Yankees, meet tight and tough Jays

YOUR THURSDAY MATINEE BLUE JAYS

LF Shannon Stewart
SS David Eckstein
CF Alex Rios
3B Scott Rolen
DH Matt Stairs
1B Lyle Overbay
RF Kevin Mench
C Rod Barajas
2B Joe Inglett
P Dustin McGowan

At Yankee Stadium, of course, versus Chien-Ming Wang. Last game of a nine-game haul that currently sits a not half-bad 4-4. Mighta been better, you’d think, given they’d outscored opponents, 40-23, through the first eight games. All that means, though, is that, beyond the 12-0 romp in Oakland, the 10-4 win in Anaheim and the 9-3 here in Tuesday opener, they’ve been playing pretty tight and tough.

Already 2-0 Yanks with the Bombers coming to bat in the third. Jays just got zilch from a bases-loaded, one-out situation in their half. Yanks got two with their first licks ... Whup, hold on … Yesssss … Matt Stairs just tied it up with two-run shot in the fourth. The way he dropped his bat as he came out of the box, you knew he figured it for another lazy fly. Bounced dead off the top of the fence and into the seats.

Aaron Hill still not ready to go owing to nagging post-concussion symptoms (a heavy head, some dizziness). He’s missed six straight but should pop up on the weekend vs. Orioles.

Good news, though, is that Vernon Wells will DH tonight with Class-A Dunedin. For a guy originally supposed to be out six to eight weeks with a fractured wrist this is a pretty remarkable recovery. Just over three weeks since the surgery and, if things go well, Vernon doesn’t figure to be in Dunedin more than a week. Maybe it was because he'd heard Alex Rios had tied him for the club's RBI lead at 24. And that's with Vern missing, counting today, 25 games with his wrist.

Couple of weird McGowan numbers:

• Other than the 10-4 win in Anaheim, team hadn’t scored more than three runs in any of his 11 other starts. Just 24, total, in those 11, too.
• Opponents’ Nos. 3-4 hitters have been a collective .210 (13-for-62) going into today; opponents’ 8-9 hitters have hit him at .395 pace (19-for-48).
• Oh, and 11-4 and 2.90 at home the past two seasons 5-10 and 5.15 on the road.

Comments

[Jason Sinnarajah]

Very Tough loss. Why was BJ Ryan throwing a fastball on an 0-2 count to Giambi?

And why weren't the Jays at least throwing down to second when Alex Rodriguez stole second base in the 9th.

What's wrong with BJ Ryan?

[bc]

what's wrong with bj ryan?

you mean that he actually blew a save?

yeah, jeez, we should send him back to the minors. he's terrible.

what's his era again? oh yeah, amazing.

[KB]

re: BJ Ryan.

From what I recall, he threw three straight sliders. The first two were un-hittable, and the third hung just enough for Giambi to park it. It happens. Giambi's no slouch, remember.

BH has been a little less than amazing so far this season, though. He's flirted with disaster more than a few times. What's amazing is that he hasn't gotten burned more than he has. We should keep in mind that he's 13-for 15 just TWELVE MONTHS after Tommy John surgury. And that IS amazing.

And I thought the same thing about not throwing to second for A-Rod. I know that at the time it wasn't the run that mattered, but I would have thought that keeping him at first (or even throwing him out) would have been a better idea. I thought that as it happened, and I certainly still feel that way now.