Boston will give the ball to Clay Buchholz, Brad Penny and Jon Lester. The first pitched a no-hitter on September 1, 2007 against Baltimore in his second major-league appearance. The hope is that he'll be more like 2008 when he went 2-9 with a 6.75 ERA, losing his last seven decisions before getting sent to Triple-A Pawtucket on August 20. Yet, in 2009 at AAA level he is 7-2 with a 2.36 ERA and just 67 hits allowed in 99 innings pitched.

There's plenty of reasons to be cautious about Buchholz. Ricky Romero will face him, showing his 7-3 record. He has an ERA right at 3.00 and a K to BB ratio (2,3 to 1) of 69 to 30. Moreover, Ricky is 4-0 with a 2.28 ERA in his last six starts. The Jays lost 4-3 in 12 innings on 11 July (Ricky's last start, a no-decision) but before that game, he had won four consecutive decisions and Toronto had won Ricky's previous five starts.

In those five starts (five Jays wins by a combined 35-14 score, three wins came on the road) Ricky pitched a total of 37 1/3 innings allowing just 8 runs and 2 homers while walking 13 and striking out 34. In six of his last 8 starts, Ricky has pitched at least 7 innings. The perfect way not to place a big burden on the bullpen. At home, Ricky is 5-1 this year with a 2.31 ERA (39 IP, 28 hits including 5 homers and 10 earned runs allowed with just 16 walks and 35 strikeouts along with a .209 average allowed to his opponents).

Oddly enough, Ricky has issued more walks at home (16) than on the road (14). Toronto is 2-4 this year against Boston. The two wins came at home May 29th and 30th (6-3 and 5-3) but then May 31, Romero made his only start against Boston and we lost 8-2 as he allowed 5 runs in just 4 innings, including homers to Pedroia and Youkilis. By the way, it's unclear if Pedroia will play Friday. He went 20 for 52 (.385) with 9 RBI in his last 11 games but he missed the All-Star Game to be with his pregnant wife. Best wishes to him, of course.

Boston has won 3 straight to open a 3-game lead over New York. The Red Sox are 5-1 in their last six. On the road though, they are 23-20 while at Fenway they are 31-14! On the other hand, Toronto is 3-12 in the last 15 and more awfully, just 4-8 in the last 12 at home. We were leading by 3 1/2 games on May 18 at 27-14 before the Heidi Watney jinx hit us and we lost all 9 games of the road trip that started May 19. Since then, Toronto is 17-32.

The Jays must stop a 2-game losing streak and are 25-18 overall at home but up to June 11, they were a great 21-10 at home. On Saturday, Brian Tallet will face Brad Penny. Tallet (5-6, 4.95) has lost his last 2 decisions, he's 1-3 in his last 4 decisions, the Jays have lost his last 3 starts (always by 2 runs or less, ugh!). Brian's last 3 starts give us shivers just reading the numbers: 15 IP, 25 hits allowed including 2 homers and 16 runs yielded (14 earned) with 12 walks and 13 strikeouts. Overall, he has fanned 78 this year but has allowed 98 hits and issued 51 walks.

Tallet has pitched 29 1/3 innings over his last 6 starts with just one solid 6-inning performance of 3-hit shutout ball at home June 23 in a 7-5 win against the Reds. By taking that one out, he has just 23 1/3 IP in 5 starts with an 0-3 record, with 40 hits (including 3 homers) and 25 runs (23 earned) given up! Since June 9, he's had only two good (or better) starts: one at home against Cincinnati and the June 9 win at Texas (7 innings of 2-hit shutout ball in a 9-0 win). Four times in his last six starts though, Toronto has scored only four or fewer runs. Tallet is 2-2 in his career against Boston (18 games, 3 starts) with a 3.93 ERA but also 18 walks issued in 34 1/3 IP. 

Penny hasn't won since June 17 at home against Florida. He hasn't pitched 7 innings in any of his last 10 starts, he's 6-3 on the year with a 4.71 ERA but 62 Ks and 29 walks. Penny is 0-1 in his last 4 starts, Boston has lost each of his last 3 starts (twice by 1 run). He hasn't won on the road since May 25 in Minneapolis and got a no-decision on May 30 in Toronto when the Jays beat Boston 5-3 (Penny lasted 6 innings, allowing 10 hits - 1 long ball - and 3 runs - two earned - without a walk and with five strikeouts). Penny has 100 career wins and is 3-0 in six lifetime starts against Toronto (3.19 ERA).

On Sunday, the game will be broadcast around the world on ESPN America (hopefully they'll pick up the Toronto broadcast but I am not optimistic on that) as Doc Halladay (10-3, 2.85) will go up against Jon Lester (8-6, 3.87). Well, where to start? Doc has lost two straight starts, arrrgh. Both against the damn Rays. He leads the team in wins, innings pitched (123) and ERA. The team has lost each of his last four starts while scoring only 11 runs in those games, ouch! Lifetime against Boston, Doc is 12-12 with 4 CG, 240 1/3 IP, a 4.46 ERA, opponents hit .271.

Doc hasn't won at home since June 7 when he blanked KC 4-0 going the distance and scattering just 7 hits with 6 strikeouts and without issuing a walk. He threw 97 pitches, 73 for strikes. Then came June 12 and the injury in a home loss to Florida. Then came the first loss to Tampa Bay at home on June 29 by a 4-1 score. After getting a no-decision in our horrible 6-5 loss in 12 innings at Yankee Stadium on July 4, he lost 3-2 at Tropicana Field July 9.

Compared to 2008, if Doc matches entirely his first half he would get in 2009 the same number of wins (20) in 34 starts and he would pitch the same number of innings (246) with two shutouts and likely more strikeouts and fewer walks than last season. A healthy dose of run support for him and a big fan showing on Sunday to clear any doubt about any trade (both in Doc's mind, just in any case, and in the mind of JP "I can trade away a star any time or scare away any potential big acquisition" Ricciardi, well I think it would be a perfect environment for a Sunday.

About Lester: he's won his last three decisions, Boston has won his last four starts by a combined 19-8 score. Over his last four starts Lester has worked 27 2/3 innings yielding just four earned runs and striking out 31! Ugh! He's won his last 3 decisions on the road, including the May 31 game in Toronto when he beat Ricky Romero and Boston won 8-2. On that day, Lester went 6 innings permitting just 3 hits and a run with 3 walks and 12 Ks. Ouch!

Yet, nine of the 13 dingers allowed this year by Lester have come in Boston's road games. Throughout his career, he's given up roughly one hit per inning. In all of 2008, he'd allowed 14 long balls (33 starts, 210 1/3 IP). However, he's fanned 131 this year in 114 innings! Last year, he struck out 152 all season! Lifetime against Toronto, he is 3-2 with a 3.25 ERA and 39 strikeouts compared to 35 hits allowed (just 2 homers) in 44 1/3 innings pitched with a .220 opponents' batting average. It's undoubtedly a crucial series that the Jays must win. Enough said, I believe.

