I'm getting a bit concerned with Lillys shoulder pain.

Pushed back a day recently then leaving with 'tightness' last night,maybe skipping a start might be useful.An ounce of prevention kinda thing.

He sounded less confident in his reply after the game than Gibbons about his shoulder.Something to the effect that "we need to make a push now" regardless of his pain.Feeling pressure to stay in the line-up and pitch with pain can never be a good thing,pressure I'm sure he puts on himself more so than from any external source.

It's pressure that is being placed on the entire team to win b/c of a red hot Red Sox team and the fact that the wild card probably won't come from the east this year.

God,I sure hope we're buyers not sellers come the deadline.Time will tell.

Upsetting news about Rios.  Fourteen years ago I was hospitalized for a similar-sounding bacterial infection (mine lodged in my shoulder, not leg as Rios), and I just read yesterday that it is on the rise again.  Needless to say, shoulder surgery and two weeks on an IV was not fun.  If it indeed is a staph infection do not expect to see Rios for at least a week and no All-Star Game either.  The good thing is I can't imagine a leg infection messing with his hitting mechanics once he recovers; my 90 mph fastball went the way of the dodo.  ;-)

In less dramatic but no less interesting news, ESPN's Relative Power Index shows the clear superiority of AL vs. NL.  The Jays have the same record as the Cards (43-34) but the Jays' opponent's strength of schedule is .526 (T2) vs. the Cards' .477 (T30).  Unfortunately, given the AL East, I don't see this evening out anytime soon.

Doc looked extremely sharp until the seventh inning last night.  He was getting groundballs, hitting his spots and throwing both his A-list curve and his A-list two-seam fastball.   Until Soriano's cheap double in the sixth, Doc's only two baserunners allowed were, unfortunately, solo home runs.

There can definitely be worrisome outings in which a pitcher is charged with four runs over 6 1/3 innings.  Last night was not one of them.

Jeff Weaver's batting average against in his last nine months of pitching for an American League team:

.305 (Apr 03), .314 (May 03), .346 (Jun 03), .243 (Jul 03), .374 (Aug 03), .358 (Sep 03), .316 (Apr 06), .297 (May 06), .316 (Jun 06).

Not every NL pitcher with respectable numbers has what it takes to survive AL hitters and AL parks.  And hey, why not do ERAs for his last nine months in the AL?

4.83 (Apr 03), 5.45 (May 03), 6.75 (Jun 03), 4.10 (Jul 03), 8.89 (Aug 03), 6.94 (Sep 03), 7.48 (Apr 06), 5.97 (May 06), 5.47 (Jun 06).

Doc looked extremely sharp until the seventh inning last night.  He was getting groundballs, hitting his spots and throwing both his A-list curve and his A-list two-seam fastball.   Until Soriano's cheap double in the sixth, Doc's only two baserunners allowed were, unfortunately, solo home runs.

There can definitely be worrisome outings in which a pitcher is charged with four runs over 6 1/3 innings.  Last night was not one of them.

Sorry Mike, but this is completely false.  Doc did not look good yesterday.  He gave up a lot of screamers right to people (why is it that good pitchers seem to have this happen an inordinate amount of time??).  Both homers were well hit as were at least two of the three doubles (missed the third one so that may have been too).  Even the groundballs were hit hard, not at all like the vintage two-bouncers he normally gives up.

His curve looked decent last night and got a few swings and misses.  However his bread and butter sinking fastball had nearly no movement and that was the pitch that was getting hit.  On the bright side it was consistantly 90-92, while not 94, at least not 88 either.

Completely false, NDG?  A "lot of screamers"?  You say "even the groundballs" as if grounders were the exception.

1st -- strikeout, groundout, groundout

2nd -- popout, groundout, groundout

3rd -- HR, groundout, groundout, strikeout

4th -- strikeout, groundout, groundout

5th -- lineout (this was Daryle Ward, and admittedly a screamer right at someone), flyout (not a screamer at all), HR, groundout

6th -- strikeout, double (Soriano's, not hard-hit), strikeout, groundout

7th -- lineout to third (great at-bat by Nick Johnson), three doubles and the hook.

It's difficult to argue with your charge that his "sinking fastball had nearly no movement" when I think you're just out-and-out wrong.  He threw some sensational sinkers over the first six innings.  Re-watch the game and see if you can characterize any other outs listed above as "screamers," in order for me to agree with you that there were "a lot" of them.  I can think of two that I identified above.  Johnson's wasn't even that scream-y.

I'm not basing this on any statistical analysis - just observation.  But I seem to remember that Halladay looked MUCH better last year.  Much better than the small difference in ERA would suggest.  Halladay was lights out before he got injured to the point where I thought every outing was going to be a perfect game.

I wonder if his relatively good numbers this year (i.e., only slightly worse than last year at this point) might have more to do with the fact that he has faced easier competition this year than last year.  Any insight would be appreciated.

Either that, or I've just become so used to Halladay that him being a top-5 AL pitcher (as opposed to a top-1 MLB pitcher) is no longer good enough :(

- Maneesh

I certainly do agree that Doc has been less sharp and less consistently sharp this year than last year pre-Mench.  Whether he's gutting through a minor ailment or he just hasn't re-established his release point is a question that we definitely can't answer and maybe not even Doc can do so.  To that extent, I share the concerns of everyone else here.

But last night, though it wound up being so-so statistically thanks to four runs allowed -- he was dealing over the first six innings.  Depeche nailed it -- his barrage of two-seamers to Clayton was just filthy.  He snapped off some excellent curves to Soriano, too.