A good omen: the winning pitcher in the game we won against Hamels and the Phillies last year was none other than Marcus Stroman, who pitched 1.1 innings of scoreless relief.

As I'm sure everyone's noticed, the visitors have won all four post-season games played so far. Apparently (I haven't done the math myself) if this continues, the Cubs will beat Houston to win the World Series sometime early in November.

I believe in Stroman.

Nice defence so far.

Yeah just beautiful defense here.

Actually great play by Cola. Interesting that he of the much maligned defense would make a great play to get us out of that inning with only 2.

Buck up folks. A bad hop and a little bad luck with the wall.

Bats need to be there today...

Yeah, without Cola's great play there, it could be MUCH worse.

I did say, when looking at post-season matchups, I did NOT want the Rangers - they are the best road team of anyone we could have faced in the 1st round. Here's hoping for some "nice defence" on Texas' part as well..

Smart play by Colabello getting the out at first before chasing down Fielder. I believe he could have actually done the same on the ball hit to him earlier, where he threw to Martin to get Choo. He could probably have stepped on first base before making the throw since he was so close to the bag.

Let's hope these jitters soon subside. Martin is supposed to be the guy with all the experience.

Oh, and it's nice to see Kaat still in the broadcast business. I had no idea. I don't find him earth shatteringly insightful, but highly competent and easy to listen to. A nice break from Harold Reynolds and Pat Tabler.

playoffs are gonna kill me.

Good job getting one back by Josh!

I have a feeling we're really going to need Tulo/Martin/Cola to outhit their counterparts today.

Getting very tired of Rough Ned.

Odor is absolutely killing us.

Odor is the early front runner for series MVP.

More bad defense in the second though. You could make the argument that we should be up 1-0 here if the defense did it's job. Odor shouldn't have gone to third there if the bag had been covered.

where was the bad defense? good play by stro. good play by pillar. good play by cola.

great baserunning by odor all around.

Hi, my name is Larry. This is my brother Rougned and this is my other brother Rougned.

When I picked Rough Ned as the guy most likely to be a thorn in our side, I was trying to jinx him, not help him.

Damn it.

UO if on the ground out to first if 3b was covered Odor I don't think would have been able to go first to third.

Leaving third base open could be classified as bad defense. I agree with Kasi, the Rangers shouldn't have any runs.

With that, a break for Toronto. Hooray.

Maybe for Game Three the Jays should sign a guy named Softben Fresh and just have him sit on the bench.

who was supposed to cover 3rd?

Colabello cares.

3rd baseman, short stop, or catcher. Take your pick.

that was a great play by Choo to fool cola. crap.

Catcher had to back up 1st.

both SS and 3B had a play on a tough chopped in no man's land.

alright stroman get us a clean inning for once. enough of this giving it right back crap.

Two innings of silliness over. Game 2 reboot.

where was the bad defense?

It was mostly Martin throwing the ball past Donaldson. Bautista had the ball in his glove but crashed into the wall and it popped out. Hey, it's a wall. Goins had a very tough play - he just makes them often enough that it's surprising when he doesn't. It was natural for both Donaldson and Tulowitzki to break after the infield chopper, just very alert baserunning by Odor who continued to the bag quicker than Donaldson could reverse course and get back.

oh yeah the bad defense in the 1st I agree with for sure.

but imo the 2nd inning was just fantastic stuff from odor.

just very alert baserunning by Odor who continued to the bag quicker than Donaldson could reverse course and get back.

Precisely. It was actually a good defensive play by Donaldson to have the awareness to know what Odor was doing and get back to the bag quick enough to make the play close-ish.

Cola is looking sharp at first, For What It's Worth.

For the record, while Cola's sample is still not nearly close to big enough, over the last 3 seasons Cola has posted a -0.7uzr/150 at 1B and Smoak a -0.8. i.e. basically equal.

interesting as well to me at least is that the tools ratings seem to reflect what we see out there - Cola's range is rated as positive, and much better than Smoak's solidly negative range, while smoak has far fewer errors and missed plays.

Amazing how poorly the umpire is calling the strike zone. Whenever they show the strike zone after a Jay hitter goes 'what the heck' the pitch is always outside the zone and the announcers go 'it touched the edge'...no it was outside the box guys.

