http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/news_story.asp?id=91630
Doc will be sidelined 4-6 weeks to rest his sore shoulder. COMN for details.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylc=X3oDMTBqNzlzc2dtBF9TAzI1NjY0ODI1BHNlYwNsdG4-?slug=ap-bluejays-halladay&prov=ap&type=lgns
Halladay out 4-6 weeks.

Hentgen to re-join the rotation.

I hate this season. :(

The amount of innings and pitches he threw the past 2 years has finally caught up to Doc.

Doc's a big guy who's in excellent shape and for him to have a tired arm/shoulder says a lot.

Good thing they're resting him. The season is already down the dumps and there's no need to risk a serious injury.

Four to six weeks takes us into September, and I expect Doc (and probably everyone else) would like to see him get a September start or two to a) see if the rest worked; b) ease everyone's minds going into the off-season.

Has anyone heard anything new about Justin Miller? I almost completely forgot about him.

I know, let's call up McGowan to see how .... oh yeah ... :(

Tonight's lineup, if anyone can focus on the game after the Halladay news (only semi-joking there):

Johnson, Hinske, Wells, Delgado, Zaun, Rios, Gomez, Phelps, Hudson.

Towers pitching, and I recall that he likes throwing to Cash...but Zaun is still in there.

Zaun is in again and batting 5th .....

I'm keep my mouth shut tonight about this one!

So...Lopez, Nakamura, or Peterson to "replace" Doc?

If it were up to me, I'd give Nakamura one final shot to prove he belongs; Lopez and Peterson will probably come up in as roster replacements if any trades are made, or September when the rosters expand.

I thought Rios might have earned a spot higher in the order.

Maybe something like:

Johnson
Rios
Wells
Delgado
Hinske
Phelps
Zaun
Hudson
Gomez

BTW, can someone explain why Phelps would play against Saarloos but not Ken Rogers? I'm truly baffled.

Because Menechino owned Rogers prior to yesterday with a career .500 AVG against the lefty, in two whole at bats!
Yeah, makes no sense to me either.

But Hinske batting 2nd is just fine with me.

Wow, another Delgado strikeout.

It seems that this season, and especially as of late that Delgado will have about 10 bad AB's and then hit a homer.

Let's hope he keeps up the trend.

On a related note for tonight, this summer I discovered one of my cousins went to High School with Eric Chavez at Mount Carmel High School. Was a jock in school and actually a really nice person.

Is this game available online anywhere?

980 Kruz doesn't seem to be working.

Resting Doc is absolutely the right thing to do. Trying to pitch him with on and off shoulder pain was silly. Better a couple of months without him than all of 2005 or more (see Chris Carpenter).

The sun must be a factor for some of the hitters early in this game. Delgado struck out on an awful pitch...a sinker up around his shoulders. Chavez struck out on a fastball over the middle of the plate and Dye struck out swinging at two pitches he couldn't touch with the end of his bat.

True, maybe 2nd is better suited for Hinske.

Would you believe that he's hitting even less homers than last year? Through 323 AB's, he has 8 Homers. Through 323 AB's last year, Hinske had 10. Last year wasn't a great year for him, either. I wonder what's happened to his power.

That's 5 straight at bats with a hit for Rios.

9 for his last 13.

Alexis Rios is hot!!

Errr...

Alex Rios is now hitting .301

The news is not all bad.

Paul D:
try some of the links here.

One of them should work for you.

Can the Jays get Gross up to the bigs, and QUICK.

Someone needs to platoon with Reed Johnson. His play against right-handers is slowly getting worse and worse.

Thanks Rob, that's a good site. I might have to check out some other announcers.

McLemore has always been a huge thorn in the side of the Jays. Even at his age he seldom seems to miss a cookie.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlbpa/players/3704/splits?year=career&type=Batting
Yeah.

McLemore's numbers against Toronto: .314 avg .410 obp .414 slg .824 ops

All of which are better than his career numbers, and better than against any AL team. Boo!

Hooray for Wells. I like homeruns.

Jays get on the board with the Wells homer.

... And YET ANOTHER base hit for Alexis Rios!! 6 in a row folks!!

Here's something I didn't know.

Alexis Rios is now in 2nd place among AL rookies with 15 multi-hit games.

Bobby Crosby leads the rooks with 17.

Giving Tosca the benefit of the doubt, perhaps Zaun starting is more of a showcase for a possible trade.

As for Sparky, he's hitting .342 in the last 3 series.

Hmmm... looks like Reed Johnson will be serving me dinner tonight.

His meal of choice, some CROW!!

lol, RBI single for Sparky not only shuts me up and really makes me look like an ass, but it also knocks Saarloos from the game.

Holy Crap I turned on the game in the 4th inning and I can't believe what I'm seeing....

clutch hitting and they actually scored 4 runs before 4 innings are over!

re: Hallady

Roy really keeps his pitch counts down. But he never misses a start. I wonder if we're going to see managers start having franchise pitchers skip starts maybe 4 times a season.

