The Oakland writers will love that, a "small ball" stolen base leads to a run. 1-0 A's.

Josh Towers has given up a couple of singles and Oakland leads 1-0 after two. Harden's thrown 44 pitches already, so the Jays are making him work.

Bobby Kielty remains on the bench -- I guess he's in a platoon with Cat now -- and Tom Wilson is the catcher again, with Myers at DH, and no sign of Josh Phelps. A day after the Bordick hit streak ended, Woody's the shortstop.

Sparky just executed his specialty again; he gets the pitcher, second basemnan and first baseman to all chase a hard bunt, and cruises in with a leadoff single.

Sure, the pitch count is way up, and there's been what? four opposite field hits already, lookin' good.

Boom! Eric Hinske crushed a 2-run HR to left-center.

The kid looks good, even after giving up three straight hits to start the inning and losing the lead. He struck out Delgado on a snappy curve, but Myers just ripped one up the middle. The Jays game plan seems to be to hack at the fastballs.

Bases loaded with one out, this had better get interesting (threatening mock violence).

If you're wild, Tom Wilson is the last Blue Jay hitter you want to be facing. 3-1 Jays.

Bases-loaded walk by the patient Wilson makes it 3-1 and Harden must be up around 70 pitches.

74 after 3 to be exact, 4-1 Jays. Nice to see the power come back in time so we can see Harden, too bad he probably won't go more than 6 innings at this rate.

Gabe Gross hit his 12th & 13th doubles and had his 17th walk in 127 AB's in Syracuse's 8-2 victory over Bufallo.

Ah, that's Buffalo.

The "slumping" Hinske (you'll have to ask Bob Elliott) has gone deep again, after Johnson led off with a double down the line. 6-2 Jays.

I am lovin' this. He's hittin' two-hole, takin' pitches, hittin'em where there pitched. Nice. Hinske's second two-run homer tonight was smoked. 6-2 Jays.

I love Eric Hinske's bat, hopefully his glove follows suit the rest of the game.

Faulds better not hold his breath waiting for the Jays to promote a Bobblehead doll in his likeness

"What do you think about that!?"

"What do you think about that!?" is not what Faulds bobblehead would say, is would say, how does it go Kent? 'Shallow fly ball to rightfield and it's gone'. It went something like that didn't it?

Good to see Eric coming around. He was starting to worry me.

Can someone explain what happened with Catalanatto? I'm only following the game online, and the box score initially said he was hit by Halama, now it's changed to him grounding out to second- is this just a mistake in entering the game info online, or did something weird happen?

Woahh-ho! Woody's campaigning to get back into the lineup as he spanks a 2RBI homer! Woody always seem to play better after he sits for a while; but then I suppose that's typical of "work ethic" players like Woodward.

"It's a two-run homer festivas miracle" 8-2 Jays after Woodward's shot.

Nice to see the offense coming around like this, every Jay has a hit or walk, and it's only the 5th.

Vernon Wells lovers you are permitted to come out from the closet...nice nice grab.

""Carlos", put the phone down."

Why waste Josh Tower's precious arm when you can make Kershner's fall off...? Here's hoping Lopez gets in a bit of work tonight too. I think he needs it...

Three run lead. Six outs to go. Politte's in for the eight, does that mean if all goes well it's Lopez in the ninth, yet once more?

One down, fly ball to RF.

Durazo had the walk, but swung at a crappy pitch for strike two, then struck out on nice change-up down and away. Nice for Politte, not so nice if you're an A's supporter (that's me). This season must be depressing for a A's fan. No offense, no spark.

Ellis strikes out, that's two K's for Pollite. On to the ninth.

Not to take anything away from Harden's potential, but his record to this point (and probably for the rest of the season) is much less impressive if you consider the teams he's pitched against. His only other loss to this point (assuming the bullpen holds up in the 9th) was to the White Sox, and the only other plus .500 teams he still has to face are Boston and Seattle. He gets the following teams for the rest of the stretch, assuming the rotation stays as it is:

8/21 @Bos
8/26 Bal
8/31 TB
9/6 @TB
9/11 Ana
9/16 @Ana
9/22 Tex
9/28 @Sea

It will be interesting to see if they keep him in the rotation if they make the playoffs, they have the easiest schedule the rest of the way amongst themselves, Seattle, and Boston, so I would guess they'll either be the wild card or move past Seattle, provided they win half their games head to head with the Mariners.

Nope, it's Miller, Trevor.

"Strike one". "Ground ball back-handed by Delagado, one out".

"This portion of Blue Jays baseball brought to you by Mr. Sub."

"Ball one." "Inside, ball two." "Strike one." "Ball three". "Strike two." "Ground ball up the middle (I guess that means it' a single too)."

"Big cut at the first offering, stike one." "Ground ball to Hudson, toss to second, double play." "Game over. " "I love you John." "I hate "Moneyball" Rob."

http://economics.about.com
Has Richard Griffin been visiting Da Box? See today's article.

"The second-year Jays manager insists he makes his pitching changes based on information fans and media are not privy to.".

He does use a Magic 8-Ball!

Mike

Mike i was reading the article this morning. Tosca is not going to be pleased with it, that's for sure. I appreciate what he is trying to say but the article seems also to be an attack on Tosca rather than Griffin pointing out the failings of the bullpen.

The Star really does need to find itself a new baseball writer.

http://economics.about.com
Mike i was reading the article this morning. Tosca is not going to be pleased with it, that's for sure. I appreciate what he is trying to say but the article seems also to be an attack on Tosca rather than Griffin pointing out the failings of the bullpen.

Griffin is our favourite whipping boy here, but I actually thought it was a really good piece. At the same time, I think Tosca does take too much heat. Given the injuries to the pen and the general lack of depth, changing the usage pattern of the pen might be a bit like shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Mike

"What do you think about that!?"

I appreciate what must have been endless days and hours spent in front of a mirror choosing, then practising the home run call his consultants told him he must have, but I just don't get a warm, tingly feeling that Rob really cares what I think about that.

The Griffin piece now has its own thread.

My Internet access continues to be sporadic, so while it's up I want to point out that we're about to reach 150,000 hits. This is amazing, and we are very grateful for everyone's participation.

Shane mentioned Gross had 2 doubles last night. His BA now is .299. Considering his start in AAA he must be hitting over .350 the past month.

When Cash was recalled I thought he was going to catch the guys he was familiar with in Syracuse. He caught Towers all year, but last night it was Wilson.