Rays 4, Blue Jays 2; Rays 5, Blue Jays 1; Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 5: So That's Four Losses in a Row For Your Last-Place Toronto Blue Jays

whooooooooooooof

Well the Blue Jays have been terrible but at least Jose Reyes is on the DL! 

Also, Ricky Romero, who as you will perhaps recall was once a boss, has been quietly released by the Blue Jays after having everything utterly fall apart completely and forever (professionally, I mean; I know nothing of his inner world). This is a saddening reminder of the fleeting nature of all earthly glory. I will label this post with all of the Ricky Romero tags that have accompanied Ricky Romero baseball feelings lo these many intermittent years of them.

R.I.P. The Blue Jays Tenure of Ricky Romero Who Had A Nice Curve Ball For A While That We All Liked 

forever young

KS

Blue Jays 7, Red Sox 4: Toronto Takes Three of Four from Boston; No Big Deal

Jays Win, I hear.

Last night, behind American League Pitcher of the Month Ricky Romero, it was kind of like, the future, maybe, a little? David Cooper, fresh off a Pacific Coast League batting title, had three hits and two doubles; Brett Lawrie doubled and continued to own; J. P. Arencibia hit yet another dinger; and Eric Thames put one out, too. These are young men barely out of boyhood, friends, and there they were, ripping it up against the mighty Boston Red Sox (let us not discuss who started for them last night, lest all of this seem way less impressive). And we're back to .500. Does that matter? Not really. But it feels good, man. Feels good.


KS

Blue Jays 7, Rays 3: This Is So Much More Like It, You Have No Idea

You got stuck in a rundown, and you can't get out of it.

Nobody knows exactly what hitting coach Dwayne Murphy said in the team meeting yesterday in which he is thought to have implored everyone to stop yapping at the umpires, except of course for me, with a big assist from both Imagination and the viewless wings of Poesy: "OK then (Jose Bautista), so everybody (Jose Bautista), I am going to keep this short (Jose Bautista), but (Jose Bautista) let's all just agree to lay off the umps (Jose Bautista), because it's getting out of hand (Jose Bautista), and we're getting the kind of reputation that's hard to shake (Jose Bautista), and the bottom line (Jose Bautista) is that it's not doing us any favours (Jose Bautista), so let's just cut it out. Jose Bautista." This issue had been troubling me, and so I am very glad that this has been dealt with.

I am equally glad that the Blue Jays avoided the four-game sweep last night by hitting everything. Ricky Romero once again looked slightly below his usual top-notch self: three runs over six is far from poor, but four walks to go along with six hits (including two Johnny Damon dingers, no less) and only two strikeouts is subprime Romering. But who cares? Every Blue Jay in the lineup last night had a hit, except for Dewayne Wise (did I mention Colby Rasmus is on the DL, and that that sucks?), but let's be reasonable in our expectations re: Dewayne Wise. It was just straight-up mashing of the best kind: Jose Bautista's thirty-eighth home run; Adam Lind's twenty-third; Kelly Johnson's three hits, including a triple; J. P. Arencibia's three hits, including a double, a triple, and a stolen base. All these things occurred, and owned. 


And the bullpen! Nobody would tell you the Blue Jays bullpen is anything but a butt, and so we should really show warmth and appreciation in the direction of Litsch, Janssen, and Francisco for allowing but one hit in three innings of relief last night, because it would have been depressing as hell to have blown that one, and don't act like it couldn't happen, because that sort of thing is happening on the reg/is killing me. Ricky Ro' is now a pretty choice 13-9 with a 2.84 ERA and four complete games (two shutouts). I know the advanced stats prefer Brandon "I'd rather look at the nerd stats" Morrow this year, bless his heart, and I am not a PITCHER WINZ guy by any stretch, but I just feel a whole lot better with Romero on the hill, friends, what can I tell you. The man is a bulldog out there, A Bulldog.   


In short, bring on the O's.


Hey also: I am not here to tell anybody how they would best enjoy the game of baseball, but let me say, you can do a whole lot worse than getting rid of all of your cable, giving our evil overlords at MLB twenty dollars to get access to every game on the radio (blackout free!), spending twenty minutes a day watching the luxurious and non-YankeeSox-centric game recaps at MLB.com (blackout free!), and checking in on whatever the MLB.TV free game of the day is (pending blackouts). It is seriously incredible how much baseball there is out there, and the kind of access we have to it. Being a baseball fan in 2011 is roughly a zillion times better than it was to be a baseball fan, say, twenty-five years ago. Let us not loose site of this (unless you really liked the Expos, I guess, in which case I would forgive you for loosing sight of this). Sometimes I think that the only thing about baseball that might not be as awesome as it was when I was a kid is baseball cards, but then you see something like the 2011 Topps Prince Fielder, and wonder if any baseball card has ever captured l'essence of its subject better:

Fattest vegan alive, friends; act surprised.

