I can't eat pizza. ;(

I have to go to a wedding.

If it's your own wedding, you can postpone it. She'd understand.

Doesn't look like i'll be eating any pizza either...

I hope to catch up with the ZLC at the game or at least the bar afterwards though

LOL Ryan. I needed that one.

I guess I could order a box of pizza and just talk to myself about baseball. Montreal has this great 99 cent/slice pizza deal so it shouldn't be too expensive.

Craig, did Da Box just turn into an emotional support network?

What do Mulholland's numbers look like?

Terry Mulholland: Age: 40 Salery: 500K Experience: 17yrs
YEAR G GS CG IP H R ER HR BB SO W L Sv P/GS WHIP BAA ERA
2003 44 2 0 92.0 107 55 50 16 34 39 3 3 0 84.5 1.53 .293 4.89

If only terry Mulholland was a jay and not cory lidle. Of course that go's for more than a few pitchers.

I wouldn't take Mulholland over Lidle in the starting rotation (Lidle has better potential, eats more innings, far younger), but he'd be a nice replacement for a guy like Sturtze.

I guess I could order a box of pizza and just talk to myself about baseball.

Ah, the fabulous Montreal nightlife.

If anyone wants to chat baseball, I'm at ICQ 272997179 and AOL IM "tybaltgreen". I have my hands full of baby, but maybe not all afternoon.

Da Box has always been an ESN, btw. Kent, Jordan and I are all quite insistent on that.

According to Tom, the two-out Gerut double missed leaving the ballyard by an "eyelash". C'mon Doc, let's take care of Broussard and get out of inning one without too many pitches.

Astros lose, Cubs win. Cubs can do no worse than tie for the division title.

Back to your regularly scheduled game.

Halladay got two quick outs to Bordick; consider me happy that he's in the game and not Woodward. The second out in particular could have been trouble.

After that, Halladay gave up three straight doubles, yielding two runs for Cleveland. I predict that he'll settle down after this; the Jays lineup, who clearly know what's going on, will be on their games to support Halladay.

http://me.woot.net
After two quick outs by Johnson and Bordick, V-Dub hit a bounding ground ball to 2B which was thrown away. He was awarded a base hit, and I assume there will be an error allowing him the extra base.

Delgado went around for a strikeout; after 1, 2-0 Cleveland.

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Roy settled down for the second inning.. A fly out and two strikeouts, and the Indians go 1-2-3.

The SkyDome seems a-hopping today. It's nice hearing the cheers for Halladay to finish off each and every batter.

Having no cable, it was a plesant surprise to see that Fox was coming through (even though there is lots of snow on the screen) AND that they're carrying a ball game AND that it's a good one. Seatle's up 4 on Oakland in the first with Zito on the mound for the A's. I wonder how long they're gonna leave him out there.

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A correction: Berg, and not Bordick made the second out in the 1st inning.

Mulholland caught Phelps looking at strike 3, but Kielty quickly made up for it by tapping a bouncing infield hit that Blake couldn't get a handle on. Bordick hit a hard grounder up the middle to put runners on first and second; Hudson hit into a fielder's choice, Kielty out at third.

A wild pitch by Mulholland on Cash advanced the runners to second and third. One of those runners was Cashed in when Phillips, the 2B, bobbled the ground ball. Johnson hit into another fielder's choice at second to end the inning.

End 2: 2-1 Cleveland.

(Ok, I'm sorry for that pun.)

the two-out Gerut double missed leaving the ballyard by an "eyelash".

It hit the top of the wall. Not the front of the wall near the top, it actually hit the *top* of the wall, and bounced _up_, but back onto the field.

I'm less confident that the Jays will be scoring lots today; the patient, high-scoring team of the first half has apparently been replaced by a free-swinging bunch of banjo hitters, and as the September goes on they actually seem to get *less* patient. Mike Barnett has his work cut out for him over the winter... next year, if this team intends to do more than make up numbers, they have to stick with the approach that brought them success.

The team that had the second-most runs in baseball before the break is 8th in the AL in runs scored after the break. (7th in runs per game I guess). They are 9th in the AL in home runs... they have fewer home runs than the TIGERS after the break. They are 9th in the AL in walks in September, and 13th in home runs during that brutal August.

The single most disappointing thing about the 2003 Blue Jays? The way the offense disappeared. Worse than the bad bullpen, worse than the individual performaces of Lidle or Creek or Tam, worse then Hinske's injury and defensive regression.

