Yahoo lists Chacin as the Toronto starting pitcher and nobody as the Philly starter. That'll slow down the pace of the game a little.

You gotta have a pitcher. Otherwise the catcher's throws back to the mound will end up around second base.

According to MLB.com there's supposed to be Toronto home radio coverage for the game today... but there's nothing but dead air, and Hank says "no TO radio" -- what gives? It seems to me that MLB.com's radio scheduling this year has been much more inaccurate than last year...

-
Viktor

Viktor, there's no actual radio coverage (which would be marked FAN or WFAN in Gameday), but the Toronto team is doing a web-only broadcast, which is why it's marked TOR.

Can't tell you anything about the dead air, though.

Yahoo's box score has updated: Brett Myers is pitching for Philly. Chacin gave up one hit and nothing else in the top of the first, and so far Myers has given up one run on one hit in the bottom of the first.

Until there is evidence to the contrary, internet rules say that it must be considered a Gabe Gross home run.

Box score updated again: first inning is over, one run on one hit, a homer by Reed Johnson. Sorry, Gabe.

Ah! I get it. Thanks. So it should be working on my end... ::sigh::...

--
V.

I'm getting perfectly good feed from mlb.com. I may try to give you some play-by-play later, but I need to cook dinner right now.

I don't know if this affects others or not; but it seems that the Windows Media Player feed is working for the Gameday audio coverage, but not the RealPlayer feed...

--
V.

Looks like Chacin gave up another lonely hit and nothing else in the top of the second. Jays up to bat again, still 1-0.

Hurry up with that dinner Andrew K .

hmmm...dinner...1:40...funny stuff.

Anyone have starting lineups?

We do have B-Jay Fan's in the UK too...might be why he's having dinner.


(or 'dinner' could be code for 'lunch', with 'Supper' being code for 'dinner' :) )

I got nothin', Braby... well, we know Reed Johnson, Gus Chacin and Brett Myers are in the game, anyways.

Not as funny as you think, Braby. Andrew K is but one of the vast legions of Bauxites living in Europe.

It's 6:40pm local and I'm hungry.

1-0 Toronto at the middle of the 2nd. I'll try to call the bottom of the 3rd, while my vegetables are boiling.

Okay, bottom of the 2nd.

Myers to McDonald. 4 straight balls for a leadoff walk. Reed up next.

Johnson hits the first pitch for a single; hit and run. McDonald to third.

Hudson up.

I'll try to call the bottom of the 3rd, while my vegetables are boiling.

Boiled food, must be the UK.

Myers struggling. Hudson line drive to third. McDonald scores, Johnson to second. 2-0 Jays. Wells up next.

Vegetables boil over. Andrew K to the stove, makes a nice swipe tag to turn down the gas.

Hudson wasn't out (the line drive wasn't caught).

Wells takes two strikes. Then grounds to short(?) but the fielder takes out Hudson instead. Johnson to third, Wells now at first, one out.

Koskie up.

thanks for the pbp

Koskie grounds into a double play (4-6-3 I think). End of inning, 2-0 Jays. I gotta go deal with food some more so I'll be back for the bottom of the 4th if poss.

Where's one of those slow-cook crockpots when you need it.

Summary of the top of the 4th while I eat.

Lieberthal gets a 0-2 base hit for a single (bad pitch).
Bell grounds out to Chacin, Lieberthal advances to second.
Michaels gets a 0-2 base single. Liberthal scores.
Offerman(?) lines to Hudson and a double play.

(Sounds like Chacin is fooling the batters quite convincingly. Lots of swing-and-miss. But he can't get the strikeout and gives up 0-2 hits instead.)

fwiw - the fan590 _is_ using MLB.com for their update clips, not sure if that means that subscriber feeds s/b working - no new news though - just what andrew k said

Bottom of the 4th.

2-1 Jays. Myers still pitching.

Hillenbrand flies out to right field on the first pitch.
Hinske off the wall to right center for a standup double.
Gross strikes out on 3 pitches.
Myers grounds out to third. Inning over.

Top of the 5th. Chacin still pitching. Rios in for Gross in RF. Menechino in for Koskie at 3B.

Hinch hits an 0-2 pitch (again!) to Johnson in LF, but tries to stretch it to a double and is thrown out! This is Johnson's second assist, to go with a homerun and a hit-and-run single.

(somebody) flies out to CF on the first pitch.

