Boston called up Frank Castillo to replace Brian Daubach, so we won't see any more outfielders pitching this weekend; I guess that 12th arm can come in handy after all.

Congratulations to Frank Catalanotto and his wife on the birth of their second child.

No channel surfing here in Seattle, Coach. I've already seen Tim Hudson throw a complete-game victory against the Mariners, and the Cubs-Braves tilt on at the same time as the Pedro-Halliday matchup provides no conflict, as the A's-Mariners game would have.

These pitching duels always end up being 11-10, but let's hope it's different this time.

I think the Jays' uniforms are different than yesterday.

I think the Jays' uniforms are different than yesterday.
I should they've been washed ;-)

We'll see how he looks later, but Pedro's got no zip on his fastball.

Tom just explained on the radio; they wore black tops yesterday. Today it's light gray. I like today's better.

Why not lead off with Crespo? Usual caveats aside -- batting order is useless, yadda yadda yadda -- Bellhorn is a better option. Art Howe always had the annoying habit of hitting the DH clean-up, no matter if it was John Jaha or Frank Menechino. Maybe Francona picked that up from Howe (or Macha): the replacement must replace the original in every way, batting order included.

Nice catch by Mr. Muscles, Gabe Kapler, to rob Phelps. Pedro topping out at 86 MPH.

Oops. I meant "Why lead off with Crespo"?

Well, Pedro hit 90 on the gun, but has mainly been between 86-88; he struck Hudson out with an 88-MPH "heater," albeit one with movement. Nasty slider to fan Woodward looking.

Stephen, if you watch with the radio on, don't you hear the play-by-play just before it "happens" on TV? Or is the radio feed different there? Here, The FAN is a few seconds ahead of Sportsnet.

So far, it's as advertised -- scoreless through two. Doc's thrown 16 strikes out of 20 pitches, allowing just a Ramirez single up the middle and striking out one each inning.

Attaboy, Sparky!

As Cerutti explained, home plate ump Joe Brinkman gives "the benefit of the doubt" to good pitchers on close ones.

Faulds made his signature call again, "Inside, for a strike."

Faulds made his signature call again, "Inside, for a strike."

My first base coach in high school's signature call, when somebody would take a lead from first, would be "Go ... back" as the pitcher whirled and threw to first. Me thinks our Coach would not be as glib.

Crespo bunted through a curveball after the Reese single, indicating that Francona is willing to play small ball early tonight. Mueller had a good AB, refusing to chase a bunch of tantalizing stuff just out of the zone, but Brinkman -- the notorious Jays hater -- squeezed Doc on the 3-1 strike. Cookie Monster with two on will see all curves...

Gitz, I hate to give away anything to UFA opponents, so I hope they don't read this, but you'd like our verbal sign for taking a little bigger lead -- "you're good."

Ortiz was helpless against the bender.

Cookie Monster. I chuckled when I read that.

Pedro's only fastballs to Delgado were up and away. Leadoff walks are good. Phelps is seeing Pedro for the first time, a tough assignment but an encouraging sign.

Brinkman HATES the Jays; I'm sure of it. What a horseshit call on a fastball eight inches outside!

Wow, did you see the 2-2 curve to Millar? This guy can pitch. Varitek got defensive with two strikes, so Roy dialed up the heater and it got just a feeble wave.

Duelling two-hitters through four.

Doc keeps trying for the same pitches, 6-8 inches away, that have been called strikes against his teammates, and hasn't got a call yet. Bellhorn missed a 1-1 curve by about two feet, then after a nearly perfect pitch (just up and away) was ignored by Brinkman, Roy went back to the deuce for the K looking. The zeroes continue...

Roy's pitch count shouldn't be 67 right now, but Brinkman's doing a better job than the Sox are at making the Doc work.

The infield hit by Crespo was well-played by Hinske, but he was safe anyway -- despite the head-first slide. A nice play by Delgado erased the lead runner, and again, a crucial Ortiz AB. Brinkman flinched, but didn't call a perfect 0-2 pitch a strike, then David guessed correctly on the curveball, hitting it out for a two-run shot.

http://economics.about.com
This hockey obsessed country...

I had to leave the house during the 2nd inning to pick something up from my girlfriend's parents house. No problem, I'll just listen to the game on the radio.

No dice. No radio stations had the game on, while four AM stations had the Leafs game on, including two that normally broadcast Jays games.

Joe "missed" another strike on the 2-0 to Millar, which was belt high down the middle. You can almost forgive Phil Cuzzi, who's merely incompetent. This clown is biased.

Boom! O-Dog got all of that one; 2-1.

Is there an easy way to find the Jays W-L record with Brinkman behind the plate (say, over the last 15-20 years)?

For the last time, Faulds, it's Pesky's Pole, not The Pesky Pole.

Bellhorn just answered with a solo shot -- that's five in two games for the Doctor -- and it's 3-1 Boston.

Steve, I don't know where to find umpire "records" but this has been going on since Ernie Whitt's day.

Credit where it's due department: nice backhand scoop by Carlos or we're talking about another poor throw by Hudson on a DP.

C'mon, boys. A walk, a HBP and a bomb.

The Fenway faithful are chanting Pedro's name, and he's throwing the fastball a lot harder now. Cash was overmatched, and even Sparky's quick bat went right through a couple of them. Reed fouled off three two-strike pitches before rapping a single up the middle. Nice job -- tying run to the plate.

