Sportsnet's Faulds noted that Hinske will have tonight and tomorrow off to rest a sore wrist.

Two out, no one on. Woodward pokes one down the rightfield line, Stewart bloops one off a shattered bat into centre, and Cat hits a dying quail into centre just beyond Gil (Kennedy, a terrific 2B, probably would have had it). Vernon hits the ball hard right at Gil to end the inning. Tied at 1, going to the bottom of the 3rd.

Ortiz unravels in the 6th.

Coach can weigh in on this, but I think Ortiz's major problem is that he throws everything the same speed. The slider and fastball are about 88-91 MPH. A disciplined team (one that doesn't go outside the zone) has a pretty good shot at hitting the ball hard because they don't have to worry about timing the pitch - all they have to do is look for the location.

Vernon absolutely crushed that ball - even with topspin that ball was well over the fence.

Hi Robert. Feeling lonely?

Let's try first-guessing the relievers. I say pull Hendrickson after six, despite the low pitch total so far. He's having a similar start to Davis last night, where he's getting the job done but not blowing them away. And again there's the fact that he faced the same good hitters 5 days ago. And the big lead reduces the pressure on Escobar.

Then again, 68 is an awfully low pitch total after six... dilemma dilemma...

7-2 Jays, middle of the seventh

Let's just hope the rally monkey has moved to Arrowhead Pond for the remainder of the NHL playoffs.

Kelvim it is for the 7th. I hereby applaud Mr. Tosca and revoke my right to whine if Kelvim blows up.

Escobar struggles with his command, but gets through the 7th and 8th with no runs after an epic battle versus Fullmer (7th - flies out to shallow right) and a Garret Anderson grounder up the middle in the 8th that hits Escobar's backside - putout 1-3.

Is there any pitcher in baseball that gets into worse fielding position than Escobar?

I think that witha 7-2 lead and Kelvim rested, it was guaranteed that Lurch would be out after 6. If it had been 3-2, Lurch would have come out for the 7th.

Phelpsie's in a slump. His strikeout in the 7th was a sure sign of that, as he swung through 2 meatballs.

And the big lead reduces the pressure on Escobar.

Is it possible that Escobar would actually be best in lengthy save situations? In a super quick glance at Kelvim's game logs over the past 3 years, I checked out how he performed in situations where he pitched 2 innings or longer out of the pen (exception: I excluded one game where he blew a save in the ninth and then pitched into extra innings...he wasn't being asked to pitch long then, he just ended up doing so).

The results astounded me:

GP Inn HA BB SO ERA WHIP K/BB
10 23.6 13 9 27 0.38 0.93 3.00

I admit that this could be misleading. There may have been situations where the intention was for Escobar to pitch long and he got yanked for pitching poorly before lasting 2 innings. I can't know what the manager's intention for any particular game was now. But it's an interesting thought and Escobar's performance tonight has done nothing to prove the idea wrong.