Arencibia gets the start, day game after a night game, both games against RHPs.  This is now officially a Gibbons problem.

The Jays have designated Evan Crawford for assignment to make room for the return of Dustin McGowan.

I'm not convinced Gibbons dictates playing time for this team.

Gibbons said that Thole would be getting more playing time than Blanco.  Presumably he had discussed Thole's role with Anthopoulos prior to saying that.  If a day game after a night game both against RHPs isn't an occasion for increased playing time, what is?  Or do you figure that Anthopoulos literally tells Gibbons what the lineup should be each day?

J.P. seems the type to throw a fit if he feels threatened. Anyone remember his Twitter outbursts during the offseason when his name was thrown around in trade talks?

Oh relax everyone. This is, quite literally, Thole's first full day with the team. Gibbons said he wanted to keep Arencibia-Buehrle together. Let's see how it plays out.

Buck and Morris are absolutely right, by the way. Why on earth is Darvish throwing a 3-1 breaking ball to Macier Izturis?

Boo Emilio

The only thing worse than bunting, bad bunting

"Oh relax everyone. This is, quite literally, Thole's first full day with the team. Gibbons said he wanted to keep Arencibia-Buehrle together."

Exactly. He got to the team right before the game last night. I think it's a little bit early to be jumping on Gibbons for Thole's usage, and I wouldn't be surprised if Thole gets both Sunday & Monday's starts before the team faces two lefties in Sale & Quintana in Chicago. If he doesn't and only catches Dickey we'll just have to sit back and see just how Gibbons intends on getting him more playing time than Blanco, as he said he would.

With Bautista slumping, I'd return him to #3 and go Melky-Lind-Jose-EE-Rasmus. Breaks up the lefties and allows JP to go 6th.

Don't agree at all.  I think Gibbons has been part and parcel of a set of decisions around Arencibia.  I'll bet that Thole gets in 2 games a week.

I think Gibbons has been part and parcel of a set of decisions around Arencibia.

Isn't that Gibbons' job? Not sure what you're saying here.

Yes, it is.  I think that Gibbons participated in the decision to not bring up Thole earlier and  gave Arencibia a more important role (batting 4th or 5th much of the season to date) than his performance merited.  Gibbons has a reputation as a player's manager, and in this case, he (needed to and) needs to ruffle feathers.

JP was one of if not the best Jay hitter in april. His performance merited a good spot in the lineup.

2 Run lead and Janssen picks now to suck.

JP was one of if not the best Jay hitter in April.

He was about as good as a guy with a .267 OnBase can be, but I wonder if what he did in April has led him to this current place. What he did do in April was hit HRs - 8 of them. And ever since, he's been coming out of his shoes on every swing. With exactly the kind of results you'd expect.

And what is up with his home/road splits? Without the Man in White, JPA is hitting .140/.173/.220 - there are lots of pitchers who can beat that.

Wagner balked because his catcher suddenly jumped up out of his crouch after he'd started his delivery. It looked like he was trying to call time.

Guess a 9 man pen would've been useful today...
7 relievers used, Loup the only guy left.  Which hitter is the guy to use in event of emergency?

Where's Jeff Mathis when you need him.

Clearly this game was intended to fulfill Mike Green's goal of "stretching out Brad Lincoln...."

On a more serious note -- this game just adds to my theory that the Jays are cursed. They've now endured four extra-innings games in their past 10 games, including two games of at least 17 innings. That's a great way to put a hugely unfair burden on their pitching staff. So far they seem to be surviving it, but what of the longer-term impact?

Nice defensive play by Arencibia in the top of the 18th (throw to second to nab the straying Murphy), possibly preserving the tie.

Lincoln and/or Perez will shuffle off to Buffalo and a fresh arm will come up. And Cecil only threw 8 pitches.

It's now officially the longest-ever game in Jays history. And the Jays have won it, in the 18th inning.

Mets and Marlins also going long. Currently in the 17th. Shaun Marcum has pitched the last 5 innings for the Mets.

I missed most of this one, but heckuva job by Lincoln (4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K). He looked sharp. The Jays' bullpen has been outstanding of late.

The bullpen has been really impressive as of late. I think this team has finally turned the corner. I have the feeling that this team will go on and win 4 out of every 5 games for the next 2 months of the season. I don't think they have the starting pitching to put an extended winning streak together but damn, this team is starting to play well. I can't wait until Jose Reyes comes back from the DL. Anyone know when he's expected to play some rehab games?

Indeed. Janssen, Oliver, Delabar, Cecil, McGowan, Loup, Wagner, and Perez is a nice looking bunch.

There's still Santos on the DL, Rogers in the rotation, and Lincoln in AAA, with future potential in Perez, Drabek, and Hutchison.

"....Lincoln and/or Perez will shuffle off to Buffalo and a fresh arm will come up. And Cecil only threw 8 pitches...."