Let me give all us some hope: last season, the Red Sox batted only .229 with 6 HR and 23 RBI in going 3-5 during the ten days following the all-star break. Their average and .652 OPS during that span was 2nd lowest in the AL (only Oakland was worse). Moreover, since 2004, Boston has put up a combined record of 24-25 in the first ten days following the all-star break. Just once in the last five seasons have they put up a record above .500 during those post-break periods (6-4 in 2006).

For example, Youkilis with Boston has a .233 average in the 10 days after the All-Star break. JD Drew has a .185 average, Ellsbury has a .125 average. I'll close this post with something that I didn't know but now that I have read it, I wanted to share this curious record with all of you. Alan Embree on July 7, 2009 won a game for the Rockies without throwing a pitch. Since 2000, that had only happened to one other pitcher. Yes, BJ Ryan....it happened in Baltimore on May 1, 2003. After all, over here May 1 is Labour Day so why not getting a win without even working???

Yes, a national baseball writer (Tim Brown) for Yahoo Sports has picked Ricky has first-half Rookie of the Year.

AL Rookie: Ricky Romero, Blue Jays. And, just like that, I can be talked out of Elvis Andrus. Other than that funky, two-start May, Romero has been such a stud we’re already hearing Johan Santana references. As in, “Hey, Ricky, you know you throw with the same arm as Johan Santana?”

Let's hope he's going to grab the big award for the entire season, he would certainly deserve it!

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=A2KIRz6RF19KBFoAfgY5nYcB?slug=ti-firsthalfawards071609&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Thursday night features two big NL East games, by the way. Can't wait for the Boston series, however.

PS: Santana has lost his last 4 decisions to fall to 9-7 on the year.....it's better to avoid too much noise around Ricky!

I didn't post for a few days (every losing streak has this effect on me, especially when at the time work appears like one big swamp with no problem getting solved!) but I felt the desire today to crunch some numbers trying to back up that ray of postseason hope that I'm still keeping intact, for now. Provided Mr. Halladay doesn't get traded. However, on that front I have always voiced my skepticism about the economic possibilities, during the current recession, of the Jays' ownership.

I think it's necessary to start by stating the obvious: Toronto is 11-15 in one-run games (after losing the last 3 and six of its last 7 such games).

Since the fall started on May 19, the Jays are 2-12 in one-run games (including 1-9 in 1-run games on the road since then)! Bad luck? Maybe! But no clutch hitting? Up to May 18, Toronto was a beautiful 9-3 in 1-run contests, however. The tricky part is that on the road, the Jays went just 2-2 in 1-run games played on the road up to May 18.

Therefore, the total mark is 3-11 in road games decided by a run this year. Can they contend with such a stain on their stats? On the plus side, overall, if we strip out the two awful road trips (a combined 2-17 record), the club has gone 42-29 for a .592 winning percentage. The damn Yankees are at .580!

Same story when looking at games decided by 2 or fewer runs: 2-8 in July (thanks to the last road trip), 2-10 in the last 12 overall, 6-19 in the last 25 such games (since May 19, when the first road losing streak began!). Yet, up to May 18 the Jays had gone overall 12-6 in such games and still, in that span they went just 4-3 on the road in games decided by 2 or fewer runs.

Certainly, the two largest road disasters of the year magnified either the bad luck in close games and/or the lack of clutch hitting in those same contests. Does the second of these two considerations mean that, if they have the resources to acquire someone, the Jays should get some hitter and not more pitching? I think so.

Playing on the road in a lot of games decided by very little probably played a role but we can't give it too much of a role in so many crucial losses, can we? Another aspect of the Jays' plentiful bad luck over the last two months? Extra innings! The club is a somber 4-8 in extra-inning games in 2009, having lost the last 5 such contests!

I want to remind you, folks, that before we think that all of Toronto's problems happen on the road, well let's not forget that the Jays are also a bad 4-8 in their last 12 home games. In that span, they scored 48 runs (not bad) but allowed 62 runs, over 5 a game. It makes going to the postseason even more difficult, eh?

That bring me to the following point: if the first road losing streak in May showed us that the team started getting in trouble away from home, whether for bad luck or lack of clutch hitting, I believe that since the start of June and since the start of inter-league play, we got to realize that the issues are showing up in home games too. Am I wrong?

I'll close this post with a few more bad news: on the road, Toronto is 4-33 this year when it’s scored 3 or fewer runs! Out of those 4 wins, only one came on the road (on July 10, a 2-0 shutout win in Baltimore behind Brett Cecil). Not winning a single road game all year when scoring doesn't click is a horrible feature if you want to play in October.

The Jays have lost 6 of the last 7 played on the road against winning teams and their record against such opponents away from home now stands at 12-13 this season. At home, well it doesn't go much better at 15-14 or in other words, our birds are an average 27-27 so far this year against opponents over .500. 

Toronto is 12-2 this year on the road against clubs with a winning record when scoring four runs or more (the Jays lost both the last 2 road games in which they scored so much during the last road trip, go figure!) but when the club scores 3 or fewer runs against a winning team, the record becomes 3-12!

I can't wait for the second half and I do hope at least one of the games against Boston will be broadcast over here, more likely Saturday or Sunday. If Doc pitches Sunday against Lester, I would choose to show that game but that's my own opinion. Let me leave you folks with one reminder: our team is 17-19 this year overall against clubs with a record under .500. That's totally unacceptable although all the pitching injuries must be counted too.

Still, we faced seven clubs that are under .500 at the break (Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Kansas City, Oakland and Washington) but we only have a winning record against 3 of them (we are 2-1 against the Reds, 3-2 against the Indians and 4-2 against Oakland).

Against those teams on the road this year, the Jays are 7-15 and have a winning record only against Oakland (having won 2 out of 3 in early May). We can't be 1-5 when playing the Orioles in Baltimore. We also lost 3 of 4 in Kansas City (April 27 to 30) during a good period and we lost 2 of 3 in DC with both losses in extra innings.

On May 18, the Blue Jays were 3 1/2 games ahead of Boston after winning 27 of their first 41 games. Since going 27-14, we lost 9 straight on the road during the rest of May. On the other hand, the Rays were 20-20 on May 18 after starting 8-14 in their first 22 games.

Since then, when the Jays had their biggest lead in the division this year, Toronto has 23 losses and a 14-23 mark in its past 37 games. All in all, Toronto is now 41-37. Over the same period instead Tampa Bay has won its last six games, going 14-4 in the last 18 games and winning 23 of its last 38 games to claim 3rd place in the AL East, two games ahead of the Blue Jays!

Take Carl Crawford for example: aside from his (sadly) impressive career numbers against Toronto, he has an 8-game hitting streak and has batted .469 (15 for 32) during that span. The Rays also have 38 homers in June, so far matching a team record set in August 2005 and equaled in August 2008.