But then you remember, oh yeah right, his 2010 Topps:

Really, this got him beaned? Really? 

Anyway. Baseball. Let's hear it for it. 


KS

Blue Jays 4, Royals 3: Brett Lawrie Homers and Triples; Jose Bautista Homers and Owns

Call it two.

It's probably crazy to like anything from last night's Blue Jays win over the Royals more than the Brett Lawrie solo shot in the seventh that put Toronto in front for good, but here I am thinking about Jose Bautista's two-run homer in the fourth more than anything else. Luke Hochevar started the inning by plunking Yunel Escobar, who got a little heated up about it. Escobar was probably in the wrong: there really isn't any reason to think there was anything intentional about what had just happened. But Escobar didn't like it. And so after Jose Bautista ripped a ball off the facing of the third deck in left, Bautista lingered for a moment at the plate, staring at Hochevar, and, indeed into the very souls of the haters. It was clearly an act of backing his dude up, even if his dude was wrong and is, to many (though not to me), quite unlikable. Jose Bautista is the best, man. Not unlike Eli, he did it.


Also it is worth noting that this was the first time Ricky Romero wasn't awesome in like six weeks. I'm going to let it slide.


KS

Blue Jays 7, Athletics 0: You know what, I think I like this west-coast road trip.

Three-hitter. No big deal.

Not only are the Blue Jays winning out west, they're scoring most of their runs before I go to bed, which is simply outstanding. Last night, to go along with Ricky Romero's three-hitter (9 IP, 2 BB, 6 K; no big deal), Lawrie singled in a Rasmus double, E5 singled in a Bautista double, and Rasmus hit a two-run shot all before bedtime. It was exquisite. Also I have heard and read reports that further runs were later scored! 


KS

Blue Jays 11, Angels 2: Baseball is Crazy, Man

Ricky Romero, unflapped.

Just crazy! Yesterday I was pretty sure I was about to sit down to a pitcher's duel between Jered Weaver, who is having the best season of any pitcher in the AL who isn't Justin Verlander, and Ricky Romero, who has been very good and of whom I am fond, so I was ready to go. Then it turned out that the Blue Jays decided to give a bunch of guys the day off against the Weaver and his wacky arm slot and release point, sending the following obviously awful lineup out there to get slaughtered:


Escobar
Thames
Encarnacion
Lind 
Arencibia
Teahan
Lawrie
Davis
McDonald


Gadzooks! On top of that, Romero missed with ten straight pitches -- nine of them fastballs -- in the first before escaping the inning with a helluvtimely double play. It did not look good. I seriously, seriously considered going outside. 


But, no problem, Romero settled in and allowed only one run on two hits over seven innings, and the Blue Jays bats just ripped Weaver to shreds, no big deal. Encarnacion hit one out in the first. Lind hit a grand slam in the fifth, an inning that went so amazingly that even Mark Teahan got in on it. Every Blue Jay in the lineup -- in that lineup -- had a hit yesterday. Against Jered Weaver.


Baseball, man.


KS

Orioles 6, Blue Jays 2 and Blue Jays 7, Orioles 2: Not Quite What I Had In Mind But Fine

:

Camden Yards: still somewhat OK

I have no problem with Yunel Escobar -- shortstops with .820 OPS are fine by me -- but he managed to pretty much single-handedly undue an excellent start by Brandon Morrow when he booted a potential double-play ball in the sixth inning Saturday night. But that's baseball. And yesterday was also baseball, you will be pleased to know! Ricky Romero allowed only two runs in his eight efficient innings of work, picking up his tenth win and lowering his ERA to 2.94, if I may cite two stats we don't pay nearly as much attention to as we used to but to which we still cling when they make dudes we like sound awesome. The Blue Jays hit a whack of doubles, E5 is streaking, and Brett Lawrie hit the first home run of his major league career. That is all really agreeable stuff to me. After an off day Monday, Oakland comes to town for three, and then it's the Angels, which, with the Blue Jays only 4.5 games behind Los Angeles for the playoff spot that will probably exist next year but which totally doesn't this year, doesn't actually matter more or less anything else. Except that I will enjoy those games extra because it is the Angels and Vernon will be back! Kind of a rough year for him, what with the .629 OPS and the negative WAR. Did you know he is owed $86 million over the next four years, and the Blue Jays are only on the hook for $5 million? Is that something you have heard about previously? Good for Vernon; good for the Blue Jays; Angels you guys are crazy man I love it.