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Lacking an option, I'm forced to listen to the Faulds/Cerutti duo. Cerutti is convinced that, regardless of the outcome of this game, Halladay is the Cy Young winner.

Two ground balls and a strikeout, and Halladay has gone 1-2-3 two straight innings.

http://me.woot.net
Berg hit another fly ball to RF, but V-Dub laced a ball to right centre and legged out a double for it. 215 hits now; Wells is forging new Blue Jays ground for hits in a single season.

Delgado lined out to RF for the second out, but Phelps worked a walk out of Mulholland. Kielty followed that up with another walk, loading the bases.

Bordick comes up big: a ground ball which squirted up the middle and out of Phillip's glove, for a 2-RBI single, the 1500th hit of his career. (There was less fanfare for Bordick than I would have expected, though.)

Hudson followed Bordick's single with one of his own, scoring Kielty from second and leaving runners on 1st and 2nd. Cash worked a 3-2 count, but was called out after watching a strike paint the black.

Oakland's come back to tie the game on an Eric Chavez 2-Run off-the-foul-pole homerun, pushing him past the RBI century mark.

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4-2 for the Jays after 3.

Halladay's been overpowering the past three innings; two quick ground balls, and then his 200th strikeout of the season.

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Johnson flies out to the RF Gerut, but Berg follows him up with a sharp-hit grounder through Mulholland's legs, which is knocked down but not caught by the 2B Phillips.

Wells hits a ground ball to the SS and replaces Berg on 1B. Delgado then goes the other way to LF and slides easily in with a double. Both men are erased on a first-pitch weak grounder by Phelps to 1B.

After 4, the score remains 4-2 Jays.

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Halladay's neat little streak comes to an end with a gapper double from Magruder. He's quickly cashed in with an up-the-middle ground ball single by Jhonny Peralta, who looks like Einar Diaz to me.

A sacrifice bunt by Phillips advances Peralta to 2B, and a ground ball out moves him to 3B.

A wild pitch from Halladay looked like big trouble, but Cash corralled the ball very quickly, and tossed to Halladay who tagged Phillips at the plate.

4-3 Jays.

Craig B, I still think that the bullpen giving away games when it seemed to all that they counted, was the single most dissapointing blame on this year jays.
But once that have chosen the second half batting production, would you mind elaborating in the Shannon effect ( ie missing a .300 hitter in your lineup ) and if you feel truly philosophical, on the Tosca's heart picked lineups?

Don't retire, Mike.

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Kielty and Bordick make quick ground ball outs to SS, and Hudson flies out to RF.

In the top of the 6th, Halladay begins to regain his composure, striking out the first batter and then getting a ground ball to Bordick.

The next play is a neat one, with Bordick going way into the hole to retrieve a ground ball, and Delgado making a diving, scooping catch at the other end to complete the PO.

Hey! Home run Kevin Cash. Great to see.

By the way, Rob Faulds... that big enclosure out in left field where the relievers warm up is the "bullpen", not the "dugout".

Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get a hang of all the terminology before long. :(

http://me.woot.net
Cash starts off the bottom of the 6th with the first home run of his career, and Johnson surprises everyone by bunting himself on base on the next pitch. Berg quickly erases Johnson's infield single, though, by hitting into the double play, 6-4-3. Wells grounds out to end the inning.

I think this kid Cash is going to be okay.

5-3 Jays after 6.

Kenny Lofton just scampered home with the Cubs' sixth run of Game 2, as a Grudzielanek steal attempt with runners on the corners prompts a throwing error. 6-0, Cubs.

So long, Houston. You have nobody to blame but yourselves.

Jabonoso,

I don't think Stewart's departure had a major impact, though I'm sure it did have a minor one. Stewart was a pretty good leadoff hitter; Johnson's been taking a lot of leadoff duties in his absence and he's not quite as good.

Hitters hit slightly better in general with runners on, so there's an effect there. But I don't think it's a major one.

As for replacing Stewart with Kielty, Kielty is better then Stewart at drawing walks and about the same at hitting homers anyway... and that's where the Jays have been deficient in the second half, the walk-around-the-bases offense. Kielty has actually gotten on base slightly more for the Jays than Stewart did for the Jays this year.