Vic Carrapazza doing his best Joe West impression that inning. Three pitches clearly off the plate called strikes. SIGH.

generous calls but not egregious. closer than stroman's misses, unfortunately. (the vLHH map is perfect so far btw)

. . stroman gets one generous call back that inning on the bottom of the zone.

Completely agree with you John. Carapazza is having an awful day (or it's a conspiracy against Canada.)

surprisingly, Stroman at 55 pitches is being much more efficient than Hamels at 65.

Finally, a lead.

Carapazza is brutal. Just brutal.
I hope it doesn't cost the Jays the game here.

This umpire is awful (at least at calling balls and strikes - great work on the play at the plate, assuming he wasn't just guessing).

Not sure why the Rangers bothered rescuing Hamilton from the Angels. He looks like he doesn't have a clue at the plate. Maybe they thought they could afford to be sentimental when it didn't look like they were going to be in the playoff hunt.

Ugly, you must be looking at a different pitch chart than me. The "generous" strike call Stroman got is actually right on the lower half.

Hamels has gotten at least four clear balls called strikes.

Oops, was reading that wrong. Sorry.

Still. That strike two to Edwin in his second at bat. Yikes.

yep his calls have gotten worse (and more one sided) as the game has gone on. pretty brutal.

Stroman settled right in.  Great pitcher and a joy to watch.

Stroman dealing now. And at 89 pitches.

Is it automatic to bring cecil in for choo-fielder-moreland? (moreland is likely to be pinch hit for i guess).

hamels over 100 pitches and hasn't been great. wonder why he's still in.

another generous call. ****.

They're saving Diekman and Dyson.  Anybody else isn't as good as Hamels at 110 pitches.

Hate to beat a dead horse heren; but to Mike's point, Stroman's even more remarkable considering the fact that the home plate umpire has had a bad game and called two different strike zones.

so now the year long bullpen argument comes into perfect focus.

cecil osuna for the one run win.

I am guessing that everyone agrees that it is Cecil time.

I dunno. The TV screen is two-dimensional and so is that strike zone graphic. But I don't quite trust either because the strike zone itself is three dimensional. The calls everyone is questioning mostly seemed to be on pitches that had a lot of horizontal movement, and undoubtedly were outside the zone for part of the micro-second that they spent crossing the plate. I sure wouldn't want to try to call them myself, anyway.

The interesting question is whether you bring on Lowe to face Napoli

Sorry I asked it.

shoot me.

So he doesn't hold the lead and he gets hurt. I guess we should have brought Lowe in. Anyway would be nice if our offense could get going again.

Thoughts go to Mick Doherty this series. His perspective would have been enjoyable.

if we don't get revere in here i'll be slightly annoyed.

That looks like it could be a foot or achilles issue with Cecil.

I didn't get a chance to see Napoli's splits, but 2-17 vs Cecil plus his recent brilliance is enough justification.

The way this series has gone, and remembering Napoli hitting a couple mammoth shots at RC in the past, I'm just happy the ball didn't land 450 feet away in center field.

Dyson is one sleepy looking dude.

No pressure, Tulo.

Walking Encarnacion to face Tulowitzki is a good call. Hope that Tulo makes him pay for it anyway.

Not a good AB by Bautista. Seemed to be pressing.

Time for Tulo to deliver. It has been a long drought.

disastrous inning for the vaunted meat of the order. disastrous.

Yeah, pretty bad. This is where Cola/Martin need to come up with some magic in the bottom of the 9th, assuming we can hold 'em..

Blue Tulo is not as scary as purple Tulo. Maybe he should wear Rockies underoos. Or breathe through his eyes.

I haven't seen Bautista look that bad, like, ever. Maybe once.

Costas calling a great game. Taking me back to his days on NBC calling playoff games with Morgan (ick) and Uecker (amazing).

Calling a Colabello homer to walk off.

changeup on a full count. I do love this kid.

That 3-2  to Hamilton was the nicest off-speed pitch I've seen Osuna throw in a long time.

I think a Colabello walk-off shot would be an appropriate way to end this game.

would be nice to score this inning. if not, at least get enough guys up that the meat of the order comes up in the 10th.

Osuna out for a 2nd inning. against the bottom of the order.

Although he struck out,  Pillar had a pretty decent at-bat.  That's one thing about the playoffs- the top 2 relievers on a club are far and away the most important. 

Who knew they would be Diekman and Tyson???