Polanco grounds out to a diving Menechino; good throw for the out. Inning over.

Top of the 5th. Colour Commentary.

Rios in for Gross who went 1 for 2 with a single.
Menechino in for Koskie who went 0 for 2, grounding out twice, once into a double play.

Johnson picks up an assist, throwing in to second to beat the runner. It was another hit on an 0-2. Chacin definitely seems to be having trouble finishing them off.

Chacin was hit hard on three balls, but some pretty plays by Johnson, Wells, and Menechino got him off the mound faster than in any other inning.

He seems to be fading a little, watch for that next inning.

Jerry Howarth commented as well on the game that Johnson is having, with both the bat (home-run) and the glove. He's making a statement that he's not ready to give up his job.

Love all those exclamation points -- that felt like a Mike Wilner-called inning!

Additional colour commentary most welcome.
Bottom of the 5th. Myers still pitching.

McDonald lines a base hit to (somewhere).
Johnson flies out to CF. No advance.
Hudson strikes out swinging for the 2nd out.
Wells watches strike three.

No attempts to hit and run with McDonald on base. Less than impressive overall.

Bottom of the 5th colour commentary.

MacDonald on base again, let's see if his team-mates can get him anywhere.

Jerry calls Reed the player of the game so far. It looked like Reed was going to get another hit, on a well-struck ball, but it was right at a fielder.

Wells up, so far 0 for 2. Hitting only .175. Jerry says he's been hitting the ball hard, but you can't help but thing that he really doesn't have his timing yet. Nothing to really worry about, I'm sure he'll be back soon. But not today, he just struck out looking.

Jays ahead 2-1.

Top of the 6th. League on in relief of Chacin. Alfaro in at SS, and McDonald moves to 2B. Hudson is out of the game.

Abreu is struggling to catch up with League's fastball. Grounds out to Alfaro.

Burrell grounds out to Alfaro as well.

Lieberthal's swing-and-miss takes him to 0-2. League fires a slider outside. Grounds to Alfaro (again) who throws it low, bounces in front of Hinske and off the glove; Lieberthal reaches.

Bell hits the ball slowly right into the hole between McDonald at 2B and Hinske, for base hit. Liberthal advances to second.

Next pitch is off the glove of Myers. Scored a wild pitch (probably shouldn't have been). Both runners advance; 2 outs, men at 2nd and 3rd.

<Wilner> Michaels hits it up the middle! McDonald grabs it in shallow centre, and fires to first for the out! Great play!</Wilner>

Thanks Andrew. Happy to add the colour to your fine pbp.

Top of the 6th.

Brandon League comes on for Chacin. Chacin pitched 5 innings, didn't give up a lot of runs, but struggled at times, giving up several hard hit balls. He benefited from some good defense and 3 strikeouts, 2 against Burrough with men at 2nd base.

League comes in with an era of 6, 4 walks,5 strikeouts and 8 hits in 6 innings Overall point - League is still struggling to gain control this spring.

Alfaro comes in as short-stop. He makes a nice play on the first grounder and a more routine one on the second. Alfaro gets a chance to make it 3 up, 3 down, but throw it low to Hinkse. E6. Inning continues with a seeing eye ground ball past MacDonald. League follows up with a wild pitch (should maybe have been a pass ball on Myers). Men on 2 and 3.

John MacDonald makes an Orlando Hudson type play, going deep in the hole and throwing just in time to nip the man at first. Defence picks up the defence. Inning over for League, who pitched quite well and shouldn't have been in such trouble.

Sounds like the defence is putting on a clinic, led by Sparky and Sir John (the Minister of Defence).

As I write, Mighty Mouse just clubbed one. 3-1 for the good guys.

Sir John (the Minister of Defence)

Robert, that is the most brilliant nickname ever. Ever.

Bottom of the 6th. Myers still pitching.

Menechino powers a homer to left centre! 3-1 Jays! Ding dong slamalama!

(*Cough* Getting a bit carried away here.)

Hillenbrand swings past strike three for the first out.
Hinske fouls off a couple then strikes out swinging as well.
Rios runs the count to 3-1 and then takes a walk.

Pitching change to follow.

Well well well. Terry Adams comes in to pitch with 2 out in the bottom of the 6th. Rios at first.

On the first pitch, Rios steals second.

Myers strikes out swinging and that's it for the 6th. You're listening to BBRadio on batterbox.ca.