KS

Blue Jays 3, Rays 1: Oh Hell Yes

Note the blue stitching on the glove that reads "Romero" and which is entirely correct

Verlander vs. Weaver is a hard act to follow, but Ricky Romero against David Price had the potential to be such a battle of such lefties, of such lefties, that I must admit that I went into this one especially excited. Also exciting: the Blue Jays entered the series only a game-and-a-half behind the Rays for third in the AL East, and while both teams are so far back of the Yankees and Red Sox that that shouldn't matter at all, and in fact does not matter at all, it is still totally matterful to me, in that: the greatest indignity of the J. P. Ricciaridi era was when, after years of being told the Blue Jays just couldn't compete with the Red Sox and Yankees because Toronto was a small market (despite being the seventh largest city in North America, with broad support across a nation of more than thirty million people, arguably the richest owners in all of baseball, and a league-leading payroll less than a decade before Ricciardi took the reigns), Tampa Bay came out of nowhere and totally blew the doors off of everybody in the AL East, and that sucked. A lot. Good for the Rays, by all means: they are crafty and clever and neat, and despite how awful Jonah Keri's book about them was, they are a pretty interesting organization, one that should probably move because they play in a pit and nobody likes them, but whatever(s). My problem is not with the Rays; my problem is with being worse than the Rays, because that is inexcusable and unacceptable in every way. The Toronto Blue Jays should be better than the Tampa Bay Rays every single year. And maybe this year they are? They've still got a ton of games head-to-head, and that's probably what will decide where these two also-ran teams fall out relative to one another, but right now, anyway, we're closing in! 


Anyway, last night's game was a total honey. Ricky Romero got into and out of trouble early, loading the bases with nobody out in the second on a hit batter and two walks, but struck out a pair and got Sean Rodriguez to ground out to Bautista. There were no hits that inning, and in fact only one off of Romero all night, a Desmond Jennings solo shot in the sixth. That Jon Rauch came on and allowed more hits in his lone inning of work than Romero allowed in the previous eight should surprise literally no one, and whoever wrote the "Romero and Rauch Combine for Three-Hitter" headline I saw somewhere should give his head a shake. Also if you enjoy home runs by Jose Bautista and Yunel Escobar as much as I do, then you, like me, were in luck last night.


So yeah: Ricky Romero's ERA is down to 2.98; the Blue Jays have finally beaten David Price, who came into the game 8-0 against them; and Toronto now trails Tampa Bay by a mere half-game, which is utterly meaningless unless you are still working out your personal issues with J. P. Ricciardi after all these years. Good stuff!


KS

Blue Jays 3, Orioles 0, and Blue Jays 8, Orioles 5: Undefeated in the Colby Rasmus Era

Bein's believin'

It does not matter to me that Colby Rasmus went 0-5 in the Blue Jays' 8-5 win over Baltimore last night, or that he wasn't even there the night before when Ricky Romero continued to be awesome and shut the O's out. That is not relevant to point I would make right now, and that is that the Toronto Blue Jays have posted a winning percentage of 1.000 since the trade that shocked not just the world but also me. 


Also, R.I.P. Hideki Irabu; it seriously wasn't right how George Steinbrenner called you a fat toad that one time.

KS 

Blue Jays 7, Mariners 5: Sweeeeeeeeeeeep

Mike McCoy: lovin' it.

A day after I extended my sympathies to the Mariners and lamented Ichiro Suzuki's slide into submediocraty, Seattle dang near won it late and Ichiro went 3-4. And so I have learned that pity is weak and wrong. Ricky Romero left with a five-run lead but the bases loaded in the eighth, and when Casey Janssen came in, it was like, OK, maybe a couple of these runs will come across, but we're fine, right? Wrong: grand slam, Miguel Olivo. Happily, doubles from Mike McCoy and Rajai Davis, who has not been nearly as awful of late but who is still fundamentally awful, put the Blue Jays ahead for good. Eight of the last ten! One whole game above .500! A mere eight-and-a-half games out of the wild card! Let's do this, whatever this might be.  


