Will Sunday be the last-ever ballgame featuring only "O Canada" before the first pitch?
The Montreal Expos, who have been knocked down and kicked around by Major League Baseball and some shady owner-type characters therein, have finally broken down as an on-field product, as they enter this weekend series with sole ownership of the league's worst record. Contrary to the predictions of most pundits, it's been their league-worst hitting that's been the problem -- a huge problem -- with the 'Spos. For all of the well-founded angst about Toronto's performance at the plate, Montreal's tallied 89 fewer runs. Although Jose Vidro is heating up and Nick Johnson is getting healthy, Montreal's severe offensive underperformance has been the story for the club. Their pitching, though thin, has been perfectly respectable.
Still, there should be some interesting action on the field. Zach Day and Livan Hernandez will be challenging opponents, and Scott Downs has been lights-out in Wild Rose Country. This edition of the Scout features a struggling shortstop, an old-fashioned workhorse and a Georgetown boy in the bullpen still waiting for his first call to the mound.
On to the Advance Scout!
* After enduring a seven-game interleague losing streak, the Expos have rebounded to take four of five from the White Sox and Phillies ... Some numbers on the punchless Expo bats: Their collective hitting line is .237/.296/.369 -- which among all major league teams is comfortably last, comfortably last and last, but with competition from Seattle ... They're last in hits, doubles and runs. The second-lowest-scoring club, the Mariners, have outscored the Expos by fifty-six ... The poor, intrepid Montrealers now hit the road for a month ...
* Erstwhile part-time Yankee, Juan Rivera, is just 2 for his last 17 (.118) ... But those two hits were doozies -- a two-run bomb and a grand slam, the first of his career ... Both blasts happened not only in the same game, but in the same inning -- Montreal's nine-run second in their 17-14 slugfest win over the Chisox last Saturday ... Rivera on his team's improved play of late: "We've been hitting the ball better lately and driving runners in from third at a better pace than we did earlier in the year" ...
* Tonight's starter, Zach Day, was shelled by the Twins but has otherwise had an exceptionally good June ... In a tidy 107 pitches, Day went eight strong innings last Sunday, allowing just one earned run and one unearned. He didn't walk a batter ... A grateful Frank Robinson praised Day for giving the bullpen "a break" after cycling through so many pitchers on Saturday ...
* Kudos to Frank Robinson for showing a modicum of patience with new closer Chad Cordero ... After blowing his first save opportunity as the newly-appointed closer, Robinson stuck with the second-year man, and he's converted all three of his chances since ... Last year's first-round pick out of CS-Fullerton has struggled with his control at times, but opponents are hitting just .206 off him ... Rocky Biddle had been far too much of a gascan to stay in his "ace reliever" role ... On six occasions, Biddle has yielded more than one run ...
* Endy Chavez really goes up there hacking ... In 216 official at-bats, the Venezuelan has just seven walks and 16 Ks ... He's been successful on five consecutive steal attempts, and his ratio on the season is a very solid 13/2 ...
* Leadoff hitter Brad Wilkerson has brought some sock to the top of the order in June (.280/.407/.600) ... Seven of his twelve home runs have come in the leadoff spot ... Wilkerson made a huge play in left yesterday, gunning down Jim Thome at the plate on a deep fly ball to preserve his team's narrow 3-2 lead ...
* For some reason, all of the pop seems to have seeped out of Orlando Cabrera's bat ... After topping 40 doubles in each of his last three seasons, he's stuck on just nine (along with two triples and four homers) through 70 games played ... Since pitchers haven't had to fear him this season, they've been challenging him ... He's been flat-out awful against righthanded pitching (.212/.259/.302) ... He did, however, launch a walk-off blast into the left field seats on Sunday off a flagging Jon Garland in the bottom of the ninth ... Day claimed to have called Cabrera's walkoff shot ... Robinson on the Sunday win: "It was the most positive-type noise in the clubhouse I've heard all year long" ... Fortunately, his struggles with the bat haven't affected his stellar defence ...
* A couple of weeks ago, I might have written a very similar bullet for Jose Vidro -- but he's absolutely on fire at the plate right now ... He's riding an 11-game hitting streak (.422), with 12 RBI in that span ... After a shockingly dismal May (.207/.277/.315), he's rebounded with a resurgent June (.366/.409/.591) ... A more aggressive approach at the plate has roused Vidro from the '04 Expos doldrums ...