Tosca's lineups have been a problem at times (cf. Phelps, Joshua and Cat, Frankie) but more than anything the guys who killed this offense in the second half are the non-Bordick infielders (Hudson, Woodward, Berg) and Frankencatcher... especially Kevin Cash. You can't play Phelps and Cat in the up-the-middle spots (well, not if you want defense).

By the way, this just occurred to me. I know it's cool that BP is in town and all...but Doc is going for his 22nd win, and the title of the game thread is "Mmmmmm...Pizza"??!?

http://me.woot.net
Top of the 7th starts off with a ground rule double for Bard. That's 5 on the game for Cleveland.

Halladay strikes out his 7th this game and follows it up with a ground ball that Hudson corrals and plays on to Delgado.

Halladay walks (!) Peralta to put men on 1B and 3B. Phillips then hits a line drive double down the 3B line which scores one run.

Big chopper over Halladay's head, but Bordick, who should not retire, grabs it and throws out the runner at 1B. 5-4 Jays.

Word is: Sturtze was suspended for 3 games for his actions in the brawl the other day. Fined $1500, which was reduced to $500 on appeal. Poor guy.

Loving the updates Joe, keep it up!

Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get a hang of all the terminology before long. :(

We all know that bad sports announcers have a Eureka moment during the night between game #161 and #162...That would explain why American hockey play-by-play guys never seem to get any better ;-)

Oakland and Seatle still tied in the bottom of 5. It all means nothing but Zito has settled down and that awsome curve (analysts called it a lolipop curve, I disagree) has frozen an number of Mariners. It's just a gorgeous pitch.

The Cubbies are cleaning the deck this afternoon. They beat the Pirates 4-2 in the front end of a Day-Day doubleheader (apparently they aren't allowed to have more than 18 night games at Wrigley each season) and through 2 complete in the second game CHC are ahead 6-0.

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Delgado leads off the 7th for the Jays by driving a ball to LF; sadly, Magruder's glove intervened before the ball could hit the ground.

Phelps walks on 4 straight pitches, but Magruder performs the same trick to Kielty's (first-pitch hitting) line drive to LF as he did to Delgado's.

Bordick grounds out to end the inning; score remains 5-4 Jays.

Interesting Stat/Trivia question:

The Mariners starting rotation has not had any of their 5 miss a start this season.

Last team to do that? 1966 Dodgers, who did it with a 4-man rotation.

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Blake flies out to Bordick to lead off the 8th. A hard-hit grounder from Gerut's bat to Delgado is flipped neatly to Halladay, covering first, to make the second out.

Ok, Cerutti and Faulds, shut up about Halladay's Cy chances.

Broussard chases a ball in the dirt to end the top of the 8th. Looks like Halladay may be out to finish what he started; he's only thrown 110 pitches.

http://me.woot.net
Mulholland is not out to pitch the bottom of the 8th; replacing him is Jason Boyd.

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Hudson pops up to right-centre to lead off the 8th, and then Cash works a walk out of Boyd. Sparky watches 2 called strikes, and then swings through the 3rd.

Crash is pinch-hitting for Berg, but he hits a high bounding ball to Boyd, who throws him out at 1B.

Halladay is coming out to pitch the top of the 9th. Score remains 5-4 Jays.

Prior had two consecutive 130 plus pitches starts, it will be interesting to see how Mr Baker is going to align his starters for the Braves series.
Craig B, the corners outfielders were subpar also. we are not going to compete in 04 ( oficially ) then answers for the middle infield and the bench and the f-catcher duo are not as important as to keep bringing in more arms to test them in the superdome with that hard surface and our not so good defence...
All in all the genious badge JP got by the all star break for his assembling of a super offence in so short time has to be taken away.
By the way how old is baby jay?

E Jackson and J Williams had a very nice duel ( 2 and 1 hit respectively ) in the LA vs SF game, LA 1-0 in the 8th.

Oakland brings in the wringers and Seatle takes advantage by posting 3 runs. Score now reads Sea 7, Oak 4, bottom 6.

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Howie Clark is out to play 3B for Berg, who Crash pinch-hit for in the 8th.

Big bounding ball from Bard which Bordick grabbed, but the throw pulled Delgado off the bag. Base hit. Bard is pinch-run for by Zach Sorenson.

The SkyDome is going wild for the first out from Halladay now that he has 2 strikes.

A chopper to Delgado, who throws to Halladay covering 1B. Sorenson to 2B.

Halladay is at 120 pitches.

With his 121st, he strikes out Magruder. 2 down.

