Game #82: Jays at A's pregame
Toronto (39-42) at Oakland (42-39)
at 10:05 p.m. ET at mcAfee Coliseum
Today’s lineups:
BLUE JAYS
Vernon Wells, CF
Alex Rios, RF
Troy Glaus, 3B
Frank Thomas, DH
Aaron Hill, 2B
Curtis Thigpen, 1B
Adam Lind, LF
Jason Phillips, C
Royce Clayton, SS
PITCHING: RHP Josh Towers
ATHLETICS
Shannon Stewart, LF
Mark Kotsay, CF
Nick Swisher, RF
Jack Cust, DH
Eric Chavez, 3B
Dan Johnson, 1B
Mark Ellis, 2B
Marco Scutaro, SS
Kurt Suzuki, C
PITCHING: LHP Lenny DiNardo
NOTES: RHP A.J. Burnett received a cortisone shot in his right shoulder and is expected to miss 3-4 weeks with a shoulder strain. Toronto is shutting him down for a week before he begins throwing again. … LHP Gustavo Chacin threw off a mound in a bullpen session prior to Monday’s game in Oakland. … LF Reed Johnson wasn’t in the lineup for Class A Dunedin today, but it’s possibly due to him heading to Syracuse to continue his rehab at Triple-A.
Major League Bastian 
Big night last night. Lets hope they can keep it up. I for one don’t belive their season is over remember the Jays have gone into Boston and New York before and came away winners. Johnson and Overbay are almost back which can only help. If Wells and Thomas can keep it up away we go. The Jays G.M. seems to have disapeared is he hiding from the press lol. My lineup would be as follows WELLS HILL RIOS GLAUS THOMAS STAIRS ZAUN LIND J.MAC Tough lineup this way.
I too am excited to see what a (near) full line-up/roster looks like. It’s a shame about Burnett, but maybe Litsch and Chacin can pick up the slack this time. And who knows – maybe, just maybe, Towers is starting to gain some confidence and pitch well. As you may tell, I’m an optimist; I’m not giving up on the Jays.
Well, don’t get too excited about Towers, he gave up 4 runs in 5 innings or an ERA of 7.2. We won’t win many games with efforts like that.
Jessie has pitched well since his demotion from the Jays-which was a promotion for him from AA to AAA. At Syracuse he’s gone 15 innings with an era of 1.80. I think he’ll do better up here this time. It sounds like Chacin is still 1 month away.
We’re now 10.5 back of Boston and 8 back in the wild card. For us to have a chance in the 2nd half, we need to shrink these leads between now and the All-Star break.
If we slide a further 1 or 2 games-it’s extremly unlikely we can make it up in the 2nd half.
Our bullpen is showing signs of fatigue-they clearly need the All star break.
Nice game by Wells and Thomas last night-hopefully they get on a roll and win all 5 games remaining before the break.
The Jays have won-TOWER POWERS- last three starts who cares about his era.as long as they win that means the team is scoring a pile of runs.Your right about Jessie i think he will do better this time up.If they do well in the last five they may get some help. I read in sportsnet.ca where the CHI.SOX are ready to throw in the towel that would be like going to a smorg for the G.M. As for the bullpen the best group of young pitchers i’ve seen in a long time bar none
Check out the DUNEDIN BLUE JAYS Josh Kreuzer age 24 plays first base. In 73 games 12 HR.41 RBI. OBP.433 SLG.570 AVG.324–Jacob Butler age 24 72 games OF.14 HR. 46 RBI. OBP.377 SLG.533 AVG.296–I sure would like to see these guys in SEPT.
Aren’t the Duneiden Jays a single-A team?
Aren’t 24 year olds supposed to be a lot further along than single A.
Sorry i was grasping at straws.There doesn’t seem to be anybody at AAA or AA.What in the world is wrong with John Ford G. 18 HR. 40 some RBI.If they are not going to use him why not trade him for a prospect.
thegarry
The two you mentioned are good prospects, but if you want to see who’s likly to be called up in September take a look at the 40 man roster. If they bring up someone not on that roster they need to move someone off and risk losing him.
Towers has given up 12 runs in his last 3 starts totalling 15.1 innings for an ERA of 7.1. They Jays scored 25 times in those 3 games, so he ended up winning 2 of them, BUT the teams he faced weren’t Boston and New York. He doesnt have velocity or movement, and if he misses on the plate-its generally gone. He’s likley safe until etiher Chacin or Burnett get back-but he isn’t a long term starter for us or anyone else.
In the past the Blue Jays drafted college players-pretty much exclusively, so they entered the minors at a later age. Im my view this was down to get some players up here-like they’ve done. Now they draft more high school kids so a lot of their lower leverl players are much younger and will rise through the ranks at a younger age.