It's true that Lincoln has been demoted to Buffalo and will presumably be replaced by Oliver tomorrow. And it's also true that the Jays bullpen has been remarkably resilient and rubber-armed so far. But I think it would be a mistake to assume that the relievers can just keep running out there endlessly at the same pace as they have so far.

Delabar, for example, is on track for 85 innings this season. Cecil is on pace for 86 innings. And Loup is on pace for 88 innings. We've also seen that Janssen simply cannot pitch as often as a closer should pitch -- there are often days where he has to tell Gibbons that he is unavailable because of soreness. Today might have been an example of the physical pressures and existing health conditions catching up with him.

I think the Jays will need to be careful with their bullpen going forward, especially with all of the extra-innings games lately. They've been fortunate to avoid injuries to their workhorse relievers so far, but that won't necessarily continue forever.

"I have the feeling that this team will go on and win 4 out of every 5 games for the next 2 months of the season."

Hah.  That might be a first in MLB history.

I just watched something that lasted about six hours and resembled a baseball game, but I was in a sleep-deprived stupor and couldn't really process what was going on. What the hell just happened?

Yu Darvish reminded me of (drumroll...) Esmil Rogers! The way he swivels toward the hitter to come set, and the way his breaking balls snap and make hitters look stupid when they're working, and the way he had no clue where the ball was going. Still pretty impressive despite the command spasms.

My one petty gripe: Why the blue hell did they have McGowan start Berkman with a slider? One, Berkman's batting left, and that's a very odd pitch to throw when you don't have the platoon edge. Two, he's old and might have a sliderbat? Three, and most important - way to set the tone, guys! On that score it was a smashing success. Just baffling.

That said, the bullpen looks excellent, and (Janssen aside) they were beyond excellent today.

There is a tendancy towards desperation in extra innings, with players trying to do more than they normally will do.   Eight extra inning Games, 27 extra innings and an pedestrian 4-4 record.    And a three-game winings streak.   Interesting.

Dustin McGowan, 98mph, my word.

No kidding. I thought he was 92-94 in Buffalo. I guess he was just giving those minor leaguers a chance.

In all seriousness, his fastball command is a bit hit or miss right now, but it should improve over the course of the season. Welcome back Dustin. Great to see you out there again.

Maybe more Jays pitchers should be using the weighted ball program (which both Cecil and McGowan have been using). It appears to have helped turn Cecil into one of the best relievers in the league.

Blue Jays we expected at the beginning of the year now 3-1.  Great to see Dustin in the mix again.

That might be a first in MLB history

Playing .800 ball for two months? It's been done. The 1906 Cubs had an impressive enough 61-28 record on July 24. From that point through the end of the season they won - wait for it - 55 of 63 games (55-8, .873). Naturally, they lost the World Series.

And so did the 1912 Giants, who after losing 3 of their first 4 games, went on a 53-8 tear to settle that pennant race by early July.

More recently? I don't know about two months of .800 ball... The 1951 Giants went 39-11 (.780) from August 3 to the end of the season to force the playoff with Dodgers. The 1978 Yankees played .722 ball (52-20) over more than two months to make up their huge deficit. The 1993 Braves caught the Giants with a .737 tear (56-20).

2002 A's - 20 game winning streak, ended with a 35-8 stretch (814 winning percentage).  Push back to July 29th to Sept 29th and you get a 43-14 record for 2 months or 754 winning percentage which is still pretty darn good.

The 1984 Tigers started 35-5 (875 winning percentage) which is also quite good.

Right, so actually playing .800 ball for two months...has it happened within the last hundred years?

Hey, Toronto's 4-2 for June (.667) and we have Johnson and Dickey pitching the next two.

has it happened within the last hundred years?

Would you settle for the 2001 Mariners going 47-12 (.797) from Apr 2 through Jun 8?

We may have to settle for the 1954 Indians, who went 53-13 (.803) from Jul 15 through Sep 20.

Hmmmm...how about 4 of 6? :)

Was anyone else having Jesse Carlson flashbacks when Perez came on to save the day in the 10th?

Juan Perez's initial success reminds me of Jesse Carlson.

— Jerry (@NorthYorkJays) June 8, 2013

I thought the same of Aaron Loup.

Some people have criticized Anthopoulos for signing so many veteran pitchers and rotating so many of them (and so many prospects) through the bottom of the Jays bullpen in the 7 and 8 slot. It's true that a lot of them have been washouts, but you can see the value of the approach when it produces the occasional good discovery. In the past couple years, we've seen the arrival of unheralded relievers like Loup, Delabar, Wagner, Luis Perez, Juan Perez, etc. None of these guys had any fanfare when they were acquired or promoted. All have been useful -- or better -- so far.

Yes, this approach might produce a lot of busts like Ryota Igarashi or David Pauley or Evan Crawford, but it's still a useful approach if it produces the occasional gem.

