Rogers Centre.

Wright has an excellent 3.39 ERA since returning from the DL on August 15th, his K:BB ratio though is just 18:16 in 37 Innings.

The Jays come out on the right side of a one-run game.

Yeah, yeah, no one likes to see guys strike out. But there are worse things a hitter can do. Much, much worse.

That David Ortiz fella is pretty good.

While we await a pinch-hit Game Report from distinguished Bauxite Four Seamer, we once more amuse ourselves in the traditional way after a defeat of the Red Sox.

You know what that means...

That's what I call quite good.

I have no idea what happened in this game. Apparently, Magpie is scared of Ortiz.

The Jays rallied from 3-1 down to take a 5-3 lead into the ninth. At which point they turned the game over to Miguel Batista. Oops. Batista is having a second-half from hell. Again.

Curiously, the game turned on two slow rollers hit by Travis Lee to Shea Hillenbrand. Shea, who made a couple of lovely scoop and flip plays on similar balls yesterday and today, misplayed both. He couldn't field the ninth inning roller cleanly, and the tying run crossed the plate - in the eleventh his throw home short-hopped Zaun, and the winning run crossed the plate.

Not that this game should have come down to that.

Bush-Kazmir Volume Two was another fine, fine pitcher's duel. Kazmir fanned 11 in seven innings, and Bush got burned by a fat change-up for a two-run homer. Going to the ninth, he seemed about to take his third CG loss of the year. But with one out, the LH batters nailed to the bench by Kazmir came marching out of the dugout. Catalanotto walked, Hinske singled, Zaun singled to tie the game. And then Russ Adams, hurt and abused by Kazmir all night long, lined an RBI single to give the Jays the lead.

Even better, Miguel Batista struck out Travis Lee to seal the deal. Sweet!

Last weekend, Josh Towers and Seth McClung hooked up in a very fine pitcher's duel. McClung was excellent, Towers was better - but McClung got the win when Travis Lee took Miguel Batista deep.

Not this time, buddy. Towers turned in six solid innings, and McClung seemed to lose all heart after Joey Gathright misplayed Shea Hillenbrand's inning ending fly ball into a two-base error that plated the game's first two runs. Frank Catalanotto made a couple of fine plays in left field and rapped out a couple of key early hits, Corey Koskie hit an enormous home run, and Gabe Gross made a very nice running grab in the gap and went 3-4. Which raised his batting average from .222 to .265. A decent night's work.