You would have no clue of it in the middle of the year. And then.  Tolleson looks very hittable and the Ds do not. 

Russell Martin is getting ready to explode at poor Vic.

I actually would love to see Smoak or Navarro hit for Goins.

not a bad playoff debut for a 20yr old.

nifty play by russ, too. though cola pulled off the bag a bit quick for my liking.

Shi Davidi @ShiDavidi
#BlueJays say Brett Cecil left game with tightness in left calf

can't believe goins wasn't pinch hit for.

Another beauty from Carapazza there.

Revere is all over the plate. Must be ridiculously hard for a tall guy like Diekman to heave it in the strike zone.

Ben Revere: You will not walk me.

It's Diekman's world.

if you're not gonna pinch hit for goins against a lefty in the 10th inning of a must win playoff game.....

Diekman reminds me of a lower case Randy Johnson- the face, the fastball, the height.

... then you don't want to remove Goins glove from the game (I assume, at least.)

a glove's not gonna score the winning run.

Diekman reminds me of a lower case Randy Johnson- the face, the fastball, the height.

Diekman's not that ugly. The Big Unit may no longer be the tallest man to ever play major league baseball, but he's probably still the ugliest.

Well, him and Don Mossi.

I'm fine with not pinch hitting for Goins. If there were guys on sure, but bases empty against a dominating reliever... I'd rather leave him in there and benefit from his fielding, especially since we don't know how many innings this might go for

I'm no linguist, but Carapazza might be Italian for crapola.

It might prevent the winning run. And there's far from an assurance that any of the bench batters would have been a winning run against Diekman.

Diekman's not that ugly. The Big Unit may no longer be the tallest man to ever play major league baseball, but he's probably still the ugliest.

Oh yeah.  I agree.  That's why I said lower case.

The third pitch to Choo appeared to be right down the middle.

The fact that Fielder and Hamilton are ostensibly human ceiling fans, it's a wonder the Rangers scored as many runs as they did.

fine with not pinch hitting for your #9 hitter to lead off the bottom of the 10th with the top of the order coming up after?

Re Goins... I like Smoak against fastballers.

Dear Mr. Joe West - I take back all those nasty things I said to you. Are your glasses available to lend to Mr. Carrapazzo?

This is (*&@*(&@ ridiculous for a PLAYOFF umpiring crew. I've had it. Bring on the robot umps.

#mlbRobotUmps

nice spikes up, napoli. and i guess there's goins' glove.

this is excruciating.

That was a dirty slide by Napoli.

I would have gone for the out at 3rd in that case..

Loup for Lowe to face Hamilton.  Good call.

Napoli, one of the worst hitters in baseball all year, has two incredible at bats that might win a playoff game.

Baseball.

Loup? Are we conceeding the game, then?

gods of babip owe Loup something fierce these playoffs.

No PH for Hamilton? Thank you.

"Napoli, one of the worst hitters in baseball all year, has two incredible at bats that might win a playoff game.

Baseball."

Nap's been Nap again since being traded.

Ha! Chuck you're still trying to to top your "gee whiz" Jerry Howarth comment. You're getting awful close.

Why is Joey trying to hit it 500 ft on every pitch? Is that 3 or 4 infield popups today?

Didn't like Bautista's approach there. Nobody is interested in taking a walk right now. Of course everything's a strike for Carapazza right now.

Adrenaline and testosterone are making for an unproductive cocktail.

Yeah seems like those three last inning all tried to win the game on one pitch. JD did the same the previous inning.

Remember when Marcus Stroman pitched an amazing game?

This HAS to be the inning... or else this sucker is going 17. Any chance of getting Chad Jenkins on a plane?

Pompey time.

I am glad that Pompey got his feet wet yesterday.

Okay, Pompey has to run now ahead of Pillar. Right?

Does Sanchez come out for another inning? Would be hard to go to reliever #6 when Texas is only on #3..

Must be midnight. Goins has turned back into a pumpkin.

Is there any scenario where Gibbons is prepared to pinch-hit for Ryan Goins? Bizarre.

Welcome to Vic's house of mirrors strike zone.

hague instead of carrera would have given us a Donaldson replacement yesterday and more options today. don't know what carrera is good for.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on planet earth, the El Tiante rent-a-poseur is getting battered yet again, and a limelight-avoiding good ol' boy ex-Jay keeps finding himself in the limelight.