Odd fact about Matt Garza: he's 3-3 lifetime against Toronto with a 1.99 ERA and all 3 of those losses were shutout victories by Toronto. Infact, Garza is 3-0 in his career against the Jays when his team scored at least a run for him. Sounds scary! In his last start on Wednesday, Garza beat the Phillies allowing 1 run in 8 innings. The Rays won 7-1.

Before those two wins, Garza had lost three straight decisions though and for the year, he's 5-5 with a 3.61 ERA. In short, the Toronto offence must click again after scoring just five runs in the last three games, all losses. Moreover, Toronto is 1-4 in the last five games and over that period, the team posted an awful .203 batting average!

Scott Richmond will start Wednesday for the Jays. He's 6-4 this year with a 3.68 ERA and has won his last 2 starts including the latest, at home against the Reds on Wednesday (Toronto won 8-2 as Richmond allowed 2 runs in 7 innings). Yet, Richmond lost the only start of his career against Tampa Bay on July 30, 2008 in Toronto.

Scott Rolen has a career-best 17-game hitting streak, has hit .429 during that span and is second in the AL with a .332 average this year. Toronto is 3-4 on its 9-game homestand (with a total of 34 runs allowed) and is a bad 3-7 in its last 10 home games. During this homestand, Toronto has allowed four or more runs in 3 straight games on two different occasions.

Since the slide started May 19, Toronto went 8-11 at home and 6-12 on the road. An example of Toronto's latest offensive issues is Alex Rios who has 2 hits in his last 21 at bats and got the night off on Monday. Since going 3 for 5 on June 21, Lyle Overbay has two hits in 16 at bats.

The Jays better hope that Rolen can carry them along with Adam Lind (hitting .348 in June with 7 homers and 14 RBI) and Aaron Hill, who leads the club with 56 RBI and with 19 dingers, the most ever for a Blue Jays' 2B in a season (Roberto Alomar had 17 in 1993). Still, Toronto has yielded 26 runs in its last four losses. Way too many.

Each of our first 8 batters had at least a hit Tuesday night. For example, in our June 17 win (7-1 in Philly) each of our first 6 batters in the lineup had at least one hit. The day before (in an 8-3, 10-inning win in Philly) each of our starters from the 2 to the 8 spot had at least a hit. Spreading out the offensive production can only make us happy although we wouldn't mind getting a big game from Wells or a game like June 16 from Millar (2 for 3, an RBI and a walk).

Sounds crazy but the Jays hadn't scored more than 5 runs and won at home since doing so June 5 (a 9-3 home win against KC) and since then, they had played 5 home games losing 4 of them while being outscored 30-17.

Toronto has improved to 30-4 when leading after six innings this year. Yet, the 7th inning is the frame in which the Jays have allowed the most runs (47) after the 5th inning this year. A bit worrisome, maybe? However, a 32-6 mark overall when scoring five runs or more should be a very encouraging sign for all of us.

Brian Tallet is now 5-4 but unfortunately he has two losses in quality starts so yes we have 3 pitchers who are 2nd on the team in wins with 5 but things could easily look much better than they do. Infact, the team is 6-8 in Brian Tallet's 14 starts this year.

Brian has 8 quality starts out of 14 so far. Turning to the bullpen, for example 3 of the 7 runners that were on base this year when Tallet exited the game eventually scored. Not good. Overall, well over 30% of the runners on base when one of our pitchers leaves the game have eventually scored thus far this year.

Interestingly, in 22 cases so far this year our starter had more than 4 days of rest with Scott Richmond leading the club since that's happened to him 4 times already this year. He's third on the club with 71 1/3 innings pitched.

Richmond is also second for run support received at 5.7, one full run behind Doc. In IP per game started, behind Doc (7.4), there's Ricky Romero at 6.4. Same story in pitches thrown per start: 103 on average for Doc, a hefty 101 for Ricky Romero.

While Doc has thrown 100 or more pitches in 10 of his 14 starts this year, Romero has thrown over 80 in all of 9 starts including 4 cases in which he went above 100 pitches. Richmond and Tallet are 2nd on the team as each has thrown over 100 pitches 5 times this year. Including Tuesday, Tallet has thrown more than 80 pitches in 11 of his starts this year. Very encouraging, no doubt.

Including Casey Janssen, five Toronto pitchers have a maximum pitch count this year at 108 or more. The others are Doc (133), Romero and Tallet (118), Richmond (109). As far as the bullpen, the bunch is 10-11 this year but 5-10 if we take Jason Frasor out of the equation so yes the GM must go shopping for at least one reliever this year.

More scary still, our pen has only picked up 12 saves in 23 chances! Aside from Downs (8 saves in 9 chances), the tally is only 4 saves in 14 chances! Yikes! Here's the difference between leading the division like on May 18 and not!

Our pen has 19 holds but just a bit over 30% of inherited runners have scored so far. Too much! Overall, a Toronto relief pitcher has entered a game in 200 different situations this year: in 90 cases, he had a lead, in 35 cases it was a tie, 74 times we were trailing. Luckily, only in 55 occasions (27,5%) there were runners on base.

It's interesting to note that in 40 cases a Toronto reliever pitched on consecutive days: it happened 10 times to Carlson (who's 1-3 with a 5.18 ERA and 2 blown saves in 2 chances), 7 times to Downs, 5 times to Frasor, League and BJ Ryan, 4 times to Camp. To me, this is a big problem. Another arm or two for the bullpen could be helpful.

Just slightly over 10% of Toronto's hits allowed were infield singles. A little of 40% of dingers allowed were hit by lefties. In the clutch, things don't sound too good: just over 55% of the times our opponent had a man on 3rd and less than 2 outs that baserunner eventually scored.

As far as baserunning, we aren't taking due advantage too often: 44 steals realized in 53 tries (3 for 3 on Tuesday night) but also 42 steals allowed in 63 attempts. On the other hand, we have 82 homers hit as a club but just 23 against left-handed pitchers. Lately, our PH results have improved a bit, we are now 6 for 23 overall this year.

I have looked at GIDP situations (overall the team hits into a DP in about 11,5% of all the cases in which it could happen) and have found out that 4 starters (Hill, Lind, Rios, Wells) have a GIDP ratio higher than the team average and that doesn't leave me too confident, also because of the clutch numbers I'm about to point at.

It isn't enough to score about 51% of the time when Toronto has a man on 3rd and less than 2 outs. It isn't good enough at all to score only about 45% of the time when there's a Jay on 2nd and nobody out. It must improve fast!

In other news, Lind's 16% in swinging at the first pitch is 10 points below Toronto's club average. Scutaro has seen the most 3-0 counts (21) on the club and the Jays have only swung at a 3-0 offer less than 6% of the time! Good patience at the plate is everything if you want to win (ehm Boston docet).

Lyle Overbay needs 5 long balls to reach 100 homers in his career (he also has 95 GIDP in his ML career). Rod Barajas reached 80 for his career with his solo home run Tuesday night. Millar is 7 RBI shy of 700 for his career. Only Rolen (112) and Rios (106) have more than 100 career steals on Toronto's roster as Wells has 79.

