A Slow Saturday
TORONTO — Not a whole heckuva lot going on around here this morning. There were tons of little items yesterday and a bunch of nothin’ going today. Although, we can offer a warm welcome to Alessandra, Alex Rios’ baby daughter born last night in Puerto Rico.
With Rios still away and Vernon Wells on the DL with his left hammy issue, Blue Jays mananger Cito Gaston stuck with Adam Lind in left, Brad Wilkerson in center and Mighty Joe Inglett in right field for today’s tilt against the Yankees.
Come Sunday, A.J. Burnett will take the mound on short rest for the Jays. He’ll be pitching on three days’ rest — something he said he’s never done before in his career. Well, Burnett is partly correct. He has pitched on three days’ rest before, just not under these circumstances.
Earlier this season, Burnett started on three days’ rest on April 20 after making a rare relief appearance the outing before. In 2004, Burnett came back on three days’ rest after having his previous start shortened to 30 pitches due to rain. So, this is the first time Burnett is making two legit starts in a row on such short notice (he logged 112 pitches on Wednesday).
Today’s lineups:
NEW YORK (49-44) at TORONTO (46-47)
at 1:07 p.m. ET at the Rogers Centre
YANKEES
Derek Jeter, SS
Bobby Abreu, RF
Alex Rodriguez, 3B
Jason Giambi, 1B
Jorge Posada, DH
Robinson Cano, 2B
Melky Cabrera, CF
Chad Moeller, C
Brett Gardner, LF
PITCHING: RHP Darrell Rasner (4-7, 4.94)
BLUE JAYS
Joe Inglett, RF
Marco Scutaro, 2B
Lyle Overbay, 1B
Matt Stairs, DH
Brad Wilkerson, CF
Scott Rolen, 3B
Adam Lind, LF
Gregg Zaun, C
John McDonald, SS
PITCHING: RHP Jesse Litsch (8-5, 4.01)
Major League Bastian 
Jeter is a hog why give him a homer anyone but him.
With Rio’s child borne, I hope he’s on a plane back here to play tommorrow. This is a critical series for this team.
Scott Rolen never took batting pratice today and it sure shows BUT IT LOOKS LIKE LIND DID GO JAYS.
As I said, Lind likes hitting with Ducks on the pond. Man did Rolen look bad in that at bat.
Rolen did look brutal. A guy this morning on the fan said that J.P’s prospects are going to have to start producing for this team to have a chance at making things interesting well one of them is Adam Lind and he’s looking really good right now.
What the hell is Litsch doing.
he isn’t Roy Halladay that’s for sure lol.
How different the lineup is. We have 5 left-handed hitters in their today, I think that’s the most i’ve seen in a long while.
Unfortunate error-Litcsh should have been out of that inning with 1 run
Scutaro looked bad on that play but he never loaded the bases in the first place,It looks like the game from hell today,Get the bullpen ready were in for a long one,I guess it was to much to hope for 5 in a row from this team.
Litsch looks like crap get him out of the game before the yanks crush us.
3 runs from 1 error. We just can’t give the Yanks 4 outs in an inning and expect to win.
Garry-this is the Yanks, you don’t beat them with errors. They are going to get hits. We should still have the lead 4-2 without the error.
Wlkerson is useless-where in hell is Rios?
such bad timing when it came to his significant other giving birth. It couldn’t have happened during the all star break.
Well she gave birth yesterday, so he should be here tommorrow. I just don’t know why we ever signed Wilkerson or why we keep him. We have better options in the minors than this guy.
Guys the umpire completely messed up the call on posada in the 2nd, that was clear strike two right down the plate (curve though) and he whould never have gotten on
5 unearnd runs what a mess,Everytime we go against a poor pitcher the same kind of crap.
I shut the TV off can’t watch this game to painfull.
I guess nobody out there is happy the blog went dead dead dead.
yup noone is happy i too stopped watching the game…..
Thanks to Harry for pointing out Accardo is posting on Sportsnet. I found this last post he made there quite interesting.