The Astros are my Plan B for rooting interests. Not exactly sure why.

is that the 3rd just miss bomb already this series?

Come on Jose.. Right here again would be amazing!

gonna have to be bautista

At least Bautista had the right idea that at-bat. Can't say the same for Donaldson after the dust up.

Need an Edwing!!

Dang! SO CLOSE!!

The Astros are my Plan B for rooting interests

They're playing the Royals. Good enough for me.

Jane Goodall might have a comment or two on the strutting and posturing by the pyjama-clad great apes.

the inches have not been on our side this series.

I could take Costas and Kaat for the rest of the playoffs.

out.

Way to stay with the tag, Tulo!!

And of course, the clowns get it wrong..

#mlbWantsBlueJaysToLose

of course.

#mlbNeedsRobotUmps

I don't think he was out, or at least not anything conclusive to overturn that. Anyway Jays had plenty of time to try to get a run in. Too many swings for the fences.

hawkins ahead of hendriks was an interesting call.

I thought that he was out, but it may not have been sufficiently conclusive.  Tough to call. 

Liam Hendriks' BABIP luck continues.  Boy.

Wow, I think DeShields is faster in slow motion than I am in real-time..

Slip sliding away...

Odor was out.

My best guess at why Hawkins before Hendriks is because Hendriks is going longer - if you needed to pull Hendriks for Hawkins, you weren't going to get many outs from Hawkins. Or something.

Odor gave a nice lesson on how to deal with a shift.  I think that you probably don't want to shift like that with 2 strikes. 

Postseason should be Officially considered over for the Jays. They were not good enough or not "hungry" enough to win.

reminds me of Bronx Tale: "...and now you CAN'T pinch hit for goins."

"Vic's just having a tough afternoon." - Jim Kaat

Imagine the umpires that DIDN'T make the playoffs.

#mlbRobotUmpsNOW

Chuck, those umpires got sent to New York City to be the umpires for replay reviews.

As terrible as these umps have been, some of these at-bats have been worse.  Oh well, at least we'll always have last week's World Series-style celebration.

That angle looks like he is out but the other one from over the top didn't show odor breaking with the bag. So I don't see how you can call him out.

I also can't blame Gibbons, little do I like him. It's not like he can do anything about 2-5 going 2/21 at the plate.

Heartbreaking.  Now go get them in Texas.

So they have to beat... Martin Perez and Derek Holland?

Not impossible.

You need a break or two to win a series and the Jays didn't get more than one (the first inning error). Too many guys trying to hit bombs, too many bad swings.

The Jays could still win, they just need to have some better at-bats.

There was plenty of time to win if they had been patient with their at bats and played like normal. But like Gerry said I think too many tried to be heroes. And it almost worked a couple times but not quite. I was hopeful when Pompey got subbed but they couldn't cash him in.

Ugly game. Ugly series so far. I'm sure someone will figure out how much those bad ball-strike calls cost the Jays. In the end though the killer was 2-3-4-5 not doing what was needed. 2-22 with a HR 2 BB and 7 K's from 'killer row' means frustration. At this point we just have to hope Dickey gets his game 4 start. I keep expecting the Jays offense to come back to life like we know it can.

I wish I had spent the last five hours doing just about anything else. It was sort of exciting, but mostly stressful and frustrating.

First, the announcers. I don't like these guys at all. They make me long for Pat and Buck - at least they know about the team. The worst part was when they made it seem like Ben Revere was a patient hitter who was getting over aggressive in the situation... not even close guys. Revere has 13 walks against 601 at bats this year. That's just who he is. He swings a lot.

Second, the umps. The home plate guy was brutal, and the calls seemed to go against us more often than not. Maybe he just had a "bad day", but maybe he just doesn't like us for whatever reason.

Third, our play. It was tough because the umpiring was so bad all night, but our guys seemed a bit over aggressive particularly in their at-bats (except for Revere, who was the same as always). I actually think the day off (and the win or die reality) might benefit them, allowing them to regroup and figure out a better game plan. Let's hope so anyways.

That being said... we're not out of it yet. I do think our team is better, we just have to play like it. It all comes down to Estrada and Dickey, as well as our offense hitting like they can. Three runs in Game 1 and four runs in basically a game and a half aren't going to cut it.

Cecil is out for the post-season with a tear in his calf muscle. 

but (especially as the game wore on) it looked like too many hitters were playing to the crowd.