Oh yeah also, it was so hot in Toronto yesterday (37C!) they actually played with the roof closed just due to the heat! I don't know that that has ever happened before in TO.


KS

Blue Jays 5, Cardinals 0: Ricky Romero Pitched A Four-Hitter and Knocked In A Pair, No Big Deal

No big deal.

Ricky Romero's four-hitter could very well have been a three-hitter had Corey Patterson been even borderline competent in centre field, but no, sometimes he just kind of stops and then the ball falls between him and the fielder just to his right or left. This time it was Juan Rivera who Patterson managed to psyche out by totally misplaying a ball that was obviously his. Rivera pulled up, no doubt thinking well Corey Patterson is the centre fielder and all so we're good but that turned out to be a huge mistake. The dudes on the radio were apoplectic. I have not seen the play on video but I choose to believe Ashby and Howarth when they assured me it was unacceptable. And so I will not accept it. 


But Romero! Remember how after his last start, he kind of mentioned how, outside of Lind and Bautista, the offense had been terrible of late? Maybe that was cool to do; maybe it wasn't. But it was definitely cool that yesterday he drove in a pair on his own with a little hack swing that pushed the ball passed a drawn-in Lance Berkman at first. Berkman had thrown the ball away when he tried to come home with it on a similar Patterson dribbler earlier in the inning, so this was a day on which it kind of sucked to be Lance Berkman, I guess. But a great day to be Ricky Romero. Or me, enjoying the baseball game.  

Anyway, I was just about to complain about how today is an off-day and off-days are the worst, but in fact the Blue Jays and Tigers are making up a rain out today. Excelsior! 


KS

Braves 2, Blue Jays 0: Run Support King Ricky Romero At It Again

This is Ricky Romero's run support face.

"I’m sure those guys are not trying to get out," Ricky Romero said after last night's game. "They’re all trying. I’m not singling anyone out or anything like that. We’re all trying." What if they're not, though? What if everybody else is just coasting? I think we have to at least entertain the possibility. Adam Lind has been tremendous, Jose Bautista has fallen off but is still obviously going hard to the fullest out there, but who knows? Maybe everybody else is just jerks. The only guy who kind of actually actively looks like he's not trying is Yunel Escobar, but I firmly believe he is in fact trying but lacks the gene that makes it look like you're trying even when you are. On that note, I am entirely pleased with Alex Anthopolous' decision to extend Escobar for two seasons at $5 million a year with a couple of club options at the same rate. This is entirely sensible, and I like it. The eighth-best shortstop in either league this year according to Wins Above Replacement, he has been excellent. 


Last night's game, however, was not excellent, and was, on the contrary, a butt. Tim Hudson threw a two-hitter, and I hated it.


EDIT: Somehow I neglected to mention that both runs came on A TWO-RUN SHOT BY TIM HUDSON IN THE SEVENTH INNING GOD DAMN IT I HATE THE NATIONAL LEAGUE WHERE SHIT LIKE THIS IS EVEN POSSIBLE.


KS

Blue Jays 4, Orioles 1: Realistically, I watched the hockey game.

Striking out twelve: apparently no big deal.

You only get so many Stanley Cup Final Game Sevens, so my attention was divided last night. However, I had the baseball game up on MLB Gameday, and thrilled (via text update) to Yunel Escobar's leadoff home run, Adam Lind's two-run shot in the seventh, and Ricky Romero's twelve-K, three-hit eight innings of work. And I was of course certain Frank Francisco would blow it. But he didn't! And so we're good. 


KS

Royals 3, Blue Jays 2: Ricky Romero, King of Run Support

Ricky Romero is roughly this happy all of the time.

Ricky Romero threw a complete game and lost 3-2 because nobody but the rookie catcher got anything done with the bat. Were a calamitous injury to now befall that fresh-faced catcher, I would know exactly what it's like to be a Giants fan.


KS

Indians 12, Blue Jays 9: Where Have You Gone, Thrown Smoke?

Kyle Drabek's start was at least as bad as this picture.

Here's my main man Kyle Drabek's pitching line from last night: 2/3 IP, 3 H, 4 R (4 ER), 3 BB, 1K. All three hits were hell of ringing doubles; it was extraordinarily shitty. Things totally escalated from there, too, and by the time it got to 12-0 I was long gone. Shame on me, I guess, because I missed a nine-run sort-of-comeback, but whatever(s).