Vernon was 1 for 1 in steals Tuesday night and that one was his 100th career steal attempt (he's 79 for 100). As far as Wednesday, it's exactly 1 year since Bronson Arroyo (the Reds' starter on Wednesday) had the worst start of his career, yes it happened in Toronto. We won that game 14-1 and took that series 2-1 in June 2008.

Arroyo lasted 1-plus inning on 24 June 2008 giving up 11 hits (including 3 homers, one apiece by Rios and Rolen) and 10 runs, the most he has ever allowed. Overall, Arroyo is 2-2 in 5 career starts against the Blue Jays (the first four came when he played for Boston). However, Arroyo kept the White Sox in check during his last start.

On Friday June 19 of this year, Arroyo went 6 2/3 innings scattering two hits and yielding two runs while fanning seven in a 4-3 home win for the Reds against the White Sox. Hopefully, Toronto will keep on swinging well after scoring a total of 39 runs in its last five wins (four of them came on the road too).

In each of those wins, the Jays have scored at least 7 runs. It's the first time such a streak happens this year. We will hopefully be led again by Scott Rolen (a .360 career hitter at 9 for 25 with 2 HR lifetime against Arroyo). He hit a homer on Tuesday night, his 5th this year. Only 2 of them have come in the last 10 games though.

Scott Rolen and Adam Lind got 2 hits apiece Tuesday and over the last 4 games, they have posted a .390 batting average (23 for 59) with 4 homers and 11 RBI. Hopefully Scott Richmond, facing the Reds for the first time ever, will build upon his best start ever. Infact his last time out, Toronto won 7-1 in Philly June 17 as he allowed just a run in 8 innings striking a career-high 11.

Sadly, Scott came out of pen last Saturday in Washington and yielded the walk-off, two-run homer to Washington as Toronto lost 5-3 for its second straight extra-inning loss (the Jays are just 4-5 in extra-inning games and only 10-10 this year in one-run games).

The Reds are 3-7 in their last 10 games, 8-14 in their last 22 and just 17-18 overall on the road. Willy Taveras has just 1 hits in his last 52 at bats. I must said that Joey Votto's recent problem has really touched me. It could happen to anyone to feel that way for the reason he cited before Tuesday night's game. Let's hope the Jays keep going.........

Ok let's see: last 2 weekends, 1 win and 5 losses against 2 sub-.500 teams (although Florida since then has helped us against the damn yankees proving that it's likely worth more than a .500 record or so).

The culprit: the offence! Just 13 runs scored in 32 innings or 3,66 every 9 innings. Mediocre and bad in the clutch!

Pitching against the Nationals: pretty decent overall (except for the consecutive extra-inning losses) as the Jays allowed a total of just 11 runs over 32 innings for a team ERA of 3.09, very respectable.

With a bit more of timely offence, we would have swept Washington as we were supposed to do and would have completed a magnificent 6-0 road trip, getting within 3 of Boston and passing the damn NYY but it's not done yet!

Only 4-6 in the last 10 games, our Jays. Too many lapses at a crucial juncture, after the sweep in Philly. In each of our last 4 wins, we scored 7 or more runs but at crucial times, we couldn't hit......recall the 1-0 loss at Texas and two extra-inning losses in Washington and here's the worst news: we need to win close games but we aren't doing it!

Since June 4 (a 6-5 home loss to the Angels), Toronto is only 1-5 in games decided by two or fewer runs with the only win coming June 18 in Philly by an 8-7 margin. Dreadful! We are just 10-10 in 1-run games and 4-5 in extra-inning games! If you want to go beyond September, you need to win close games, as simple as that!

In June, the Jays are 2-5 in games decided by 2 or fewer runs! In May, they went 6-7 in those games! Yet in April, they were a beautiful 7-3 in such games. Going from being 7-3 to being 15-15 in such games is an awful signal!

On Sunday, Toronto scored 8 of its 9 runs with 2 outs, at last and picked up 4 runs in the first, which is a must against sub-par teams, getting it going early!

In the last 3 games started by Romero that the club won (by a 26-10 score overall!), Ricky went 7 innings each time. I guess when the offence starts clicking early, he gets into a groove! Ricky is 1-1 in his last 3 starts but has pitched 20 1/3 innings recording 21 strikeouts. So far, Ricky has gone 7 ore more innings in 5 of his 9 starts of 2009.

At home, Ricky Romero is 3-1 this year. Sunday he rightfully won on the road, he had been 0-2 in his previous 4 road starts but in his first 3 road starts of 2009, the Jays had scored only a total of 4 runs in those games!

Now, there's a 9-game homestand against Reds, Phillies and Rays. Not to be taken lightly but the team has to take it as another crucial test. The Reds aren't too bad on the road.

Vernon Wells had a 10-for-30 road trip (.333) and has 10 hits in his last 26 at bats (.385) including Saturday's home run, his first in 160 at bats since May 6.

Despite those two losses in Washington and the consequent spoiling of the one-year anniversary (it was Saturday June 20) of Cito Gaston's return as Jays' manager, he is 89-70 since returning. Entering the series in Washington, he had gone 88-68 since returning, the second-best record in the American League over the last 146 games!

In the last four games played, Toronto has used a reliever 20 different times! The day off will hopefully put things in order for the series against the Reds. Another worrisome sign is that the Jays on this last road trip had gone 0 for 16 with the bases loaded before Alex Rios got a 2-out, 2-run single during Sunday's 4-run first inning.

I'm a bit uneasy about the fact that Brian Tallet will start Tuesday on a 3-day rest. Yes, he threw 76 pitches in five innings on Friday night but still, let's hope for the best thanks to this off day. Toronto is 3-1 this year after an off day, including 3 wins in the last 3 occasions with wins against the damn NYY (5-1 at home May 12 but then we lost 8-2 and 3-2), against Boston (6-3 at SkyDome on May 29) and June 16 at Philly (an 8-3 win in 10 innings).

I'm delighted (and I had a feeling it would happen) to point out that Scott Rolen is 22 for 48 (.458) with a homer and 6 RBI during his current 11-game hitting streak. Three times in his career he's had 14-game hitting streaks.

Two more Jays are hitting well of late despite the two losses in Washington and those three straight losses at SkyDome to Florida. They are Alex Rios (14 for 38 at .368 with 2 HR and 9 RBI in the last 9 games) and Adam Lind (who was 0 for 2 with 3 walks Sunday but is 24 for 69 at .348 with 6 HR and 10 RBI in the last 17 games).

On Sunday Ricky Romero threw a career-high 118 pitches but he is 2-1 with a 2.96 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings over his last four starts and in that span, his only loss was that 1-0 heartbreaker at Texas on June 11.

Doc Halladay is eligible to come off the DL on Sunday June 28. Brad Mills may pitch Saturday June 27 at home against the Phillies. First, we must face the Reds, 2-3 over their last 5 games, all played at home.

In losing their last two to the White Sox, the Reds allowed a total of 14 runs. Both their last two wins came by a 4-3 score at home, first against Atlanta and then against the White Sox. The Reds are 34-34, fourth in the NL Central.