Aaron Loup is unjustly dismissed. The kid has been amazing as a major leaguer. A lefty who can crank it up to 94 and has pinpoint control, and who has been almost as good v. RH as he has been v. LH.

A.Loup

MLB (24-25): 64.1ip, 6.5k/9, 1.0bb/9, 56.8gb%, .269babip, 0.96whip, 2.38era, 2.77fip, 3.28xfip, 2.82siera
AAA (-----): ---

He's been pretty much dominant. If he was on a team like the Sox or Rays everyone would be marvelling at this hotshot young reliever.

A guy like Crawford shouldn't ever be mentioned in connection with Loup, IMO.

MLB (25-25): 8.0ip, 5.6k/9, 4.5bb/9, .304babip, 36.0gb%, 1.75whip, 6.75era, 8.59fip, 5.55xfip, 4.93siera
AAA (25-25): 27.2ip, 6.5k/9, 3.9bb/9, .379babip, 0.7hr/9, 6.83era, 4.21fip

Uglyone, you've misunderstood my post. I was describing hype and perception, not reality. I wasn't comparing the players -- I was only describing how they were generally perceived by the majority of fans at the time of their arrival on the major-league roster. Aaron Loup was generally unheralded by most pundits. He was part of the "great churn" of pitchers who were promoted into the bottom of the bullpen without any particular fanfare. To the surprise of many, he stuck. That's why I put him in the same category as Luis Perez, Delabar, Wagner, Juan Perez etc. (And it's probably too early to be certain about some of these guys too.) An astute evaluator would have known that some of these unheralded relievers were better than others. But AA was smart enough to acquire them and give them a try.

By the Aaron Loup was a 9th-round draft choice in 2009, and he failed to get even a single vote from the Batters Box experts at the end of 2011 when the list of top Jays prospects was being compiled. A few months later, he was in the majors to stay, and he was soon one of the top relievers on the team. That's what I mean by unheralded.

I've always said that useful relief pitchers really do grow on trees. While there's always a shortage of quality starting pitching, anyone can find 9 or 10 guys who can do a decent job in one inning stints. Which in turn means that there should be no excuse, none whatsoever, for a team not being able to assemble a decent bullpen.

And yet there are significant differences in the quality of various MLB bullpens, so it's not as easy as all that. The Jays have one of the best bullpens in baseball, and that's nothing to sneeze at. How many bullpens could produce as many scoreless innings as the Jays have produced lately, especially in extra innings?

Absolutely. But still - there is no shortage of guys who can do this job. You should always be able to find as many as you need.

my bad on your Loup/Crawford comment, china.

bullpens are funny things.

I mean, we all like our bullpen this year, for good reason, but we forget that even with our good top-7/8 relievers, our bullpen has actually not been great overall this year. They have finally got their ERA down to a good level (up to 4th in the AL after last night's great performance), but before that it was near bottm....and their FIP and xFIP are still near league bottom (12th and 13th).

but that's mostly because our rotation was so unbelievably awful that we kept on bringing up crappy AAA starters to be mop up guys.

One big mistake that can kill your 'pen is to spend fairly big money on what are essentially fungible mediocre relievers. It just handcuffs you have a bunch of vet relievers making $2-5m, because you can't move them our when they're struggling.

And that's what AA did the past couple of years....but this year he finally fixed it. A bunch of cheap arms with good K-rates, most of them with options and able to be sent down if needed.

Now I'm not sure whether this was by design or not, or whether AA simply ran out of money....but for the first time in his tenure we're not stuck forcefeeding Cordero, Francisco, Rauch, Frasor, Dotel, Gregg, etc. innings just because of their contracts. The likes of Cecil, Loup, Delabar, Janssen, Wagner have had to earn their roles, while the likes of Lincoln and Jeffress are out because they haven't earned the roles.

But it's not perfect yet.....Rogers didn't really earn his spot this year, and arguably didn't deserve to stay.....his good performance in the rotation right now may have saved his job, and definitely has saved the Jays a tough decision for now. McGowan is another guy with no options left who may not have earned his role, so we'll see what the Jays do if he struggles.

It'll be interesting to see how AA plays it going forward....the emergence of Cecil and Loup has made an Oliver decision fairly easy....Oliver has to be let go this year. Then there's arms like Carreno, Stilson, Perez that will start being in the mix soon.....not to mention the possibility of starters like Stroman, Nolin, Drabek ending up in the 'pen.

1. Janssen
2. Santos
3. Oliver
4. Cecil
5. Loup
6. Delabar
7. McGowan
8. Rogers
9. Lincoln
10. Stilson
11. Perez
12. Carreno

If I were AA I'd be thinking of moving some of the guys with no options left.

Oops - I forgot to include Wagner on that list. I think he's a keeper.

And Jeffress is another arm in the mix too.

Gotta be skeptical of Santos as a long-term keeper. He was injured for the majority of last season, and injured for the majority of this season so far. He's got an amazing arm, but it's not much use if he can't stay healthy.