The crowd is going wild.

Ground ball to Hudson! Throw to Delgado! Halladay wins!

Brilliant!

Great to see Doc so pumped at the end too!

How many on hand to take this in?

Good for Halladay!

3.25 season era sounds good!

As does 204 K's, 266 IP, 9 complete games and the Blue Jays season record for wins!

How far was from the innings pitched record ( BJs)?

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21,504 was the announced attendance, but it sounded a LOT louder than that.

Halladay is being interviewed by Faulds & Cerutti. Halladay says he didn't feel too sharp, having only thrown 70 pitches last game.

The wild pitch in the 5th was "the first cutter [Halladay] had tried to throw in a long time."

Roy's wife Brandy came in to congratulate him at the end of the interview.

Ricciardi knows he has to re-sign Halladay, especially after the fan support he got today. The numbers weren't great, but I haven't heard a crowd like that since the early 90s.

Doc is going for his 22nd win, and the title of the game thread is "Mmmmmm...Pizza"??!?

I like pizza. I kiss Halladay's butt enough around here, anyway.

Craig B, the corners outfielders were subpar also.

Well, they (actually just Johnson and Kielty) were below average for corner outfielders, but they weren't the ones killing the offense. The guys killing the offense were the guys with the sub-.300 OBPs. Johnson's future is not as a starting corner OF, no matter what Tosca thinks. Kielty has been getting on base, despite not much power this year in Toronto.

how old is baby jay?

Jay is 5 1/2 months old. Click here for his website.

I have to disagree with Craig about the offence in the 2nd half. It was only a disappointment compared to what they did in the first half (when they were playing above their heads). They are 7th in 2nd half runs scored, averaging 5.03 a game.

The Jays are 4th in team walks post all-star break and 5th in OBP. Their main problem was lack of homeruns (9th in AL) and GIDP (tied for 2nd with Minnesota and Detroit) post-All Star.

I'm not sure what sub-300 OBP guys Craig is talking about other than Kevin Cash.

What happened was that the opposition started to pitch around Delgado, Cash took time away from Myers/Wilson, Kielty didn't hit for power and so their homeruns dove off a cliff.

Just got back from the game and there had to be close to 40,000 there, if not more. I am not sure what is going on with the attendance figures but there must be a lot of freebies floating around--although I am not aware of any. Lineups at the ticket windows were also quite long at game time. I noticed the same thing at last night's game as well. It was easily the most electric the Skydome has been all year--too bad the roof was closed.

Congrats to Roy.

I don't understand the attendence figure either. The policy has always been to count the freebies as sold tickets; I don't know what the reason would be to do otherwise today. I've been to every game this year, so I'm decent at estimating these things, and I swear it was no less than thirty thousand, probably thirty five. I have no idea what was up.

Wonderful atmosphere today. Actually, the crowds have been really engaged all week, despite the low numbers.

I was really looking forward to a 5 team tie for the NL Wildcard or a 3 team tie for the NL Central. Too bad.

Sorry Robert, my comment wasn't very clear. The "sub-300 OBP" guys are the guys who have been around or below .300 after the All-Star Break, not all year.

Hudson (.313), Myers (.288), Cash (.162), Woodward (.290), Wilson (.267), Berg (.310). Wilson in particular has been an offensive zero.

There's no question the team were performing "above their heads" in the first half... and I have total faith that they were doing it because of an exemplary approach to hitting the baseball. That has to come back... pitchers have adjusted to the Jays somewhat, adjustments have to be made.

The 'loud' was partly the fantastic Blue Jays Cheer Club, which everyone here should join.

Anyone hear us taunting Jody Gerut every frigging inning? I'd love confirmation that Jody (Joooo-DEEEEE) could hear us.

Wilson and Woodward hardly played in the 2nd half. I think it's pretty clear that what the Jays lost in offence (about 18 runs in the 2nd half because we know that even if they had kept the same lineup and approach they would have regressed towards the mean from the other worldly 5.85 runs a game) was gained back on defence - with Bordick and Cash in and Kielty/Johnson/Cat in for Stewart/Cat.

BTW, Wilson was and is the most patient hitter on the team. Delgado and Myers' drop offs were to be fully expected. Berg isn't more than a .320 OBP guy anyway, so the only guy left on the list is Orlando Hudson.