Trying to come through for them, to be precise. Trying to make them happy, to be worthy of all that noise. Pressing, just a little. Actually trying to give 110%, which is always a terrible idea in baseball.

Magpie is there anybody who can tell the, not to press? Is that generally the responsibility of vets, or the manager or just not something that can be controlled?

just not something that can be controlled?

I don't think they can help it. I don't think anyone can say anything. These are very young people. Most of them have never been in this situation, almost 50,000 people are noisily begging and screaming for them to do their best, they've spent eight months working towards this very moment... the adrenaline just takes hold.

I've been to four games since august first.  four losses.  Is it my fault? 

Let's all refrain from injecting some long-distance psychology into anything that's happening. 

are they pressing?  are they jinxed?  who knows, who cares, no way we can analyze how anyone is feeling other than ourselves.  most bauxites agree that the manager has minimal impact on the outcome of the game, and from where I sit, the best thing a manager can do is contribute to team psychology.  so is it gibbons at fault for resting guys?  we lost a bunch of games with jonathan diaz at SS and a lineup of scrubs - is that it? maybe it was price getting skipped a start? 

wins and losses people.  let's talk stats, the only thing we can legitimately talk about. 

I think pinch hitting for Goins when you just contact to win the game is no-brainer.
Maybe the plan was to win in the 16th...

Are they going to replace Cecil?

I'd imagine they'll add an arm to the pen, but they won't be able to replace Cecil, certainly not from the choices they have available to them.

let's talk stats, the only thing we can legitimately talk about.

You cannot be serious, jerjapan.  Just chill for a while.  You'll be O.K.  (Anyway, what the bleep do you mean by "legitimate"?)

I'm glad I wasn't able to watch this one. I see the Jays scored zero runs in the last nine innings (against Hamels, Dyson, Diekman, Tolleson, Kela, and Ohlendorf). In the RC, no less. Ouch.

Losing Cecil hurts. He had been the Jays' best reliever.

Tulo is now 0-10 in the playoffs (and he had a wRC+ of 91 with the Jays in the regular season). That's not going to get it done. I really wish he would heat up and regain some of his superstar form.

Anyway, one game at a time. Let's see what happens on Sunday night.

Tulo (at the dish at least) is making even Jerry Howarth pine for Jose Reyes.

How about Dickey goes in game three with Estrada in reserve, but hoping for knuckler magic and maybe eight innings to spare the pen? If that works, Estrada for game four and either Price gets his opportunity for redemption or Stroman goes in game five.

Of course the bats will have to show up.

Post game comments from the Jays seem very heated about the call. But:

1. Even if they get the out there is no guarantee they score in the bottom of the inning.
2. Maybe they should focus on their offense rather than this one play.

You cannot be serious, jerjapan.  Just chill for a while.  You'll be O.K.  (Anyway, what the bleep do you mean by "legitimate"?)

Sorry, did I spell that wrong?  The internet tells me it's okay, but regardless.  (Irregardless?  ha!) 

I appear to have overstated my case.  We can talk about anything we want to. 

But my main point remains the same - pop psychology - "the team is jittery"!  "They should have played regulars instead of scrubs"!  - is beyond our bailiwick (that one's for you, Dewey).

We don't know, and can't know, anything other than the stats.  The rest is speculation.  But Lord knows, speculating is fun, so if I've spoken against it, I fully retract my statement.  

Regardless of the reason(s) we're behind 2-0, I am just disappointed that after such a great regular season we are in a big hole. Man, I hate losing !

I agree with you jer. Stats do tell the picture. From the inning after they got the lead through the bottom of the thirteenth they made 24 outs. Four batters in that time reached base, one by intentional walk. Only one got to third. That is why the Jays lost. The bullpen did its job. The Rangers do have a good bullpen. Not good enough to make us have an OBP of .135 or so. If the Jays are to make a comeback the heart of the lineup needs to wake up again.

Oh heck yeah Islandboy! 

22 years without a playoff win is a long time ... but if any team can run off three straight wins, I'd say it's this one! 

The link here is the pic I was seeing during the post play which led me to think he didn't get off the bag.

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/63817564/v520880083/textor-gm2-odor-slides-back-into-second-safely/?game_pk=446241

3 minute mark is the key part of that video. I don't think you can conclude his foot came off. The toe was in contact the whole time.

