The Jays stormed back to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th against the resurgent Troy Pervical, only to see an Alex Rios leadoff triple in the bottom of the 10th go uncashed. A sac fly from Bossman Junior and a Dioner Navarro grand slam later and that was all she wrote. Those with a need to see the gruesome details can do so, here.
It takes a certain skill to not be able to score a runner on third base with none out. So many different events can occur that allow the run to score, whearas only a few outcomes likely guarantee it won't. On the positive side of the ledger, any base hit, fly out (Rios runs well), weakly hit ground ball past the pitcher, passed ball, wild pitch, or balk probably scores the runner, and a steal of home or suicide squeeze can work as well. The only outcomes that would (probably) prevent the runner from scoring are strikeouts (assuming the ball is caught), infield flies, walks, line drive outs to an infielder or sharply hit ground balls, depending on where there hit. This is basically just a long way of saying that the Jays probably could have done better than their subsequent three strikeouts and two walks. More specifically, the Jays expectation of winning was 91%, according to TangoTiger's win expectancy chart.
Anyway, the loss was obviously tough, but nevertheless we look ahead.
The Jays kick off a 10 game road trip with a four game set at the Jake tonight, taking on the suddenly hot Cleveland Indians. It's a battle of the aces as Doc takes on C.C. Sabathia at 7.05 pm.
If you missed it, Jorge Velandia and Joe Inglett were called up as both David Eckstein and Marco Scutaro were placed on th 8, e 15 Day DL.
Inglett was batting .407/.484/.574 in 54 at bats with a 7/7 k/bb ratio. Velandia is 33 and hittin .287/.385/.426 with 14 walks and 18 k's in 94 ab's.
Jeff Blair suggests that the team is probably going to sign Brad Wilkerson who had been cut by the Mariners earlier this year. Wilkerson is a 30 year old lefthander who actually has hit better against lefties. He was hitting .232/.348/.304 with the Mariners, so at the least he should fit in with the rest of the Jays - no power or average. Wilkerson has been up and down the last couple years, alternating between average and sub-average, which is not so good for a corner outfielder. He hasn't had a good year since 2004 with the Expos, so maybe the Canada connection will work out for him...
2008 Win Share data is out at The Hardball Times, and worth a perusal if you have time. Dave Studeman has a breakdown of some of the leaders to date. The best Jays so far have been Halladay, McGowan and Marcum, who rank 8th, 9th and 12th amongst AL starting pitchers in win shares. Hill is third amongst AL second baggers to lead the hitters, though much of this is because of his defensive prowess.
John Sickels has a prospect retro on former Jay Frank Thomas. The link is worth it for the picture alone. Sickels also has some great pre-draft stuff.
Thats it for now. After all, tomorrow is another day.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20080509024330493