Cincinnati is 17-17 on the road and has the same record at home. It's just 4 games behind the Cardinals, who lead the NL Central and just 3 games behind the Giants, who currently lead the wild-card race.

The Reds are just 3-7 in their last 10 games. They played just 9 games against the AL so far this year, going 3-6 and have lost 5 of their last 6 inter-league games. In June, Cincinnati is 8-11 so far.

The Reds' starters for the series will be: Micah Owings (4-7, 4.50) on Tuesday, Bronson Arroyo (8-5, 5.16 ERA, he leads his team in wins and is 3rd with 48Ks) on Wednesday and Johnny Cueto (6-4, 2.55) on Thursday. On the road, Cueto is 5-2 with a 1.53 ERA this year!

Reds' first baseman Joey Votto (on the DL since May 30) is from Toronto and lives there. Jay Bruce leads the Reds with 17 home runs. Brandon Phillips is hitting a team-high .279 with 47 RBI, most on his club, and is second behind Bruce with 11 long balls. Cueto leads his team in ERA (he's second with 66 Ks) and in the bullpen, the Reds have Francisco Cordero who has already recorded 17 saves in 18 chances.

Behind Doc, Toronto doesn't have a pitcher with more than 5 wins. However, pitching is always the key and the Reds have only 2 wins this year when they score 3 or fewer runs. Willy Taveras leads Cincinnati with 14 steals but the Jays do have a chance to keep him off base since Taveras has 1 hit in his last 48 AB and only 8 hits in his last 97 at bats.

Micah Owings, Tuesday's starter for Cincinnati, has never faced the Jays. Toronto is 21-13 at home but only 1-4 in the last 5 games played at the Dome and with 30 runs given up in those four losses! In none of those last 5 home games, did the Jays score more than five runs!

I'll post more on this coming week of baseball as I surf and dig out more intriguing numbers.

Please folks let me remind you of this favour that I wish to ask you for: there's a poll at www.espnamerica.com to let the viewers choose which game they should broadcast here in Europe and around the world Saturday June 27 with the choice being between the Philly at Toronto game or the Twins at Cardinals game (both at 1 pm EDT). Would you please all go to the website and vote for them to show the Jays so that I'll pass on a 3-day long weekend (Saturday to Monday) at the beach to stay in Rome and watch the Jays on satellite? Thank you for your time and help..............

Great win, crazy game, I was extremely emotional! A whole lot more than you can imagine by reading my postings, trust me! Likely even more if compared to what an average Italian fan does at a football game!

I'll dig into the good news that resulted from Thursday's great sweep, then stick my nose into Friday and the Washington series which becomes pivotal as a proof of this team's ability to keep its focus and build something steady on a very big series sweep that was sweetened by two delicious losses by Boston at home (thank you, rain!) and by the damn yankees as they were blanked by Washington at home, wow! The Nationals can surprise, yes.

First of all, we got within 1 game of the damn NYY who lost the series to Washington in the Bronx (are you kidding me?) and within 4 games of the Red Sox but both have played 2 fewer games than the Jays. We do need to make a statement against Washington to show that our big sweep is carrying over its good effects and to show that yes, Washington can surprise and win a series in the Bronx but we can't absolutely let our guard down right now.

In our sweep of Philly at their place, we piled up 41 hits and we scored 23 runs and at least 7 in each game! We got back to 16-18 on the road with a big chance to get back above .500 away from SkyDome, we do need to take full advantage of it!

The only other time this year we scored 7 or more runs in 3 straight games was May 4 to 6 but in that case we first lost 9-7 to Cleveland, then won 10-6 against the Indians (both were home games) before winning 13-1 in LA against the Angels. Let's hope this delightful streak continues, folks!

On the other hand, we have allowed 6 or more runs in four of our last six games. We need to stop messing up!

Thursday, we improved to 10-9 in 1-run games but we had lost our six such games! Glad to see this reversal in such a huge game and let's hope this can be the start of a very positive trend!

Thursday's win was our first by a run since May 18 when we beat the White Sox 3-2 at home! Since then, we had lost 2-1 in Boston May 19, 1-0 in Atlanta May 22, 4-3 in Atlanta May 23, 6-5 at home to the Angels June 4, 1-0 at Texas June 11 and 6-5 at home to Florida June 13. Holy cow, that can't continue if we want to stay in this tough race!!!

Can you believe it? In the 5 road games before Thursday's win, Toronto had allowed each time 3 or fewer runs and in total, had given up just 7 runs! Only one other streak this year was comparable: giving up 3 or fewer runs in 3 straight games April 13 to 15, always in Minneapolis (a 3-2 loss followed by a 12-2 win and a 9-2 win).

On Thursday, we got homers from Lind but also from Chavez and Barajas......Rod had 2 homers in the series and in 2008 he had a pair of long balls including a grand slam in a Jays' win!

Jason Frasor got the win to improve to 5-0, wow. Jeremy Accardo got his first 2009 save after being called up. Let's not forget that he had 30 saves for Toronto in 2007. Best wishes to him.

Brad Mills lasted just 3 2/3 innings though so we had to use 7 relievers, not pleasant at all. Jason Frasor has given 5 ER all year and 4 came in one outing May 24 in Atlanta (a 10-2 loss).

Taking that game out, in his last 9 outings Frasor has 9 1/3 IP with only 4 hits and no runs allowed! Opponents are hitting .198 against him in 2009. Excellent!

He has 3 holds and 1 save in 2 tries because he blew the save Thursday but he owns an ERA of just 1.88 with 19 Ks and just 3 walks this year! On the other side, with Lidge injured the Phillies put Ryan Madson out in this series and he had a loss Thursday and a blown save Tuesday!

Jason Frasor was 2-7 overall in 2007 (51 appearances, 57 IP) and 2008 (49 appearances, 47 1/3 IP) combined with 3 saves in 7 chances and a total of 8 holds. This year, he has 24 IP in 26 appearances already!

Rod Barajas now has 5 career homers against the Phillies. In the last 2 seasons, he has hit 4 homers in 6 games played in Philly!

Oddly, Jimmy Rollins got from Toronto his first walk since May 27, a span of 87 at bats. However, the real problem was Jayson Werth who has 6 homers in his last 6 games against Toronto.

As a whole, before the last 2 productive efforts by Vernon Wells and Scott Rolen in the 8th inning Thursday the jays had been 7 for 36 with RISP in the Philly series. So they finished 9 for 38 at .237, not enough by any stretch!

Rolen's .327 average leads the club. He is 49 for 144 (.340) lifetime against Philly with 3 homers and 26 RBI.

Not only did Raul Chavez homer Thursday, he also threw out Rollins as he tried to steal third!

All in all, we already used 11 starters this year! Moreover, the Nationals were 6-27 in their last 33 before winning 2 of 3 in the Bronx so as always, attention is required.

The Nats have won just 3 series all year, the series won in New York was the first they won since May 7-9 at Arizona.