Calls have been overturned on less, but that would have been a very ticky-tack out that would never have been given in the pre-replay era. Bottom line is that the Jays had the Rangers at two outs and the bases empty; you simply have to get out of that inning, tough luck on the replay or not.

Watching parts of the Cards vs Cubs game and they mentioned how the Cards don't often shift.

And I was thinking I don't know how often the shift has worked out in favour of the Blue Jays, but it definitely went against them at least twice in this game. The Napoli hit and then the Odor infield hit.

Sucks to be in this position down 0-2

Disappointing so far, but this team can win three in a row.

I don't know about you but when I watch a baseball game I see a lot more than stats.

Body language, faacial expressions, and the little things... if all we can talk about is the stats I suggest sticking to box scores or something.

Christaylor, I may have been inartful in the way I phrased my comment, but what I meant specifically was that the only (relative) objectivity we can have is with stats.  The rest is observation, conjecture, pop psychology, speculation - all great fun stuff.  We just need to be wary of assuming that we have identified causation. 

I was speculating like crazy about Stroman's mental strength with the other fans up in the 500 yesterday. 

I keep expecting the Jays offense to come back to life like we know it can.

Well, in those early tough series against the division leading Yankees, the Jays offense did just enough to win but the Yankees were shut down almost completely. That's what they need to do.

Early in the game, I was yelling at the Blue Jay players. (3 'less than optimal' defensive plays in the 1st inning).

Late in the game I was yelling at the umpire. He actually wasn't as bad as the Jays were claiming, but he seemed inconsistent, which loses him the benefit of the doubt by the players. At the strike out on Tulo in the 9th was absolute garbage.

I'm impressed with the tone here - I was expecting a flood of negativity.

It's not a good position to be in, but it doesn't feel hopeless. The Jays are still the better team in all aspects besides bullpen.

I feel the blue jays lost because almost every player was trying to end the game with one swing. They came close but they didn't need to have that approach. If the blue jays are to have any chance of coming back, they will need to start taking walks and waiting for pitches they can make hard contact on. Singles and doubles would be just fine with me.

I fully expect the Jays to go nuts in game 3 and score 10 runs. Maybe the same in game 4. Setting up David Price for game 5 to either get that playoff monkey off his back or make him Tom Candiotti #2.... for those who don't remember or weren't alive then in 1991 the Jays did a mid-season trade for an ace and got Candiotti. He had a 2.98 ERA as a Jay over 19 starts but was pounded in his 2 playoff starts 8.22 ERA. The next day Juan Guzman was supposed to start - a kid who was having a killer year but using vets in the playoffs was thought to be critical. The Jays didn't even try to keep Candiotti that winter as he went to LA Dodgers for a big 4 year deal.3.38 ERA over those 4 years plus led the league in losses one of those years. The Jays then went out and got proven playoff winner Jack Morris and won the next 2 World Series.

If Price gets a second shot and sucks again will the Jays chase him or just chase him away?

I still hope for the Jays to pull it off and then get hot and see the Mets in the World Series so we could get Dickey vs Syndergaard for all the marbles.

I'm with Jerjapan on this one.  It's difficult to accuse the Jays of "pressing too hard" or "having jitters" or "trying to be heroes" or other psychological explanations.  There's no evidence that the Jays can't handle pressure situations or big games -- they did perfectly fine in all those high-pressure games against the Yankees in August and September.  David Price says he had jitters for "a couple of pitches or a couple of innings" on Thursday, but he didn't allow any runs until the 3rd inning, so I don't think it's accurate to accuse him of losing the game because of nervousness.  He did fine in almost all of the high-pressure games in August and September, and he's been in the playoffs before, so why would he suddenly have a psychological collapse now?  Doesn't make sense.  I also don't think Bautista and Donaldson are "pressing too hard" -- they always look like they're swinging for home runs, that's been true all season, and I don't think it's realistic to expect them to cut back to modest swings now.  (Their "home run swings" often go for doubles or singles anyway -- it just didn't happen in the second half of yesterday's game, which isn't abnormal.) 

Basically, the Jays and Rangers are two excellent teams who played two close-fought closely-matched games, and the Rangers happened to win both of them. That's not a shocking outcome in a two-game span.  Anything can happen in a short series, and it's not unexpected that the Rangers might win two or three games out of five.  There were plenty of situations in both games that could have gone either way.  Many plays were decided by a centimetre here or there, on a batter's swing or a ball or a strike or a baserunning play, and there's always some luck involved in those situations. 