Prior
Wood
Halladay
Pedro
Brown
Nomo
Schilling
Beckett

endless names suffer wear and tear. Clemens, I guess, being the exception, though we're supposed to think "he's drinking more than mineral water."

Nice little five pitch inning there for Josh.

The inability to add some insurance is getting a little concerning, although Towers has pitched well.

It's been a while since Towers has pitched, so how long before he hits his self-imposed wall?

Here's hoping the Jays can add some more runs, and find a way to win.

Oakland California isn't Arlington Texas, and Towers is at 86 pitches through 7, and his third time through the order was better than the second time.

But someone should be getting loose.

Another quick inning for Towers. He's really been awesome tonight.

If I'm Tosca, I play it safe and have someone warming just in case.

Magpie, I was making reference to the interleague game against the Padres in which Towers was seemingly cruising but asked himself out of the game in the 8th. A game the Jays eventually lost.

Gosh. When was the last time Vernon and Carlos HRed in the same game?

Just like old times...

DaveInNYC - I was just thinking of last night!!

Maybe I missed it elsewhere, but what happened Faulds' (not so) beloved "What do you think about that" home run call? I hope someone threatened to give him a wedgie the next time he does it.

I bet Faulds has either read the Box and seen people making fun of it, or Carson told him that people are ragging on it.

By the way, three different Davids posting tonight, we're catching up to the Robs, Ryans, and Mikes of the world!

Ligtenberg AND Adams warming up? Why not just forfeit?

David A - Long live all the Davids!!

Tyler - Ligtenberg it is

Its Ligtenberg, and its what I would do. So if it doesn't work, I can't complain.

Or can I?

But now, with two LH hitters, Kerry makes me nervous.

Wow - Now I think Tosca's just mocking us. Hope this works out - odd that Kerry and Terry were warming; I thought Chulk/Frasor were the official/unofficial late inning guys.

The announcers were just saying that Adams thrives against lefties, while Ligtenberg struggles against them,,, so it's an odd decision to leave Kerry in there.

We'll see how it works out, way to get Dye out though.

Holy crap...Ligtenberg just stranded a runner.

A sign of the season turning around? Probably not, but I'll take what I can get.

But he gets it done. Ligtenberg had those two disastrous outings in which he gave up 10 ER without retiring a batter.

The other 32 games have actually been quite good (sub 3.00 ERA), and he's the only guy on the staff with better than a K per inning.

But Lord, he makes me nervous against LH batters...

Yeah, that was weird when Towers took himself out of the game in San Diego. He was probably in the minors and wasn't paying attention to what the bullpen had been doing all season.

I really like Towers. He's got a lot of spirit.

The starting rotation's been a real bright spot this season. We've gotten so much more than expected from Lilly, Towers, Bush, Miller - and Batista has been as good as advertised. It's a shame about Halladay, though.

Re: last night. It would have been another good time for that "relief ace". Men on in a tight game in the 8th inning doesn't necessarily call for the "eighth inning man" - it calls for the best arm available.

Do I dare go to bed with this lead?

I've rather enjoyed Faulds and Candiotti's adventures with Justin Duchsherer's name.

Candiotti - 'Doosher'
Faulds - 'Dooshairer', 'Dooksherer' and finally and correctly (I believe) 'Dooksher'

Wow, I can't believe my eyes. All of the following things have happened tonight:

1) Wells + Delgado homeruns
2) Great "clutch" hitting/clutch hitting with 2 outs even!!
3) Great starting pitching
4) Job well done by the bullpen (knock on wood)

It could be the first time this season that all of these things have happened.

And Orlando breaks out of his slump.

Bradford sidearms it to first!

Can Hinske extend the hit streak?

It appears that this will be his last chance.

Come on Big Fella!!

All I pray is for their not to be a double play and Wells hits a grand slam for my BBFL team- it looks like we'll need it already.

And there it is folks. The hit streak ends at 16.

Candiotti was right about Vernon going up there hacking. In his five plate appearances, he swung at all but one pitch. (He took a strike to lead off the 4th, and hit the second pitch out of the yard.)

Christ...

Here we go again

I guess Frasor was bound to give upo a HR sometime during his career...

Ooomph. In previous appearances, Frasor had been struggling with his curve. He's throw fastballs exclusively so far (albeit the count has dictated a few); is there anything to this? How effective can he be with one pitch?

Looks like another thrilling finish.

Durazo HR, a walk, and a single. Now there's two on for Jays-Killer Mark McLemore.

How fitting...

The Ageless Mark McLemore, who has faired VERY WELL against the Jays in the past, comes up with the potential chance to tie the game or worse... end it with a homer.

Hopefully Frasor can get out of it and get the save.

JAYS WIN!! JAYS WIN!!

It got close towards the end but Frasor was able to pull it out.

And with that folks, the 6 game losing streak is officially OVER!!

Eleven days!! Eleven days since the 9th inning against Everyday Eddie...

I thought McLaughlin was in A ball, that ending sure reminded me of someone.