Washington will send to the mound a rookie on Friday night, Jordan Zimmermann. For the year he's 2-3 with a 5.37 ERA but he hasn't won since April 26. He won both of his first 2 starts this year and then went 0-3 with a 6.11 ERA since then. In his last start, he gave up only 1 run in 5 innings as the Nats lost 8-3 on Saturday at Tampa Bay.

Toronto had at least 12 hits in each of the 3 wins in Philly. For the series, the Jays went 41 for 123 (.333). In the four losses suffered before Tuesday June 16 (one at Texas and 3 at home to Florida), the team had batted only .205!

Vernon Wells had a good series in Philly (6 for 16 with a double and 2 RBI, a walk and a steal) after entering without a hit in his previous 16 AB! Yet, still no homer from him since May 6, a stretch of 153 AB, his longest ever drought!

Adam Lind entered the Philly series hitless in 12 straight at bats (all against Florida at home) then went 6 for 13 in the Philly sweep with 2 homers, 3 RBI, 4 runs scored and 3 walks! Magnifico! Still, 6 for his last 25 (.240), oops!

On Friday, Brian Tallet will get the start for us. He's 4-4 with a 4.87 ERA this year. Last time out, Sunday May 14 the Jays lost 11-3 at home to Florida and Brian gave up 10 hits (including a homer) and 8 runs in just 3 1/3 IP.

Brian has served up 3 homers in his last 4 starts after not allowing any in his previous 3 starts (all were 6-inning efforts May 14-25 but the Jays lost all three, 3-2 at home to NYY, 2-1 at Boston and 4-1 at Baltimore).

Before Sunday's loss to Florida, Tallet had gone 2-0 in his previous 3 starts pitching a total of 20 innings. He has just 1 career appearances against the Nationals (16 June 2007) as he got one out but gave up two hits and a run.

Since the move from Montreal to Washington (in 2005), Toronto is 8-4 against the Nationals yet caution is advised as the Jays lost 2 of 3 in their only trip to Washington (June 24-26, 2005). The Nats are 10-22 at home this year.

I will write more as the day at the office goes on and as I do more web surfing to dig more interesting news.

Let's hope for the best for this crucial series. Best wishes to everybody.

I feel sorry for hugo, having the tickets but not being able to see a Doc start...........

Left-hander Brad Mills is going to make his MLB debut for our Jays. He went 13-5 with 1.96 ERA last year between Single-A and Double-A.

Yet, he was 1-8 with a 4.48 ERA in 13 starts so far this year at Las Vegas of the Pacific Coast League.

Personally, if we can get a six-inning decent start and remain as a team in the game, I would be fairly satisfied.

Right now, our healthy starters are: Scott Richmond, Brian Tallet, Ricky Romero, Casey Janssen.

In the bullpen, the healthy guys are: Brandon League (doing fine, besides the loss to Florida), Jesse Carlson, BJ Ryan, Jason Frasor, Shawn Camp and Dirk Hayhurst.

Doc's status for his next start in Washington is uncertain but heck, let's hope we can win such a game even if he doesn't make that start!

Michael Barrett is in rehab. Dustin McGowan in the best scenario could be back in late July. Shawn Marcum might be able to return tin August.

Despite being a big Cito fan, Scott Downs' injury had to be avoided at all costs: he must stand still, if he has to bat!

Let's see what the stats are telling us about our team after our last 2 very good road victories.........

This month, the Jays on two occasions (the 2nd was on the last 2 nights, of course) have allowed 3 or fewer runs in at least 2 straight games (the 1st occurrence was June 7, 8 and 9 we won 4-0 behind Doc at home against KC and then we won 6-3 and 9-0 back-to-back at Texas!). Very good news! 

In May, the club allowed 3 or fewer runs in 2 or more consecutive games on 3 different occasions (including consecutive home wins against Boston 5-3 and 6-3 on May 29 and 30).

In April as well, the club allowed 3 or fewer runs in 2 or more consecutive games on 3 different occasions.

Everything starts with pitching! In All-Star Game news, both Aaron Hill and Marco Scutaro are doing great but both are just 4th in voting for their respective positions. Aaron leads the team with 15 homers and 47 RBI. Marco is hitting is .291 with 5 homers and 29 RBI.

Marco Scutaro had a bumpy 0-for-6 game Wednesday night but is 1st among all AL leadoff hitters as he's reached base 120 times and has scored 50 runs so far this year. In all his 2007 season in Oakland, he had 49 runs scored!

In all of 2008, Marco Scutaro hit 23 doubles. This year, he has 19 already! Plus, he's walked 43 times so far this year compared with 57 in all of last season!

In 2007 and 2008, Scutaro had more strikeouts than walks. While he's fanned 33 times already this year (compared with 65 in all of last year), thus far he has more walks than strikeouts in 2009. Excellent news for our club!

Vernon Wells' watch (he's born in 1978 like me, come on man!): he's 3 for 10 in the last 2 games but still no long ball from him in 147 at bats, ouch! In steals, he's 11 for 11 this year after totaling just 14 in the previous 2 seasons!

In all of 2007, Vernon had 49 walks in 149 games. In all of 2008, he drew just 29 walks in 108 games but so far in 2009, he's walked 24 games in 67 games. That's very useful for the club but he has just 7 hits in his last 55 at bats!

On Philly's side, big difference in its home production compared to last year. Through 31 games, the 2008 Phillies went 19-12 at home batting .272 as a team. In 2009, they are 13-18 batting just .249 as a team. Good for us!

On the pitching side, through 31 games, the 2008 Phillies' rotation had a 3.82 home ERA with 33 homers allowed but the 2009 Philly rotation has a 5.35 home ERA with 53 long balls served up! Let's hope it continues!

For Philly, Joe Blanton starts Thursday's day game (sigh, I can only follow it on the web!). Blanton is 4-3 this year with a 5.17 ERA. There's a big difference between his home figures (1-2 with a 5.94 ERA this year) and his last 4 starts (2-0 with a 2.00 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 27 innings!).

Even on Friday, when Philly lost 5-2 to Boston in 13 innings, Blanton gave up just 2 runs in 7 innings. The bad news is that Blanton is 3-0 with a 1.57 ERA in his last three starts against our Jays! Ouch! He used to pitch in Oakland.

Blanton up to this point this year has fanned 65 and walked only 23.

May I spend a few nice words on Ricky Romero? In Tuesday's good win, he fanned 9 (a career best) including both Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanex three times apiece! Ricky is 1-1 with a 3.10 ERA in his last 3 starts with 20 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings (mighty good!). With steady run support, I like to think we can expect good things from Ricky.

Scott Rolen leads the club with a .325 average! In his career, he is hitting .336 (47-for-140) with 3 homers and 25 RBI! He is on a beautiful 7-game hitting streak during which he is hitting .517 (15 for 29). He has had at least 2 hits in each of the last 3 games going 7 for 13 with a homer, 3 RBI, two walks and a steal over that stretch! Excellent!