Bottom of the 6th.

Menechino's home-run was a blast to left-centre. That man has a lot of power for his size.

Jerry is lauding the excellent defence today and advertising the chance to come out to see some scrappy players. From what I've heard today and in other games, the defence is going to save quite a few runs. I would like to see more power than scrappiness in the line-up though.

Speaking of power, Delgado is now 3 for 24 with 2 homers. <sarcasm> Obviously he's washed up now. Glad we let him go when we did. Babe Gross is going to get 3.5 times as many homers as him this season anyways. </sarcasm>

Gibbons said today that if Gross sticks, he'll probably do so in a platoon in right with Rios. Johnson and Catalanatto would platoon in left. I think I'd rather see a platoon with Hinkse, but the pieces just don't fit together that way.

Rios picks up the steal, his 4th in 5 attempts. That's a positive sign. Gibbons listed Rios first on the list of green lighted runners, including Wells, Johnson, Koskie and Hillenbrand. The last two names are a bit of a surprise, given that they came here for their bats (and for Koskie's D), but I remember seeing lifetime stats somewhere and being impressed by the steal percentage of both of them. Obviously, the Jays have some confidence in them.

A platoon with Rios makes little sense. Both hitters need regular at bats to develop.

It only makes sense for Gross to make the roster if he is displacing either Catalanatto or Hinske from the regular lineup. Otherwise he might as well spend the first 2 or 3 months in AAA until something opens up.

Wilner's on the Fan right now and is talking about how great Frasor has looked this spring ("ferocious" he says) -- Frasor hasn't given up a run yet.

He's saying the pen looks great until someone gets hurt, and then there's nothing.

Top of the 7th. Still 3-1 Jays.

League still pitching. Nelson in for Wells, playing LF. Johnson moves to CF.

Offerman takes a walk. League's control seems suddenly to have gone off.

Hinch is treated to a bit of chin music. Grounds to second, where Offerman is out, but Alfaro does not make a good throw to first and there is no double play when Hinske can't pick it. 1 out, Hinch on first.

Rollins lines into shallow CF for a base hit. Hinch advances to second. Arnsberg out to chat with League.

League still struggling with control. Polanco grounds up the middle, but McDonald snags it. Flips the ball (and, according to Jerry, his glove!) to Alfaro who turns the double play. And League gets out of the inning.

Top of the 7th.

Huckaby in for Myers at catcher.
Bryant Nelson in as left fielder, Johnson moves to centre. Wells takes a seat, 0 for 3 on the day.

McDonald does a nice job getting the ball to Alfaro for the first out, but the double play chance is missed when Alfaro throws low to Hinske. Hinske is unable to scoop the ball, his second missed scoop on the day. He still has a lot of work to do in this regard.

Now up to bat, Placido Polanco. Every time I hear the name Placido, I think of a corpulent opera singer. Hard to imagine him up at bat.

McDonald makes another spectacular play, gloving the ball deep in the hole and flipping it to Alfaro from his glove. This man can play some incredible defense. Hopefully Adams is soaking up a lot from him. Too bad he's never had much of a bat.

Wilner was saying something about Gross, but then customers came in and disrupted my listening. Bah.

Bottom of the 7th. Adams still pitching. I missed that Myers has been replaced by Huckaby at C.

McDonald comes up to bat after two great defensive plays. Pops out to short left.

Johnson grounds out to Perez at short, who throws low to first, off the glove. Scored an error.

Alfaro breaks bat, grounds to second. Johnson is tagged out and Alfaro thrown out at first. Inning over.

Bottom of the 7th.

Jerry points out the defense again. "Very, very well executed game." They've also been running well. But still not a lot of hitting. Blue Jays are up 3-1. I think we'll see a lot of close games, so the bull pen is going to be very important.

Quick inning, going to the 8th.

Actually Pavarotti is the corpulent opera singer. Placido Domingo is quite svelte in comparison.

Top of the 8th. Still 3-1 Jays. Miller in to pitch.

(I thought they were going to play the regulars almost exclusively, in these final spring training games?)

Abreu fouls back a couple and then takes a slider for strike three.

Burrell takes a strike, swings over a slider, fouls off one more, then flies out to fairly deep LF.

Lieberthal flares one to RF, Rios charges in and makes the catch.

A very easy inning for Miller.

Top of the 8th.

Miller on to pitch. Still on the bubble.