556 runs for, 515 against in 95 first half games
332 runs for, 309 against in 66 second half games

Some of that was regression to the mean (offence worse, defence better); the other part was a conscious choice for defence over offence in the 2nd half. I wouldn't call what happened at all disappointing unless you think it was a bad decision to make that shift.

I see no evidence that the Jays' "exemplary" approach changed. Delgado was on fire the first half and the pitchers stopped throwing him hittable pitches. Myers' first half was a total fluke - I didn't think his approach changed at all - maybe getting less playing time because of Cash made him rustier. Kielty is more patient than Stewart, but wasn't nearly as productive (though I think he will be in the coming years). Can you name a player who (a) did much worse in the 2nd half and (b) was less patient in the 2nd half?

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing about the attendance. There were well over 30,000 people there. On Monday, for Halladay's previous start, there were half as many people in attendance yet the announced numbers were the same. I know none of this really matters but if anyone knows what's going on, I'm curious.

Over on ESPN Sickels has answered a question about Russ Adams in his Down on the Farm mailbag. I would put in the link but not 100% sure how to do it even though it's been explained many times.

Nothing new about Adams, points that have been raised many times here but just thought I'd point it out.

(There was less fanfare for Bordick than I would have expected, though.)

I take it they didn't show the Cheer Club's gigantic MIKE: DON'T RETIRE sign, then.

I just hope Mike saw it.

Cheer Club meeting in 524B today. I'll be there early. For anyone coming who didn't meet me yesterday, here's my mug:

http://photographicsolutions.ca/gallery/junk/aaronmug

I'm pretty thrashed in the voice after yesterday, but I have enough in the tank left to make today a good finale, provided I have some support.

I'd love to see a full report from the pizza feed, for those of us unable to make it.

Come on, chop chop, someone get on that.

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There's a truly fantastic article by Baker in The Star about Halladay's rebuilding. It details exactly what happened; I haven't read anything this in-depth about it before.

Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun wrote an excellent feature on Doc yesterday. It's Roy's "prescription" for success, and gives you a great idea of his intensity and work ethic.

Halladay is Robo-pitcher on the mound, but he displayed a whole season's worth of emotion in that ear-to-ear grin after the game.

I'd love to see a full report from the pizza feed, for those of us unable to make it.

S.K., the important thing is, Vernon Wells will not be on the cover of next year's book. We begged Will Carroll to make it a Yankee.

The first hour was very informal, as our host moved around the tables visiting the 40 or so attendees in small groups while we enjoyed some pretty good 'za at Leoni's Italian Kitchen. When Will finally addressed all of us, he touched on a variety of topics, and answered all our questions. I thought the information that 51% of starters will go on the DL in a given year was mind-boggling (I guessed 30%) and it makes you realize how lucky we are to have enjoyed a healthy ace two years in a row.

A lot of the conversation was off the record, because Carroll's not the kind of guy to brush you off with a "no comment." So I can't repeat what he said about Pete Rose, or which columnists seem to be in MLB's pocket, or what he thinks of certain other Web sites. He did tell us that the Steve Stone-fronted bid to move the Expos to Las Vegas isn't just a pipe dream, but it will be hard to get a stadium built there by 2005. Will's also writing a book featuring commentary from Tom House and pictures of Mark Prior's "perfect" pitching mechanics.

We made it to the game just in time to hear the Canadian Idol winner butcher the national anthem (that last high note was an off-key squeak). Our seats were up in the 200-level outfield, but the price was right -- $20 covered lunch and the game. Our section was loud and enthusiastic, especially Aaron (Named For Hank) and company. We watched Brandon Phillips put on a clinic -- how NOT to play second base. He was even dropping the ball when they threw it around after an out. Vernon Wells' hustle included forcing a bad throw on his record-breaking infield hit, and stretching a single into a double for the second time in less than a week. Kevin Cash had a terrific game, with his first homer and his scramble after the wild pitch. Afterward, most of us retreated to the Loose Moose for more refreshments and continued the passionate baseball conversations.

Kudos to Darryl Rose for putting it together. I hope that we can have a couple of similar events under the Batter's Box and/or Cheer Club banners until the next time BP comes to town. Maybe we can even get a special guest or two from the Toronto front office to drop by. They were busy on Saturday at their own luncheon, honouring the Howard Webster award winners, who were introduced at the game. It was our first look at Rios, Pond and the rest of the future Jays, who got a warm welcome.

From start to finish, it was a great day -- a Halladay.