Rolen's homer on Wednesday was his first since May 5 when the Jays won 10-6 at home against Cleveland.

I should point out that Adam Lind is a strange stretch: over the last 9 games, he's 9 for 37 but 3 for 9 in the last two games. His homer on Tuesday broke an 0 for 13 skid. Yet, he has 4 homers in his last 8 games.

Lind had gone 0 for 12 in the Florida home series. Yet, he had gone 6 for 16 in the 4 games played before the Florida series. He had 6 RBI in our 2 wins at Texas (June 8 and 9) but since, he has just 1 RBI thanks to his long ball on Tuesday night.

The Jays have scored 7 or more runs in each of the last 2 games. That also happened in our 2 wins at Texas on June 8 and 9.

Yet, before then that has happened just twice: May 5 and 6 (wins against Cleveland at home, 10-6, and at the LA Angels 13-1 when we got Vernon's last long ball), April 15 and 16 (consecutive wins, 12-2 and 9-2, in Minneapolis).

Oddly enough, we had scored 7 runs only once this year before Wednesday's win and we had lost (at home, go figure, on May 4 to Cleveland by a 9-7 score!). The Jays are 17-2 this year when scoring 7 or more runs.

I can't believe we lost two such games but yes, once 9-7 and once 12-10 in Baltimore when Doc left with an 8-3 lead and.....well, damn!

In 30 games this year, the Jays held the opponent to 3 or fewer games going 25-5 thus far.

Despite scoring three and going up 3-0 after the 1st inning on Wednesday's win, so far in 2009 the Jays have 33 runs scored and 38 allowed in the opening frame!

On Wednesday, Toronto's 1 to 6 hitters went 11 for 27!

Our club tops the AL in hits and doubles. By the way, the team leader in intentional walks drawn is Lyle Overbay with five.

It's a pleasure to note that Romero (7.3 K per 9 IP) and Richmond (7.1 K per 9 IP) aren't far from Doc's own ratio of 7.7 K per 9 IP! Those two together have 90 Ks and 38 walks this year. Doc has 88 Ks and 12 walks.

Richmond is our only starter to have issued an intentional walk this year, by the way.

Brian Tallet has the lowest figure, as far as hits allowed per 9 IP at 7.5.

Folks, Alex Rios has just 1 hit less than Adam Lind thus far this year (76 to 77), how about that? Marco Scutaro himself has 76 hits. Aaron Hill's 87 tops the club.

Overbay and Lind are 2nd and 3rd on the team in walks drawn, good.

The Jays strike out once every 6 at bats and have a 1.65 SO/BB ratio. I feel there's room to improve further. Wells leads the team, he's fanned once every 8.9 at bats, Rolen has fanned once every 8 ABs.

While the team gets an RBI every 7.4 AB, Lyle Overbay is getting one every 4.4 at bats. Lovely discovery!

Talking about possible improvements, 38 steals in 47 tries as a team isn't bad at 81% but Scutaro's 6 for 10 weighs a lot.

Hill, Rios and Scutaro have 10 or more infield singles apiece this year. The more, the better, I'm not picky at all!

Bad news: in pinch hitting, the club is just 2 for 13 with Snider and Barajas both being 1 for 1 this year.

Only 20 of the Jays' 71 homers have come against lefties this year and only 29 have been hit on the road.

Just in 12% of possible situations, we hit into a DP but in 10 of those 62 GIDP, Rios was the culprit and Hill has had the same problem 10 times too.

Only 15% of our baserunners this year have scored (including when there hsn't been an RBI) and just 34% of our outs have been classified as productive outs (advancing a runner on base for example and so on).

We botched 4 of 18 sac bunts up to now. As far as clutch stuff, with a man on 3rd and less than 2 outs, we got that run home only 53% of the time (77 times in 145 chances). We do need a better effort.

It gets worse though! With a man on 2nd and nobody out, we got that run home just 47% of the time (81 times in 174 opportunities). Improvement is surely needed!

Lyle Overbay is 2 shy of 1400 total bases for his 9-year career.

In closing, I don't wish to be too harsh but to stay in this tough race, we need every bit of improvement in clutch situations that we can muster. Best wishes to everybody, enjoy the day game for me as well!

I still can't believe it but it seems that the Jays had not stranded 16 runners on base in a game since April 24, 2004 against Baltimore! Luckily they won last night.

I'm sure we all hope that Scott Richmond gets the win on Wednesday night as it would be his first since May 3. He has never faced the Phillies but since his last win, he is 0-3 with a 5.81 ERA, ouch. Plus, he's one of the few Canucks on the roster.

Jamie Moyer, their starter on Wednesday, is 46 years old but he can still pitch despite being 4-5 so far this year with a 6.11 ERA. In his last 3 starts, Moyer is 1-0 with a 2.84 ERA, no walks allowed and opponents hit only .227.

In his illustrious career, Moyer is 14-8 against the Jays with a 5.27 ERA and 35 of his 37 appearances facing Toronto have been starts.

The interesting part is that Alex Rios is 9 for 19 (.474) lifetime against Moyer with 4 doubles, a triple and a homer.

Moreover, Vernon Wells is 13 for 38 (.342 average) with two long balls in his career when facing Moyer. Vernon went 2 for 6 on Tuesday after coming in with 4 hits in his previous 45 tries. Still, no homer from him since May 6. Yet, he delivered in the clutch on Tuesday. Let's hope the next good news is a long ball from him.

It's amazing that four of Philly's last six games have gone to extra innings. Over that span, their bullpen has thrown an average of over 5 innings a game. In the Phillies' last 4 games, all played in Philly, their bullpen has a 6.33 ERA.

Let's hope this trend can continue for two more games! Best wishes to everybody, enjoy the game for me as well!

Note:  Promoted from Fanposts.  Nice work Marco!  - Hugo

Well, 7-18 in the last 25 games since being 27-13 in the first 40 games of this season. That 7-18 record is the worst in the AL since then, ouch!

The Jays are still 0-6 in interleague play this year and have been outscored 39-16 in those six losses! The Jays have been outscored 25-11 as they lost the last four games in a row. The team allowed at least six runs in each of the last three games, all against Florida and at home.

Since May 19, the Jays have the worst ERA in the majors at 5.10 and in the last 24 games, their pitchers have allowed 24 long balls! Yet, the homer given up to Florida in the 3rd inning of Saturday's loss was the first allowed by Jays picthers in a span of 33 1/3 innings!

Philadelphia is a strange beast: first in the NL with 90 home runs hit but first in the majors with 91 homers allowed!

In their 29 home games, the Phillies are under .500 (they have on the other hand the best road mark in the majors!) and have served up 49 homers! Philly has allowed 8 homers in the last 3 games (all in Boston), including 3 last Sunday when they still won 11-6 defeating Josh Beckett, go figure!

The perfect example of this strange Philly is Jimmy Rollins, the MVP of the NL in 2007.

