If the problem is in your head, it's as good a solution as any. Ted Lilly insisted that there was nothing wrong with his arm, and I was inclined to believe him. I was at one of his disastrous starts, and he was stinging the radar gun as much as he ever does. His fastball looked the same, his big curve looked the same. He hadn't lost his ability to throw strikes, at least not until his very last start, the one that finally got him pulled from the rotation for a week. He just kept making terrible pitches, for no apparent reason.
What was the problem? Who the hell knows. Fordin had his notebook out, and asked the right questions, but the answers weren't all that illuminating:
It was certainly mental, to some extent. And there were some physical things I was doing to make it awfully tough.
And in the Star this morning, Mark Zwolinski reports that Lilly, who has long had a reputation for listening to no one, has in fact been seeking help. Which is all addicts know, is a Necessary Thing:
"Being able to talk to (Halladay) as someone who can relate to what I was going through, really helped," said Lilly, who also talked to Dave Bush...
Surely few people know as well as Roy Halladay what it means to seemeingly lose all your ability and come back. But seeking help and advice from a young fellow with less than a year in the big leagues? This isn't the Lilly we've heard about, and surely it also says something about how Dave Bush is regarded by his teammates.
Anyway. It was an evil pattern, that kept repeating itself, and it had to be broken. And now it has been broken. What was especially encouraging was that when Lilly did get into trouble, he didn't suddenly cough up a three run homer. That had certainly been part of the evil pattern. But this night, in the second inning when the Nats got two men on, he retired Schneider on a fly ball to left. In the fourth, after a double and two singles had put Washington up 1-0, he struck out Schneider and Guzman with two men on to end the threat. He didn't allow another runner after that.
And so Ted Lilly was the best news of the day, and is hereby awarded the Box Game MVP salute - and the Magpie is duly grateful that his own win total has, like Lilly's, just doubled - but there was other stuff to enjoy, as there is usually is when the team wins. It was a night for clearing away some bad mojo, for exorcising the random wicked sprites and pixies that from time to time... oh, this metaphor's going nowhere. Anyway, that home run against Cleveland on Sunday seems to have broken whatever evil spell Vernon Wells had been under. In the five games he's played this week, he's hit .350 with 4 HR and 9 RBI. Eric Hinske had gone a week without an RBI or an extra-base hit, so it was good to see the Dude go 2-3 with a walk and a double. And Aaron Hill certainly had himself a memorable major league debut. It wasn't Junior Felix homering on the very first pitch he saw, but who needs another Junior Felix anyway. How Hill gets used will be... interesting. As I recall, he's played 10 games at 3B in his life, in the Arizona Fall league. Those of you who have actually seen him play short can tell us a bit about his defensive tools. Let's hear from you!
Hillenbrand has far more experience at third, but Shea isn't exactly a Gold Glover at the spot and at least one scout thinks he's hitting much better this year precisely because he's not playing as much third base. I don't think it's much of a factor myself. Hillenbrand has always hit much better in the first half of the season; it's possible, however, that he's one of those guys who wears down a bit and DHing as much as he has may pay dividends for him in August and September.
For some reason, I'm in the mood to do a Roundup. Think of it as...oh, I don't know... homage to my esteemed colleague Pepper ("The Wild Horse of the Economics Department") Moffatt. It will be my first! Let's see... what have we got?
Zwolinski's game story in the Star: Nationals cure what ails Jays
Richard Griffin on the new boy: Ricciardi plums Hill, Adams just wanna play
Rutsey's game story in the Sun: Jays' lost lefty finally finds way
Also in the Sun, Bob Elliott on Corey Koskie's latest misfortune: Koskie can't believe luck
ESPN's game report, by A. Nonymous: Wells launches two home runs against Washington
The handsome and talented Spencer Fordin (I'm in the press box today) does his usual bang-up job at mlb.com: Jays down former Canadian rivals
Also at mlb.com, Ian Harrison from the Nats' perspective: Nationals greeted rudely by Blue Jays
Finally, the Washington Post (registration required) has a game story from Barry Svrluga: Vargas Exposed In Fourth Inning
And, yes, assembling all of those links is truly tedious. So everybody - get out your bookmarks!
Elsewhere in the AL East, the Orioles lost to the Phillies to drop closer to the pack, what with the Red Sox, Yankees, and Blue Jays all winning. Interleague play kicked off tonight, with what I suppose is "Natural Rivals" weekend. The Yankees were playing the Mets, the Cubs were playing the White Sox, and so on and so forth. Baltimore played Philadelphia while Toronto played Washington - presumably this is one Natural Rivalry that will be reassessed. And I don't know what to make of Detroit vs Arizona.
Tomorrow's game is the first 4:00 PM Saturday start time this season - I'm glad I just checked, I'd feel pretty silly showing up at 11:30 - and I understand that I can expect to hear some cowbell. I'm looking forward to it. The Doctor will be in.