Having said all that, Troy Tulowitzki is the Jay that I worry about.  I find it mystifying that he's gone from a .818 OPS in the National League to a .697 OPS in the American League (and zero hits or walks in two playoff games) within the same season.  A couple of timely hits from Tulo and the Jays could be tied in this series, or they could even be ahead 2-0 in the series.  I'm not trying to point the finger of blame at him solely, but just to say that most of the other Jays have performed within their expected range in the playoffs so far.  Tulo is the one who seems to be hugely under-performing.  Of course it's a small sample size -- he has time to rebound yet.  It's also possible that he's still affected by the September injury, more than we realize.

I don't blame the umpires. Look, home plate umps are not very good in this sport. Yesterday wasn't the first, and it won't be the last. The Jays had 14 innings to score, with their bullpen (aside from the 8th) doing the job, and they couldn't get that one run that would have won it. Can't blame the umps strike zone for that. If anything, the comedy of miscues in the 1st inning had more to do with the loss.

The Rangers are a very good team. Lineup is strong, defense is strong, bullpen is strong, and their weak spot (rotation) has been good enough so far. I do agree the Jays have a chance to get the series back to Toronto if the Rangers go with Perez and Holland in the next two games, but the Jays still have to pitch well.

This will be controversial:  the Jays select Tepera, rather than Buehrle, to replace Cecil in the bullpen. 

Based on comments in the pre-playoff threads, I suspect a lot of Bauxites won't be happy with this.

Personally, I'm not sure if there's any obvious choice here. Buehrle isn't 100 per cent healthy and isn't really suited to short stints anyway.  Who else?  Bo Schultz?  Steve Delabar?

I don't know if Gibbons understands how to manage in the Postseason. So far he's failed. Pitchers are creatures of habit and need to pitch to live batters regularly. Extra "rest" can be determental to accurate performance. Both Price and Stroman are much better pitchers than they've show thus far. The extra time off was not an asset, more a burden. With so many days off, sparing the Bullpen is no longer a neccessity. They can pitch as often as is needed. That means Starters no longer need to be stretched out. Gibbons must decide on 85 pitches as a limit, with 95 as a max.; 5 complete, 6 complete or 7 complete innings. There is no longer any need to pitch longer with this good a Bullpen.

Better routine for the Starters and better performance in games. There is no way David Price should be coughing up 5 runs if he'd faced more live pitching earlier. That should have been a 3-2 or 3-3 game at that point not a 5-3 game. Marcus Stroman does not give up three that fast normally, too much "rest" with an arm as fresh as his is. He should never be brought out in the 8th, not with this Bullpen. That game should never be lost.

Will Estrada have the same problem? Of course, that's why I said their Postseason was over, not doing enough right.

During the regular season I saw Donaldson grind out some very long at bats that ended with him taking what the pitcher gave him and go the other way. But in game one other than Pillar and Martin no one took advantage of what Gallardo was doing. And in the game yesterday in 14 innings no walks and a lot of very hard hacks swinging for the fences. Sorry but I think I'll have to side with Magpie on this one.

I agree with you CF that Tapera is he right choice. I think Delaber and Schultz blow up too much. Tapera has gopher ball tendencies but other than that I like his stuff.

Oops Bautista did take the one walk in the thirteenth. Good solid at bat from him there. Need more of that.

I'll leave it to Bautista to respond (via his twitter account today) to the fans who attack him for impatience and over-swinging at the plate:

Jose Bautista Verified account ‏@JoeyBats19

So many keyboard warriors out there...if cyber-bravery translated to the real world it would keep hospitals much busier

"Setting up David Price for game 5 to either get that playoff monkey off his back or make him Tom Candiotti #2."

I'm going with Stroman in game 5.

It's kind of odd to think that R.A. Dickey, with his 2.78 ERA over his last 16 starts, might not pitch a single inning in a 5-game playoff series.  But it might happen, I suppose, if Price and Stroman get the hypothetical 4th and 5th games of the series.

even if dickey pitches game 4, i still go Stroman game 5. stroman is amazing.

I think given the nature of how performance drops on three days rest that we should go with Dickey. I could even see moving him up to try to get some of his effect in there. I don't feel comfortable running a price out ther on three days rest. I'm not sure I'd go as far as going Stroman over Price for game five, but I agree with uo that he might be the better option.