In cheerier news, though, it has become apparent that Jose Bautista is leading all players in All Star voting, which is appropriate and good, and it has also come to my attention that Ricky Romero is currently dating Miss USA Rima Fakih, so good for him. 


Also, the schedule gets nice and soft for a bit so lets rip it up starting Friday. Big fun in Baltimore? Only time will tell.


KS

Yankees 5, Blue Jays 4: Baseball is The Worst and I Hate It

GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

In truth it isn't, and I don't, but that ninth inning cut me deep. Ricky Romero had gone seven innings in Yankee Stadium, pitching his way around seven hits and three walks to allow only one run (Jeter grounding into a 5-3 double play in the seventh did not not hurt one bit). An improbably bat-around fourth had the Blue Jays up 4-1, and were it not for C. C. Sabathia's continued dominance over Jose Bautista, who knows what might have been? But here's what was: Frank Francisco fucking blew it.


If you were going to be charitable about it, you could say that this was only Francisco's second blown save of the year. But if you were of the opinion that the save stat is itself super dumb, and has poisoned yes poisoned bullpen usage for more than a generation now, you would instead point out that Francisco is just plain awful: a 6.23 ERA in his thirteen innings pitched, with twelve hits and eight walks allowed. And that's not the half of it. Well, it's definitely the half of it, and maybe more, but here is totally another thing: you can seriously run on this guy, as much or more than you can run on any other guy in the American League right now. Am I right, Curtis Granderson who is currently do it all?

Yes, you can run on this guy. And I AM currently doing it all, thank you.

 If you don't believe me, believe Curtis Granderson, who has earned that much.


None of this has been a secret. Everyone who is trying to be diplomatic about it has been saying things like, "The bullpen has been excellent this year, with the exception of Francisco, who is an adventure out there," which is the nice way of saying this guy is junk but we keep running him out there despite everybody knowing he's junk. But he's the closer so you can't just, you know, replace him with somebody who is any good, like any of a number of guys, until you decide that that new guy is fit to be deemed the closer. 


That this meltdown happened against the Yankees obviously makes it that much more galling, but if I take three deep breaths I am afforded enough perspective to realize that all this means is that the Blue Jays now sit 2.5 games behind New York for the AL East lead rather than a game behind Boston, and in the big picture -- and not even the actual big picture, but the big picture of a season of professional baseball, which, I mean, come on -- nothing is really any worse right now than it was yesterday. But when the closer everyone knows to be junk blows a save as the ball kicks off the glove of the loathsome Juan Rivera at first, it is hard not to at least entertain the thought that maybe I hate baseball, and maybe the reason I hate it is that it is the worst.


KS

Blue Jays 3, Rays 2: I Hope You Like Baseball That is Crisp

OK it's not just me, that glove is small.

After that gazillion-error nightmare of the previous game, it was nice to see a well-pitched, well-fielded nine innings that came in just a tick over two hours. Ricky Romero scattered but three hits and two walks over his seven innings, and home runs from Juan Rivera (John Farrell insisted that E5's benching had nothing to do with his thirteen errors the night before, but I have my doubts) and J. P. Arencibia where enough to overcome home runs by B. J. Upton and Kelly Shoppach. There's a story that is making the rounds with this game that I will point you towards but don't really want to talk about, so there's the link. 


Notably (in that I am noting it), last night marked only the second game this season in which Jose Bautista has appeared but failed to reach base. Savour it, haters, for you may not know its like again for many weeks.


KS

Blue Jays 2, Twins 0: Why Can't Every Blue Jay Be Either Ricky Romero or Jose Bautista?

Is it just me or does Rickey Romero have an abnormally small glove?

On a day when Blogger let us down (they say the posts will all come back but I do not understand computers enough to know whether or not to believe them), Ricky Romero did not, taking a no-hitter into the sixth en route to eight-and-two-thirds shut-out innings in what is probably the best start by a Blue Jays pitcher this year (I will not be looking that up). The Blue Jays only runs came on a Juan Rivera single in the seventh to plate Corey Patterson and an absolutely glorious Jose Bautista home run in the ninth after going down 0-2 and battling back in a pretty epic AB:


Top 9

• 
  

  Defensive Substitution: Rene Rivera replaces Ben Revere, batting 9th, playing catcher.



• 
  

  Pitcher Change: Joe Nathan replaces Glen Perkins.