* Catcher Brian Schneider is 9 for his last 18 (.500) ... He had a huge game on Tuesday, homering and hitting two doubles ...
* Setup man Luis Ayala has been generally sharp (only six walks allowed all season), but when he's failed, it's been costly ... In the twelve outings in which he surrendered a run, he's racked up six losses and two blown saves ...
* Even though righties and lefties each hit over .315 off long man T.J. Tucker, he's kept his job by yielding only one walk and one home run in 17 1/3 IP ... Good contact teams (like the White Sox last weekend) give him trouble ...
* The Jays cross paths with former divisional rival Nick Johnson again ... Johnson's in a 1-for-11 funk, but the constant on-base threat did walk not once, not twice, but thrice, in yesterday's matinee ... Despite playing "home" games in hitter-friendly San Juan and Montreal, Johnson's road numbers (.372/.438/.581) blow his subpar home stats away ...
* Saturday's starter, Scott Downs, was called up last night as a reward for his excellent 8-3, 2.89 season with the Edmonton Trappers ...
* Terrmel Sledge has been freed, no doubt to Mr. Burley's delight ... The lefty just can't handle lefthanded pitching, against whom he can only muster a .167/.167/.267 line in 30 at-bats ... But his only extra-base hit against lefties was termed the Expos' "biggest hit of the year" by Robinson, after Sledge took Neal Cotts deep to give the 'Spos some breathing room in the Saturday shootout ...
* Volatile veteran Carl Everett is battling tightness in his left hamstring, and has been limited to one pinch-hitting appearance this week ... Everett expects to start this weekend ...
* Backup utilityman Jamey Carroll is just one dinger away from matching his career best in home runs -- 1, set in each of his first two seasons ...
* Old friend Tony Batista is in an absolutely dreadful slump right now ... In June, he's a microscopic .125/.133/.292 in 72 at-bats, with a walk and 10 strikeouts ... Montreal is hoping his two-run homer in yesterday's game will rouse him from his funk ...
* Sunday's starter, '97 World Series MVP Livan Hernandez, was not expected to offer the Expos much after getting hit hard in the pitcher's haven at McCovey Cove ... But he's been a reliable and consistent workhorse in a year and a half in La Belle Province (and La Isla Bonita, I suppose) ... Now this is durability: His shortest outing this season has been a full six innings, and he hasn't missed a start ... His slider makes life pretty tough on righties, who hit .219 with a 14/49 BB/K ratio against big Livan ... Despite a solid 3.37 ERA, he's a hard-luck 4-7. In nine of his 16 starts, Montreal has supported him with three runs or fewer ... The burly righty helped his own cause with two key doubles on Tuesday. Hernandez was often used as a pinch-hitter in San Francisco ... Livan: "I love to hit" ... He also loves to golf, and among his most prized memorabilia is a framed Masters flag, signed by Mike Weir. Hernandez won the silent auction for the flag at an Expos charity tournament for families living with cancer ...
* Georgetown's own Shawn Hill expects to make his debut out of the bullpen sometime this weekend in front of friends and family ... He was recalled from AA Harrisburg last weekend, but has yet to see game action ... Journeyman reliever Jeremy Fikac was sent down after going through a rough June, getting hit at a .308 clip and giving up four runs in his six innings of relief ... Any Bauxites familiar with 23-year-old Mr. Hill? ...
* In the melancholy where-are-the-Expos-going department, Virginia legislators announced a site near Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia -- calculated to draw D.C. fans while sapping fewer fans of the Orioles ... A 1997 law enables the Expos to hit up taxpayers for two-thirds of the tab if they make the move ...
* Tim (Rock) Raines had his familiar #30 retired on Saturday ... The event drew over 18,000 to the Big O, their second-largest crowd of the season after their Montreal opener ...
Probable Batting Orders
Note: The Jays are not scheduled to start a lefthander this series.
vs. RH
7 Wilkerson
8 Chavez
4 Vidro
3 N Johnson
6 Cabrera
9 Sledge/Rivera
DH Everett
5 T Batista/Carroll
2 Schneider
Pitching Probables
Friday: RH Day vs. Towers
Saturday: LH Downs vs. M Batista
Sunday: RH Hernandez vs. Hentgen
Bullpen Usage
Long: Kim R, Tucker R
Short: Biddle R, Hill R
Setup: Horgan L, Ayala R
Closer: Cordero R
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