Cat's late on #1, takes another heater looking -- the gun says 90, but it looks quicker, especially compared to the early innings. No quarrel with Brinkman's call on that one; it was a thing of beauty, right on the black.

http://economics.about.com
Man, what an electric crowd. This would be a fun game to be at. I hope we can create even a small fraction of that when the Red Sox come to Toronto next.

Cheers,

Mike

Francona didn't stay too long with his ace, bringing in Foulke to face Wells -- he got a grounder to short. Doc's night is over after 110 pitches; a tremendous effort, but April just isn't his month.

Is it 2003 again? De Los Santos, looking like a stud outta the bullpen, faces one man, makes the giant Ortiz look like a flea, and he hits the shower for Lopez, who comes into the game with possibly with good stuff, but possibly not. Stop the revolving bullpen door: stop it right now! Is a big league pitcher suddently gonna suck because the next guy is batting from the other side of the plate? I can't stand watching this. I can't believe we're gonna have another season of this garbage, endless bullpen commercial breaks from the 7th on. I'm really fired up. When a guy looks hot outta the bullpen to start the inning, let him go!

Oh: and another thing. Put QuesTec in every ballpark now. I got so furious watching Pedro getting the Tom Glavine treatment (getting calls four inches off the plate) from tonight's umpire. Halladay's o-2 pitch on Ortiz, before his two run shot, was a genuine strike that Halladay didn't get: probably because he hasn't paid enough union dues yet. Ortiz should have struck out looking. Stop the subjective garbage.

Speaking of which, I found it unusual that Carlos Tosca would pull Lopez last night after he got the last out of the eighth (with a 2 run lead), and with a 5 run lead going to the bottom of the ninth. It wasn't as though Ligtenberg needed work.

Even in the traditional set-up/closer division of roles, this is one situation where most managers let their set-up man pitch the ninth.

Yeah, it's like Tosca thinks he's playing Nintendo baseball, where the bullplen horses are the same each game you put them out there. These are humans who sometimes have good stuff, sometimes not. When you got a human on the mound who obviously has good stuff, has only thrown four pitches, why on earth take him out? What better warm-up for facing ManRam than striking out Ortiz? Who wouldn't be ready for the next batter? Instead you bring in a guy, and make a big deal out of HIM being the ONLY ONE who can get this guy out, adding enormous pressure, killing the momentum of the inning that was going well, sending a confident, effective pitcher to the showers. I know I'm repeating myself - but Tosca's been repeating this ridiculous routine for far too long and I suggest a grass-roots protest to stop this.

Another thing: change the turf at SkyDome. Get some of that stuff they now have in Minnesota.

Keith, I generally agree with you that if a guy looks sharp you leave him in, but I would have been hopping mad if Ramirez had taken de los Santos deep; that's hardly the Jays' best matchup.

Cerutti spent a lot of time second-guessing the curve to Ortiz; there's another no-win situation. The guy's strictly a fastball hitter, and if he'd blasted one of those out, we'd be wondering why it wasn't a breaking pitch. The biggest problem was, it came on strike four.

but I would have been hopping mad if Ramirez had taken de los Santos deep

Well, I was hopping mad when Ramirez actually did take Lopez deep on what looked like a warm-up pitch.

Another thing: change the turf at SkyDome. Get some of that stuff they now have in Minnesota.

Yeah. Since they put that stuff in the Metrodome no Twins player has been injured.

/sarcasm off

At least the Twins beat the Tigers today.

It would be nicer if the jays could play their home games on grass, it looks better on TV. Given the multi uses of Skydome, this is not likely, but they have grass in Milwaukee's dome, and Arizona's. Even the turf in Tampa looks better than Skydome.

Sorry, I didn't check in for a few hours; I was half-watching both my teams lose tonight.

Yes, the radio in Ottawa seemed to be almost a second ahead of channel 27 (Sportsnet). It might even have been further ahead if I'd been watching the Jays on a digital channel. Actually, the calls being ahead was pretty handy because I also was following the Sens game on a digital channel. Both audios going, but I just "hear" one at a time. If I heard a radio guy raise his voice, I still had time to see what happened if I had been watching the other picture at that moment.

Jays on the radio is a Saturday luxury in Ottawa only. Normally my radio choices are delayed. The MLB Extra Innings digital feed of Fan 590 is maybe a second or two behind the over-the-air signal. And the Internet version is often 30 or more seconds behind.

Coach, I don't know if that two-strike change-up to Ortiz was a drop-dead strike. I obviously trust your judgement more than anyone's, so maybe we had different angles. Whatever, give some credit to Ortiz, who, as you said, looked feeble against Halladay's bender before, but took (admittedly on not a great pitch) him deep second-time around.

Similarly ... De Los Santos, Lopez, Foulke, Wagner, Percival, Burley -- who cares? Manny Ramirez can hit. Period. Let's not get bogged down with who should have been brought in to face who, and let's give Ramirez some credit, because when you smash a home run to dead center like that, it's an impressive thing to do.

I know that there were repots 10-15 years ago that the Jays won-loss record with Brinkman umpiring was well under .500. This was after numerous winning seasons in a row. It was widely believed that Brinkman had it in for the Jays.

Oh, yeah: And Pedro did pick up steam as the game went on, as Coach said. He (Pedro, that is) doesn't need to throw 95 MPH to get the job done, because in addition to having been blessed with other-worldly stuff, he also knows how to pitch.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1779841
Loria clearly had his spending priorities this off-season, COMN to see what it was.

Hey Gitz,

Whatever,

It totally matters who's pitching and what they have that day... how do you explain that was HIS FIRST HOMERUN.

...it was a batting-practice pitch... Watch the replsy: an unimpressive fastball down the middle of the plate.