Game #15: Red Sox at Blue Jays pregame
Boston (8-5) at Toronto (8-6)
at 12:37 p.m. ET at the Rogers Centre
Today’s lineups:
RED SOX
Coco Crisp, CF
Kevin Youkilis, 3B
David Ortiz, DH
Manny Ramirez, LF
J.D. Drew, RF
Jason Varitek, C
Eric Hinske, 1B
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Alex Cora, SS
PITCHING: RHP Julian Tavarez
BLUE JAYS
Alex Rios, RF
Adam Lind, LF
Vernon Wells, CF
Frank Thomas, DH
Lyle Overbay, 1B
Aaron Hill, 2B
Gregg Zaun, C
Jason Smith, 3B
John McDonald, SS
PITCHING: RHP Roy Halladay
NOTES: CL B.J. Ryan spoke with the media about his elbow injury. Check bluejays.com later to read what he had to say. … Halladay owns a 16-4 record when starting the day after a Blue Jays loss. … The Jays will catch a flight to Baltimore Thursday night, and begin a three-game set with the Orioles on Friday. I’m not making that part of the road trip, so the blog might be dorment until I rejoin the press corps for the following series’ in Boston and New York.
Major League Bastian 
I’m not sure how many more times this season Gibbons is going to make poor choices and cost us games, but I only hope after we don’t make the playoffs again this season the Jays fire him and J.P. for not getting it done. At a minimum Gibbons needs to go.
In the 8th, if Overbay had taken off for second, would the throw from the plate plus the throw back have taken long enough that Wells could have stolen home? (Bearing in mind that Wells would have to wait until the ball was out of Varitek’s hand before taking off and that Overbay might have been able to disrupt the return throw with his slide, even if he had been tagged out in the process.) Even if the Sox had suspected that of being the play and hadn’t made the throw to second, then Overbay would have got the base and the double play would have been off the table.
Yes, I would rather Gibbons gets fired than this team making the playoffs for the first time in 14 years.
Completely agree.
“In the 8th, if Overbay had taken off for second, would the throw from the plate plus the throw back have taken long enough that Wells could have stolen home?”
I’m curious also as to why we don’t see this too much. My assumption is that it would happen more if the odds of being safe were higher. What would probably happen is that Cora or Pedroia would’ve intercepted the throw 3-4 feet in front of the base, allowing enough time that a strong throw would nail the runner. Cut play!
Ah, you were saying that after the assumption the Jays don’t make the playoffs, you hope Gibbons at least gets fired.
That’s at the very most debatable. I definitely would have had Downs go after or intentionally walk Manny, then go for Drew. Downs has proven himself much better than the role of LOOGY. On the other hand, I think 90% of Gibbons job is stuff we don’t see.
WOW look at all the emanagers out there. My opinion is anyone that strikes out, when the bases are loaded, should be traded immediately for Eric Hinkse, cuz he is apparently your new GOD
Time to get rid of Gibbons. Wonder how many games he will cost the Jays this year with his stupid dicsons ?
Had Gibbons left Doc in, and Doc had given up a home run, you’d be saying the same thing, lets fire Gibbons because he didn’t go the bullpen.
Give the guy a break. Coaches aren’t perfect.
I think all you guys miss the real point. John Gibbons isn’t to blame, Josh Towers is !!! Im sure JT told Gibby to those stupid moves, further calling for his immediate departue from the lineup. I think even God (Hinske) would agree with me.
I’ll worry for his job security if Gibbons sends Marcum out in the 8th inning a third time.
Sorry guys, I can’t agree with you on any of this. Seriously, do you really think Gibbons is to blame? Take a look at Toronto’s offense, from a team that is supposed to produce a lot of runs, not many of these guys are doing much yet this year. Also, Marcum was said to be one of Toronto’s best bullpen pitcher’s this year, not havin a great time yet, I bet if Ryan were healthy and blow the game, no one would say anything about that being a bad decision. I still cant beleive you call yourselves fans, the season is only 14 or 15 games old (OUT OF 162), why are you dumping on a team so early? And to those that think Hinske would help, I think you need to adjust your thoughts, Hinske is garbage, there’s a reason why Toronto got rid of him.
this is like the fifth time the jays have blown a lead in the later innings
Our bullpen just isn’t working right now, we need to maybe send someone back to triple A and bring someone forth to see if they would fare better, cause right now it just isn’t working. We need ryan back as soon as possible.
ALSO WHERE IS THE JAYS OFFENCE WHEN WE NEED IT?
THe only person i see getting on base most of the time is arron hill (8th guy) where the **** is thomas’ power.
the injures have really hurt us this season.
Oh my! How soon we forget all the 2 run games we have won this year, when the bullpen was stellar, and the guys you are dissing right now were virtually un-hittable. And nobody remembers all the calls Gibby has made that makes him look like a genius. As far as offense is concerned, Wells and Thomas are known slow starters, Glaus is on the DL, and Johnson is out for 2 months or more. If you guys want to sit there and second guess the GM and Manager, (it’s real easy after the game has been played), if you want to fire and demote people, then at least come up with some names to replace the guys you want to blow away. Otherwise, you better get used to the idea that we are going to lose at least 60 games this year, and sometimes they come in bunches.
Gnorman, how about giving me an example of Gibbons genius moves ? Already 2.5 games behind and going down. Gibbons should take his swagger and leave town!!
Oh, like pinch hitting Wells the moment Cabrera left the game, who promptly singled in 2 runs to take the lead? Like being CHOSEN by Ozzie Guillen over everyone else in the American League to be his bench coach in last year’s all star game? I guess having 3 potential all stars on the DL at the same time wouldn’t have anything to do with losing a few games would it?
Let me ask you a question smky@eastlink.ca: If you fired Gibbons, who would you get to replace him? How much would you have to pay him? Gibbons is already the lowest paid manager in the AL, and if you had to pay his replacement more, who else would you get rid of to get the money?
How much of a genuis does it take to pinch hit using Wells ? Anyone with an ounce of brains would do that. As for replacment they have him on the bench beside your man .
Think about it !!!!!!!!!
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I think anyone who choses Josh Towers to be their starting pitcher deserves to be fired.
Josh Towers has been pitching fine. His problems last year were too many walks and too many homeruns. His problems this year are fielding errors (not all of them his own) and lack of run support. Against Baltimore he did give up early runs, but they were on a bunch of singles.
My point is that nobody seems to notice when things go right. Besides, the manager doesn’t have the final say in who is on the club. That’s up to the GM, the scouts, the accountants, and so on. And if you had been using the Jays games for something besides a night light, you should have noticed that we are missing 2 key hitters out of our lineup, and 2 key pitchers (if you count Brandon League, who was supposed to be the setup man) out of the bullpen. That’s sure as heck Gibbon’s fault! Why don’t we fire Wells, Thomas and Zaun too? They sure aren’t hitting very well! But go ahead – blame it all on the manager. Thank goodness the Jay’s management has different ideas.
Wow it’s amasing how no one gives Gibby a hard time when the Jays win. So you mean to tell me that just when they lose he makes a mistake.I see how it goes. What a bunch of emanagers we have that comment here.