A big 3-run HR by Dave Berg gives the Jays the lead again -- it's now 5-3 in the bottom of the fourth.

this is getting kinda frustrating, lurch is gettin first strikes and getting ahead in the count then giving up hits. arghhh

carlos should take him out now. 5-5 with ramirez on 1st

Not a great day for Lurch; four hits in the top of the fifth and the Red Sox have knocked him out, taking a 6-5 lead. Trever Miller got two outs without allowing any further damage.

A Tom Wilson double and a Josh Phelps RBI single tied it up in the bottom of the sixth. Then Mike Bordick blasted a 2-run homer (his first of the year) and the Jays once again take the lead, 8-6. Tanyon Sturtze, after two pitches, is poised for one of those Josh Towers wins.

Catalanotto doubles to right to cash in two more runs, making it 10-6 Jays, with 28,809 on hand to witness an entertaining comeback.

Give that Mike Barnett a raise!Man can these guys hit.I wonder how much affect the closed dome has on all this offence?

http://economics.about.com
Jays games are a lot of fun this year.. because no lead is safe, yet, no deficit is insurmountable. I wish every month could be like this one.

Mike

Guess who's out of the rotation?

John Burkett?

As Coach might say, if it's Burkett, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

Nah, Coach would say Burkett's hips weren't in it ;)

But seriously, check out the spelling bee coverage on ESPN Motion...The kid that won can barely hold up the trophy (lol), but in his defense he can spell words I didn't even know existed.

I didn't get a chance to watch/listen to much of the game but combing over the boxscore I'm having a hard time believing we scored 10 runs because spots 1 through 4 in the Jays' batting order were a combined 1-15, 5K, 2BB...Granted the only hit (courtesy FCat) was worth two RBI.

Seeing as the good guys are about to sweep the series with what seem to be bats the size of telephone poles, do we get a shot at Pedro tomorrow?

A little off topic, but at least it's the Blue Jays... I just read Aaron Gleeman's posting on the Jays from Wednesday, and am rather impressed. Gotta love someone outside of Ontario (and in my case Cape Breton) acknowledging their streak. On a side note, I haven't done the in depth research I should have but I've been thinking... How do Roger Clemens' two seasons as a Jay stack up all time for back to back seasons. Aaron has said several times that Pedro has had as good a peak as anyone. Cut it down from a peak of say, 5 years, to a peak of two years and is anyone (post WWII anyway) better than Clemens as a Jay?

Cut it down from a peak of say, 5 years, to a peak of two years and is anyone (post WWII anyway) better than Clemens as a Jay?

Yep, two guys, and it ain't even close.

ERA+'s as per www.baseball-reference.com:

Roger Clemens 97-98: 226, 176
Pedro Martinez 99-00: 245, 285
Greg Maddux 94-95: 273, 259

I knew somebody would do the hard work for me ;-) . I sure do stand corrected... Thanks a lot, Chuck. I definitely expected both of those numbers to be above 200.

Runs Above Replacement for the above three pitchers plus Randy Johnson 2001-2002... I pegged replacement level at a park-adjusted lgERA+ of 80.

Pedro Martinez 99-00 : +101.2, +107.8 = +209.0

Greg Maddux 94-95 : +114.2, +85.0 = +199.7

Roger Clemens 97-98 : +109.4, +82.9 = +192.3

Randy Johnson 01-02 : +89.9, +91.9 = +191.8

In terms of individual seasons, it's 1. Maddux, 2. Clemens, 3. Martinez, 4. Johnson

Bob Gibson's 1.12 ERA in 1968 was +84.8, but you have to remember that it was in a much tighter scoring environment. Generally, the Wins Above Replacement will be approximately the RAR divided by 10, but much less in 1968 and much more in 1994 or 1997.

By Pitching Win Shares (not the ideal metric for measuring starting pitchers in my opinion, because of the "noise" created by pythagorean outpeformance or underperformance by the team in other pitchers' starts):

Pedro 99-00 : 26.89, 28.86 = 55.75 win shares

Roger 97-98 : 31.66, 25.04 = 56.70 win shares

Maddux 94-95 : 25.96, 29.87 = 55.83 win shares

Making the three practically indistinguishable.

Whoops! Maddux's 1994 should be +84.5, making the total +169.5, and Maddux in fourth place. The moral of the story is, 250 incredible innings beats 200 slightly more incredible innings...

Well, on that measure, I'm a little less wrong in expecting they (Clemens as a Jay) were the greatest (back to back) post WWII seasons by a pitcher.

Well, on that measure, I'm a little less wrong in expecting they (Clemens as a Jay) were the greatest (back to back) post WWII seasons by a pitcher.