Game #119: Angels at Jays pregame
Los Angeles (69-48) at Toronto (60-58)
at 7:07 p.m. ET at the Rogers Centre
Today’s lineups:
ANGELS
Chone Figgins, 3B
Orlando Cabrera, SS
Vlad Guerrero, DH
Garret Anderson, LF
Gary Matthews Jr., CF
Casey Kotchman, 1B
Maicer Izturis, 2B
Jeff Mathis, C
Reggie Willits, RF
PITCHING: RHP Dustin Moseley (4-1, 4.93 ERA)
BLUE JAYS
Matt Stairs, LF
Lyle Overbay, 1B
Alex Rios, RF
Vernon Wells, CF
Frank Thomas, DH
Troy Glaus, 3B
Aaron Hill, 2B
Gregg Zaun, C
John McDonald, SS
PITCHING: RHP Shaun Marcum (9-4, 3.43 ERA)
NOTES: Glaus was back in the lineup after missing two games with a sore left foot. On Tuesday, the third baseman was in L.A. visiting a foot specialist to rule out any structural damage in his left ankle, which has been bothering him for the past few days. The tests came back clean, and Glaus said on Wednesday that the root of the foot problem is a bone spur, which was the original explanation given by manager John Gibbons in April. Glaus said he has been suffering from a case of plantar fasciitis and there isn’t any surgery that can alleviate the issue this offseason. Rest is the only cure. … Gibbons wanted to put Stairs in the lineup against Moseley and opted to give LF Reed Johnson the day off from starting. Instead of shuffling the entire order, Gibbons put Stairs back in the leadoff spot.
AL EAST STANDINGS
entering Wednesday
1. Boston 72-47 (–)
2. New York 67-52 (5)
3. Toronto 60-58 (11.5)
4. Baltimore 55-63 (16.5)
5. Tampa Bay 45-74 (27)
AL WILD CARD RACE
entering Wednesday
1. Seattle 66-51 (–)
2. New York 67-52 (–)
3. Cleveland 65-54 (2)
4. Toronto 60-58 (6.5)
6. Minnesota 59-60 (8)
Major League Bastian 
Oy vey. Zaun just killed that inning with that double play….
Zaun has no arm thats all there is to it.Get rid of him.
Hill made an error hard to belive I think the play was just to easy.
If your a pitcher for Toronto you have to throw a gem to have a chance to win a game 4 out of 5 times.
We have the best pitchen staff in baseball better than average defence and the worst offence.
Some might say we beat the yanks 15 to 4 but remember we won only one game where is the offence for the rest of the games.
hey Garry-good to see you back.
Another outstanding outing from Marcum.. Allowing only 1 run in 7 innings. Man this kid is good. ERA now down to 3.31, 4 hits and 1 run. Now sitting at 10-4-imagine he could be 16-4 if we had given him run support in some of his first outings.
How good is that? Well good enough to lead the AL-he could be 16 and 4 right now and leading in the win-loss for pitchers in all of baseball.
And a big Thank you to Tampa Bay, Minnesota and the Orioles.
We’re now only 5.5 back in the wild card.
Go Jays!!!!!!!!!!
Where is Gibbons??? This was another shining example of what good pitching and defense can do with a poor offense. Why why why can we not play a little small ball when the offense isnt clicking on all cylinders???
Bottom of 8th, 2 on, 0 out!! Gibby pinch runs for Frank then Hill makes a half hearted attempt at a sac bunt. Why pinch run if we are waiting for the 3 run bomb? At that point in the game, can WE not for the love of god play for an insurance run??????
JP made a statement 6 years ago that smallball and stealing bases belonged in the NL not the AL,
Is it gibbons fault if you remember Tosca never played smallball.
As you all know I don’t like Gibbons but lets blame JP for that.
dbrittan69 What you say is right never was there a better time for smallball man on first and second no outs and Hill up????
I sometimes wonder do we have a problem like the NBA I sure hope not.
Thank you gsumner I went fishing and I had a great time but no way to check on the Jays a split with Kansas pretty poor showing.
thegarry:
What problem in the NBA are you talking about?
Gambling it’s happend before also it’s just a thought I wish I could take back so please just ignor it if you will.
thegarry:
Don’t sweat it.
I think I found the answer at third base. Troy Glaus. (If only Overbay were right handed hed be a great third baseman.) Anyone else notice that Mark Redman is in our organization now. What can we make of that? I think its a good move because if AJ and Gus are injured again, Towers gets traded, and Litsch destructs we have insurance. He seems like another of the Ohka/Thomson jobs though.
Redman has been terrible in AAA. I wouldn’t count on him making it back to the bigs with us.
Hill is hitting .333/.368/.569 with RISP in general, and .293/.356/.415 with runners on first and second. Why would you take the bat out of his hands? Talk about wasting an out!
Vernon Wells looks like he wants the season to be over as soon as possible, he swings at the first pitch about 90% of the time and usually grounds out or pops up. He’s a real disappointment this year.
Travis Snider in Lansing is on a roll. In the last 6 games he’s had 28 at bats, had 12 hits of which 3 were doubles and 5 Hr’s. Knocked in 10.
Strange thing: I heard a Q&A session last night with J.P. on the Fan590 following the game. Some fan asked about that very Hill-bunt play, and J.P. diverted, saying that’s a decision made by Gibbons. I think ignoring it won’t make it go away for the Jays; there are too many other teams who have learned there are ways to manufacture runs. If our offense is poor, the game is late, and the situation is dire, play intelligently, not this power-will-solve-the-problem attitude the Jays have. Perfect contrast: the Angels.
Tower
But the Jays have already taken 2 from your perfect contrast team
A batter has to be a well below average hitter or a well above average runner before bunting is mathematically preferable to having them swing away. Ignoring which way scored more runs in recent years in favour of strategies which were formulated (1) before anyone calculated the statistics for which play was better, and (2) in an era where many more hitters were terrible, doesn’t seem like playing intelligently.
The “perfect” was only in reference to an AL team who knows how to manufacture runs. And two games is hardly suitable for reference stretch. Also, we didn’t win from our power-offense, we won with great pitching.