Rollins is a .348 career hitter against the Jays but he is hitless right now in his last 16 at bats and has a .217 batting average so far in 2009.

On Tuesday, Cole Hamels will make his first career start against Toronto. He will go up against Ricky Romero.

Ricky has served up 8 homers this year, 4 on sliders.

Before losing 1-0 at Texas last week, he had allowed 7 long balls in his previous 3 starts but just 1 in his first 3 starts of 2009.

Basically, Romero in his first 23 1/3 innings this year, he allowed only 1 home run. In the following 14 innings, he gave up 7 homers! There is a need for him to settle down like he did in his first 3 starts and, why not, in his last start!

Since April 28, Philly is 7-1 in games started by Cole Hamels. In 2008, Toronto won 2 of 3 in Philadelphia. June 26 to 28 the Jays will host the Phillies for three games in Toronto. Both Romero and Hamels have very good strikeouts-to-walks ratio (31 to 14 for Romero and even 56 to 12 for Hamels!).

Toronto's all-time road record against the NL is only 40-70.

In the good-news department: Marco Scutaro has reached base 120 times so far in 2009, first among all AL leadoff hitters! He's also first among AL leadoff hitters with 43 walks, 48 runs scored (also a team best) and second in the AL with 76 hits, 19 doubles and 29 RBI!

On the bad side: Vernon Wells is hitless in his last 17 at bats, went 0 for 12 in the home series against Florida, has only four hits in his last 45 at bats (.089) and hasn't homered in 137 at bats (since May 6), the longest drought of his career. Since the may 6 game, the club has played 35 more games! For the year, Vernon Wells is hitting .238.

On the other hand, Alex Rios went 7 for 12 in the home series against Florida but had only 6 hits in his previous 36 at bats so overall he has 13 hits in his last 48 plate appearances.

However, Alex Rios has homered once in each of the last two games! Best wishes to all, let's hope for the best.

........and that's not his only statistic to be out of sync, sadly.

He is now without a home run in his last 121 at-bats. It’s his longest power drought since 2002. So far in 2009, he has five long balls and a batting average of .254. That's nine points below the AL average.

However, 43 of his 79 hits have come on the road where he's hitting .328 so far this season. In his career against Kevin Millwood, Thursday night's starter for Texas, he is 3 for 16 (.188) with one home run and two RBI.

In his last 5 games, he went 4 for 18 (.222) with a double, a triple and 3 RBI. In the previous five games (all at home) he went 1 for 15 (.067) with a double and 2 RBI. Overall, in his last 10 games, he is 5 for 33 (.152) with two doubles, a triple and 5 RBI.

He hasn't homered since May 6 (a three-run drive in the second inning to make it 7-0) when we won 13-1 in LA against the Angels! Since then, he played 31 games! In his last 121 at-bats, he hasn't homered and has collected just 27 hits for a .223 average!

On the good side, he's struck out just once in his last five games. He has just one stolen base and three walks in his last 10 games. Before going 2 for 5 on Tuesday night, he had gone 9 straight full games without having a multi-hit performance and had gone 7 straight games without an extra-base hit.

For the year so far, he has 22 walks but 26 strikeouts. Only 22 of his 62 hits so far in 2009 have been for extra bases. Still, he had just 29 walks and four steals all year in 2008. He had 10 steals in all of 2007 too.  

This year, he's hitting .295 with the bases empty but just .213 with runners on and .159 with RISP. it's just a bit better at .206 with RISP and two outs and at .200 (1 for 5 and 3 RBI) with the bases loaded. He has had just 1 game in 2009 batting out the cleanup spot (he was batting 5th but entered as a pinch runner and didn't have an at-bat!).

Time for a change as far as lineup positioning?

All year, he is 1 for 6 as a DH. The rest of the time he's played in CF.

Two of his 5 homers have been solo efforts, two more have come with a man on 3rd and less than 2 outs.

With none on and none out, he's hitting .317 this year. Yet the number drops to .274 with none on and 1 or 2 outs. It drops to .254 with men on and two outs. It gets to .250 with a man on the 3rd and less than 2 outs (3 for 12 but 14 RBI and 2 walks).

Only 1 of his 5 homers has been hit with 2 strikes. To put it another way, all of his 5 homers have come with a 1-2 count or earlier in the count.

Only 15 of his 62 hits (and 3 of his 15 doubles) have come with 2 strikes so far in 2009.  Interestingly, he's hit both of his 2009 triples with 2 strikes. Yet, he's had only 6 RBI with 2 outs all year! That's reason to worry?

With an 0-2 count, he's 5 for 17 (.294) this year with a double and an RBI. Not bad but why has he had just 17 such situations out of 244 at-bats this year? Too much hurry!

He's put the first pitch in play in 37 of his at-bats with just 8 hits (.216) but that includes 3 doubles and a solo homer.

The other counts show just bad news though: 4 for 22 on an 0-1 count, 2 for 23 on an 1-2 count, 6 for 27 on a 2-2 count, 2 for 12 on a 3-2 count!

When he's ahead or even, things can look better: 9 for 29 on a 1-0 count, 15 for 37 (.405) on a 1-1 count, 4 for 15 on a 2-0 count, 5 for 19 on a 2-1 count, 2 for 5 on a 3-1 count.  

Yes, I'm at least a bit concerned. Comments and thoughts, folks? Best wishes, tonight's a tough one, as usual.

Scott Rolen has gone 3 for 4 in each of the last two games against the Rangers to boost his batting average to .314 for the year so far.

Scott is (good, good!) 19 for 56 (.339) with two homers and six doubles in his career against Kevin Millwood, who will start Wednesday night for the Rangers.

Ricky Romero will make his first appearance against the Rangers, who are hitting .198 against left-handers since May 16.

Kevin Millwood is 1-4 with a 6.25 ERA in eight career starts against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Let's hope Scott Rolen, Ricky Romero, Adam Lind (20 for 45 in the last 11 games), Lyle Overbay (on a 15-game hitting streak, longest this year for the club and longest active streak in the majors) can contribute each in their own way to another great team effort. Millwood's career numbers against the Blue Jays seem to give us hope.

Lyle Overbay is batting .444 (20 for 45) with 12 RBIs during his 14-game hitting streak and is 4 for 7 against the Rangers in 2009.

Let's hope these great numbers keep making us happy!

Brian Tallet has allowed 10 total runs in the first two innings over his last five starts!

Tuesday's start will be brian Tallet's first career start against the Texas Rangers but his career ERA is a very good 2.35.

Let's hope it keeps being so good but the first two innings can't be as much of a problem, we can't afford that!

I would imagine some of us would be quite happy if Doc pitched on short rest the last game of this series. Maybe we should open a debate on whether such a choice may be worthwhile....but frankly we need to wait at least 48 hours before making this decision, eventually. There are two important games to play first, then we'll see......on the other hand, very good to hear that Lyle Overbay has been named AL Player of the Week and his 14-game hitting streak is a fantastic piece of news! By way, Adam Lind is 18 for 40 (.450 average) in the last 10 games!