1. Jose Bautista homers (12) on a fly ball to left field

• Pitcher

  J. Nathan

• Batter

  J. Bautista

	Speed	Pitch	Result
1	82	Curveball	Called Strike
2	91	Fastball (Four-seam)	Foul
3	92	Fastball (Four-seam)	Foul
4	93	Fastball (Four-seam)	Ball
5	82	Curveball	Ball
6	82	Curveball	Foul
7	86	Slider	Foul
8	92	Fastball (Four-seam)	Ball
9	80	Curveball	Foul
10	90	Fastball (Four-seam)	In play, run(s), hater(s) silenced

(Play-by-play data, much like last night's game itself, brought to us by Major League Baseball.)


I would also like to note the passing of Mel Queen, a longtime member of the Blue Jays in one role or another, from pitching instructor to farm director and pretty much everything in between. His own major league pitching record was an abbreviated 20-17 with a 3.14 ERA, but he was the pitching coach when Hentgen and Clemens were winning Cy Youngs, and he's largely credited with developing Roy Halladay, so yeah, Mel Queen: a guy who knew from pitching. He was but 69.


KS

Blue Jays 5, Yankees 3: Ricky Romero, Yankee Killer

On the whole, the night went way better than you would think from this picture. 

I am not about to look this up, but it seems to me Ricky Romero has pitched some pretty great games against the New York Yankees, and if we assume that that impression is accurate, then we can add last night's solid outing to that list of things that might have happened. Two runs over six innings with seven strikeouts? I will take that literally every time. And the way he worked out of a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam in the fifth, forcing a weak Teixeira pop-up to short and getting Alex Rodriguez to ground into a 6-4-3 double, that was roughly as tremendous as it was improbable. He was also nearly murdered (well, man-slaughtered, I guess) by a Teixeira liner but made the grab. Casey Janssen got into trouble with walks to Gardner and Teixeira in the seventh, but struck out A-Rod to end the inning, so all was immediately forgiven. Did I love it when Octavio "Don't Ask" Dotel walked two more in the eighth? Of course not, no, but he did strike out Jeter in a key at-bat before Jon Rauch came in and got the final four outs on eight pitches. That I loved.  


And perhaps you noticed that Jose Bautista belted his league-leading ninth home run last night, curling it around the pole in left in such a way that it afforded the haters just enough time to will it foul before their hateful hopes were dashed against the shores of the extent to which Baustista rakes? That's something I noticed. I also noticed that, for the second game in a row, Bautista made a baserunning error that produced a run. That is when you know everything is clicking. Here's what happened this time: with Rajai Davis on third (he'd stolen it like it wasn't even a thing that was hard to do), and Rivera batting, Bautista took off from first early, just basically screwing up the old ohshitthrowittosecond--nowaitshitthrowithome play that the Blue Jays are apparently sticking with.  But Yankee reliever David Robertson botched the throw, Bautista was safe, and Davis scored easily. When Rivera singled to left, Bautista pushed his luck further by trying to score. The throw totally beat him, but he managed to evade the tag with either the best or worst slide I have ever seen (I am still trying to come to terms with it). May I add that Bautista is currently rocking a .372/.542/.795/1.337 with 9 home runs, 28 walks, and 25 runs scored, and may I further add that every one of those numbers is league-leading? May I, haters? Oh, thank you for allowing me to point that out. It is most gracious of you. 


Also, let's hear it for J. P. Arencibia, who hit his fourth home run of the season last night, and who is totally going to be the starting catcher for years. He is going to be at least fine. Good for him, good for us. Everybody wins.


Finally, Robinson Cano scares the hell out of me. It is indecent that he hits the ball that hard and plays second base. Indecent.


KS

Rays 2, Blue Jays 0: Oh Come On

In a shocking turn, home plate umpire Mike Everitt reveals himself to be a hater.

Ricky Romero struck out ten, and allowed only two runs over seven innings, both coming off of a first-inning home run to the kind of amazing Ben Zobrist. It was, however, not nearly enough, because everybody except Jose Bautista stinks, at least at the moment. Bautista came close to tying Lyle Overbay's (seriously, Lyle Overbay's) club record of reaching base in twelve straight plate appearances, and in every single one of those plate appearances, Bautista came up with nobody on base.


This is stupid and has to stop.


I am not going to get into a thing where I assign a rating to each and every Blue Jays game or anything, but I would like to give yesterday's offensive performance a rating, and the rating I would like to give yesterday's offensive performance is James Shields' butt.

A butt: I has one.

KS