3.00 era
6.0 innings
7 hits
2 runs
2 earned runs
3 walks
5 strikeouts

3 up three down. Easy inning with a nice strikeout for the man with long sleeves. No insight by Jerry on Miller's hopes of making the team. Personally, I would put him on the team because I don't want to lose him on waivers. His talent is scintillating at times (like the strikeout today), but the control is so erratic.

I think the intention was to play the starters for the first 7 or 8 and then go back to the bubble guys.

Bottom of the 8th.

LHP Aaron Fulz in. Victorino comes into LF. Rushford(?) into RF.

Nelson fouls one back, then chops one into the ground for an infield hit.

Menechino grounds into a 6-4-3 DP, on the first pitch.

Adams pinch hits for Shea. (Can you pinch hit for the DH?) Shows bunt on the first pitch, then flares into shallow LF for a base hit. Just a single.

Hinske takes a couple of strikes, then lines one over short for a base hit. Adams advances to second.

Rios strikes out swinging (on three pitches). Inning over.

Quote: "He's saying the pen looks great until someone gets hurt, and then there's nothing."

?

Batista (CL)
Speier (SU)
Schoeneweis (SU)
Frasor (MR)
Ligtenberg (MR)
Chulk (MR)

If there's an injury, we then look down at....

League
Gaudin
Miller
Walker
Rosario
Glynn
Downs
Whiteside

Bottom of the 8th.

You're right, Andrew. The playing of regulars seemed to end around the 5th. Some hanger-ons like Nelson and Alfaro are getting playing time. It's unlikely they stand a chance of making it, even in a bench role. I think that it is more likely they are being observed by Ricciardi and Gibbons for analysis so that they know who to call up in case of injury.

Men on first and second, on a bloop by Adams and another well hit ball by Hinske. He's 2 for 4 today, but only 11 for 42 on the spring (though .261 is better than the .237 he was hitting this morning).

10-8 hits advantage for the Jays. 3-1 score.

Rios strikes out, going to the 9th.

Andrade and Song would be a couple more to add to that list. Not to mention the aforementioned possibility of trades. Give Gross the time in AAA, then others may have a need arise, and we can address making room for him. I hardly see it as bad if a reliever goes down. Even call up someone else, Jimmy Key came up as a reliever (in the majors began as a reliever) as have a number of pitchers.

Another is Jason Arnold who has two straight saves for Scuse.

ah, so they really ARE checking out Arnold as a reliever, eh?

interesting.

I dont know to what extent but from the Scuse website, if i remember right, they are 3-2 and Arnold has 2 straight saves, all else it said was Justin Singleton drove in Ron Acuna with the winning run, I didn't see any spring stats or anything.

Well, I heard something about them thinking of trying him out there....and if he's got two saves, I guess they are.

Worth a try - he doesn't look like he'll ever be worth a damn as a starter.

Top of the 9th. 3-1 Jays. Batista comes in to close it out.

Throws one in the dirt to Utley (in at 2B for Polanco), for ball one. Then fires in two strikes. Utley belts a home run to right field. The score is now 3-2.

Michaels up. Grounds out to McDonald at second. 1 out.

Offerman takes a couple of strikes then a low ball. Batista bounces one to the plate; 2-2. Offerman fouls off a pitch, then grounds a base hit through Batista, up the middle. He is the tying run, at first base.

Batista throws a fastball in for strike one. Howard swings and misses for strike two. Fouls one off, then swings and misses again. Strike three, you're out.

A couple of throw overs to first. Perez takes a strike on the outside corner, a cutter which just gets in. Then a fastball away. Perez fouls off a changeup then watches a slider come in for strike three.

Final score is 3-2 Jays. Batista gets the save, although he has almost doubled his ERA by my calculations. Chacin takes the win, I assume.

Thanks for listening to BBRadio here on battersbox.ca. We'll see you again soon. Goodnight!

Top of the 9th inning.


Batista comes in with some very good stats.
M Batista 2 0 1.13 7 1 0 0 1 8.0 4 1 1 0 1 5 9

However, last time around, he had a rough outing, with 3 walks and a HBP, somehow without giving up a run. He gives up a run this time, a solid homerun. 3-2 now. After an out, a single up the middle. Batista comes back with a strike-out, rearing back and throwing it past the hitter. Hopefully he does more of that this year, trusting his stuff. Jerry says that Batista has gone almost exclusively to his cut fastball. He mixes in an off-speed pitch and then a slider to get a second strikeout and end the inning. Hopefully, Batista sticks to the limited repertoire he seems to be using. Well pitched inning (after the initial homerun).