“This past weekend I flew to Anaheim to be with the team, to see a doctor and work with our pitching coaches on my mechanics. Overall the weekend went well; I got some good news from the doctor and worked out some kinks with our pitching coaches. Some of the changes I made with my mechanics should make a world of difference in the soreness of my forearm, and made sense of why my off-speed pitches were not as sharp as they were at the beginning of the year. I noticed a big difference as soon as I made the changes; its funny how the smallest of flaws can make that big of a difference in the health of an arm and how it affects the way the ball comes out of your hand.”
The good news is he appears to be on the mend and has fixed the problem with his splitter which he struggled with late last year and this year. It will be good to have him back. I wonder why it took so long for the coaches to pick up the mechancial flaw in his delivery.
gsumner what did you think of the game.
I said Tampa would hit a brick wall if we smarten up we can at least catch them,boston is the problem.
I felt sorry for Litsch-the Scutaro error cost him the win. We need Hill back, playing with JMac at short. Don’t under estimate Tampa bay, they are very strong.
With a little bit of luck Burnett himself will show up tomorow not the fool that has been showing up,We need to win this game one game under 500 is not to bad.
Now that Cito has been there for a while it looks like this team is turning around bit by bit faster than I thought they would.
and yes I also feel sory for Litsch I hope the coaches make him understand it wasn’t his fault,ERRORS can kill a pitcher.
I hope Burnett pitches well tommorrow as well, then maybe Philly will be more interested in dealing for him. I like how Cito has managed as well. The best proof is how he’s got Lind aclimatized in order to perform the way he’s capable of. Cito always had a knack for bringing these young guys along and building their confidence so they performed well.
Gsumner,
I read where Burnett has a no trade clause to 15 teams. Including Philadelphia. It will be very interesting too see what happens with Burnett come late July. I am guessing he is dealt.
bosoxbrian.
If this team turns around after the break they might hang onto Burnett if they think they have a chance,All we need is for some of the teams in front of us to have a meltdown like the Rays are having right now.And we get two first round picks for him if he opts out also we save 12 mil.and you can get 4 Burnetts for that price he was never worth the money.
Garry/Bosox-he will be dealt, assuming JP can come up with a reasonable deal. The default is letting him opt out and we get two draft picks; but I’d hope we could get two good prospects now, preferably both A or at least an A and B.
Bosox-I assume you don’t call Drew Nancy this year. lol. I see your guys brought up Lowrie yesterday. I get the feeling that by the time Lugo comes back, he might be no longer wanted. I just hope JP doesn’t deal for Lugo, he does like him.
From Fan Nation
As many as a dozen teams now have inquired about Pirates reliever Damaso Marte, and he might be the most-sought left-handed reliever in a market hungry for that commodity. The others being shopped are the Rockies’ Brian Fuentes and the Royals’ Ron Mahay. The Cardinals are in on Marte, as are the Yankees, Mets, Rays and Red Sox.
**A dozen teams are after a LH pitcher with an era of 3.22.
Downs: 1.69
Tallet: 3.19
Carlson: 2.10
With 12 teams looking and the abundance we have, we should be able to garner 1-2 really nice prospects from dealing 1-2 of our guys.
Gsumner,
Drew is hitting the longball this year. I still don’t like the contract, never have and never will. He also has played one helluva right field.
I think Burnett could end up in St. Louis. Brewers and Cubs already added some nice arms. Sabathia and Harden, perhaps the Cards will as well.
I think Lugo would look great in Toronto, lol. I am guessing Lugo will be dealt in the winter. Boston will have to pay half of his contract thru 2010. There money not mine, lol. Renteria all over again. Bad signing and Boston will have to eat it.
Burnett has to be one of the most frustrating pitchers out there. He has #1 stuff but not #1 makeup. He has the hardware but not the software, lol. I think with Burnett it is all between the ears. He should give the Jays 7 innings almost every time he takes the hill. I think pitching on 3 days rest is an attitude. If you think you if can do it, you will do it. Burnett rises to the occasion against the good teams. I would expect a strong outing from Burnett. Will the Jays get enough offense to get the win?