I'd be curious if anyone would want to do stat checking from the sixth on about pitches/ab and anything measurable about plate discipline, but I don't care enough about this to do research. Everyone has their opinion of the games so far. They just need to perform better to pull off the comeback. That's all it comes down to, what's past is past.

"Marcus Stroman does not give up three that fast normally, too much "rest" with an arm as fresh as his is."

Those runs were on the defense. Stro only gave up one hard hit ball in the first two innings, and it was one that Bautista should have caught. He was dynamite all night long.

I agree he shouldn't have started the eighth though. They had hit some balls hard in the seventh, and Brett Cecil has been dominant enough that I would let him start the inning and pitch to Deshields.

Tulowitzki is pretty lost looking at the plate, however. He is being completely fooled by every offspeed pitch he sees.

I would start Dickey game three, Estrada game four, and Stroman game 5. Price on short rest is not a good idea, because he is so stuff reliant. And Stroman just gets groundball after groundball, which in a game 5 at the dome is a good thing.

Since we need to win all three games anyway, we might as well start Dickey game 3 to initiate that knuckle hangover ASAP.

Texas, on the other hand, should start Gallardo on short rest game 4 and Hamels game 5, skipping Holland. I think the difference between Hamels and Holland is greater than the difference between Gallardo on short rest and full rest.

And losing Cecil is terrible.

Everyone says "small sample size" and acknowledges that he's still likely injured to a degree, but then you all crap on the guy anyway. Tulowitzki is a potential hall of famer and a game changing player. His defense has been stellar and he hasn't looked lost at the plate any more than the next guy.

Did you guys see Bautista chasing that Dyson ball 3 feet shallow in the dirt? The guys are pressing some what, they're not "lost."

Tulo missed not one but two shots in Game one, and had one of the worst called strikes of the game called against him in game 2. He will come through.

David Price is also amazing. He made a mistake to Chirinos and laid an egg. But he also was punished by a bone headed play by Martin/Goins on a botched "back pick off" attempt that lead to Odor coming in. Seriously Martin...trying to pick off Odor on second? That's not a veteran decision in my mind.

I think Jays take game 3 then ALL the pressure is on TEX with Price/Stroman on the ready. I'll take the Jays chances.

None of us can see Bautista's twitter feed (probably) but I'm quite certain it's ridiculous. But it is hardly an attack to say he (and the rest of the team) have had some bad at bats in the first two games.

The boys will be more relaxed on the road. I'd like to see a good ol' fashioned #CanadianRakin tomorrow night, get the monkey off of our back, and then go Price & Stroman in games 4 & 5.

This isn't over. How many times did the Jays win 3 in a row this year?

Things I would like to see in Game 3: Tulowitzki batting seventh to take a little heat off, and some hitting and running to encourage use of the whole field.

I would have taken Schultz. I think he's a better pitcher right now than Tepera, but for whatever reason he's fallen into Gibbons' doghouse and he barely got a look in September. Tepera has marginally better splits against lefties, which could help against Texas' lefty-heavy lineup, but Schultz also has reverse splits (although I don't anticipate whoever is on the roster will pitch unless it's a blowout or extras).

Happy turkey day for those of us celebrating today!  Food hangover first, and then game three victory celebrations ahead!!

Happy Thanksgiving indeed. Although, since we are only 3 for dinner, we're roasting a capon instead of a turkey. And for me, a tall bottle of Ephemere beer for the game

Happy thanksgiving to all. Unfortunately the 5 pm pacific time start will interfere with my turkey dinner. hoping we can push the start time ( of dinner ) up by 30 minutes or so. :)

A couple days ago, I mused about R.A. Dickey perhaps being available from the bullpen.  Instead, per Gibbons today, it is Dickey who will start Game 4, while it is Stroman and Price who could be available from the bullpen if needed tonight.   Who needs Brett Cecil when you've got Stroman and Price?

(And don't ask me who will start Game 5, if the series goes to the limit, because I don't think even Gibbons has a clue about that question yet.  Obviously some of it will depend on what happens tonight and potentially in the next game too.)

Stroman for a throw day inning tonight would make sense. You could then have Price come on in relief of Dickey for 4 or 5 innings tomorrow and come back with Stroman for Game 5. First, they have to win tonight...