Both teams have an error today, but the Jays also have numerous strong defensive plays. It'll be hard to pick the play of the game.

Very quick round-up and that's it. No discussion at the end. I guess that's because it was only on the web. Cue cheesy electronic music.

The PBP man has already signed off and the cheesy electronic music has now ended. So, I'll also sign off.

It was fun wasting a few hours of holiday doing some colour commentary. Hope it added to the overall effect of BBRadio today.

Good night everybody.

Thanks men. Much appreciated.

Great job Tim. I dunno if anyone was reading, but it was fun doing the writing, and I think it's quite informative with both pbp and colour commentary.

I'm off to wash up my dinner plates.

I was reading....

Thanks guys....

Funny to get pbp from someone halfway around the world :)

Thanks, Andrew.

It was good working with you. I actually really enjoy doing the colour commentary. When I try play by play, I always end up missing things and then trying to figure out what happened.

The commentary allows me to focus on what I find interesting and share some of the info that is said on the air that its too hard for a play-by-play man to add.

Anyways, I think it worked well. Play by play from England and commentary from British Columbia. Unusual combo. Obviously those Toronto guys aren't pulling their weight :)

Thanks a lot, both of you. I enjoyed it, especially the boiled vegetable interlude.

Just got back from the game vs the Phillies - a very entertaining game with good pitching, timely hitting and solid defence. John McDonald had an outstanding game and shows why it was important for the Jays to trade for him - he adds so much to the defence and helps the pitchers get out of innings with their dignity attached. We have not had a SS this good since Alomar.
League strugled in his 2 innings but gave up no runs due to solid defence and good pitching. His fast ball was at 99 mph. and all the scouts had their radar guns up when he pitched. It was amazing to watch them shake their heads in diebelief.

We have not had a SS this good since Alomar.

Which Alomar would that be?

""We have not had a SS this good since Alomar.""

AAAAAAAHAHA, I'm assuming he means Robbie's range was so good that his defence was better than any other SS... VerY funny.

http://fantasysports.yahoo.com/analysis/news?slug=bf-highfives_032405&prov=yhoo&type=lgns&league=fantasy/mlb

Interesting tidbits in this article about Gross and possible teams that could be relocated.

Any thoughts?

I assumed the same thing, as I have heard people make that exact comment before.

Yea, I got a thought.

Do these guys represent what the media outside Canada actually thinks of us? Kansas City I can somewhat understand because of stadium issues affecting attendance and KC having a relatively smaller market. Toronto, Oakland, and Minnesota I cannot understand.

Is it an opinion based on nothing or do these guys have a real reason for wanting these teams contracted? Toronto was a last place team but of all the last place teams has the most long term hope than anybody and perhaps more than non-last place teams.

Oakland has something good going and has loyal fans which at times come out in small numbers but that's all. They are competitive and I see no real reason why the A's should be moved.

Minnesota has a new stadium plan and is becoming a model team. Once they can get a decent owner, the whole franchise will be model for the league.

I get bugged that when teams lose and attendance drops, people want the teams to be relocated. The idea of someone wanting Toronto to be moved is purely based on attendance and record, something that can be changed within a small timespan. It's not as if Toronto has a small market and will never sell out even when it wins. The market here is big, and can only get bigger as the team gets better.

Tea, is code for supper.

Its bugs the hell out of me, when people say Toronto is a small market team. I hear this often when people talk about the Jays and Raptors.

Correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't Toronto have the 5th of 6th largest population in North America?

In terms of the Jays, the only possible explanation why people call them small market is because of the attendance or payroll. I wonder if people would still call them a small market team once they have a 70-80 million payroll next season.

Not baseball related, but news that most people would want to see. The actor that played Morty Seinfeld died. http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2005/03/24/971397-ap.html

A sort-of highjack. There are two nice articles in today's Boston Globe on ex-Blue Jays pitchers. Gordon Edes on Mike Timlin and Dan Shaugnessy on Boomer Wells.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/sports/

I think you'd enjoy these.

It's Shaughnessy, of course. Sorry.

Any word on how Tom Cheek's surgery went on Wednesday?

I've been wondering about Tom myself.