Jesse's back
DETROIT — While waiting to chat with Jesse Litsch this afternoon, the pitcher was getting ready to head out for a pregame bullpen session. While he was getting ready, Shaun Marcum called Litsch’s name and tossed a pair of black socks in his direction.
Litsch looked up just in time to take the socks right off his face. Marcum, who has thrown two strong outings in a row for the Jays, laughed.
“See? I’m starting to hit my spots better,” Marcum quipped.
As you’ve probably gathered by now, Litsch is back and will be starting on Thursday. Roy Halladay is pushed back to Friday’s opener in Boston, while Scott Richmond heads to the bullpen and John Parrish to Syracuse.
More on Litsch’s return on bluejays.com in a bit.
Today’s lineups:
TORONTO (60-59) at DETROIT (58-60)
at 7:05 p.m. ET at Comerica Park
BLUE JAYS
Joe Inglett, 2B
Marco Scutaro, 3B
Alex Rios, RF
Vernon Wells, CF
Matt Stairs, DH
Rod Barajas, C
Adam Lind, LF
Lyle Overbay, 1B
John McDonald, SS
PITCHING: RHP A.J. Burnett (14-9, 4.62)
TIGERS
Curtis Granderson, CF
Placio Polanco, 2B
Carlos Guillen, 3B
Magglio Ordonez, RF
Miguel Cabrera, 1B
Matt Joyce, LF
Gary Sheffield, DH
Edgar Renteria, SS
Brandon Inge, C
PITCHING: RHP Zach Miner (6-4, 3.57)
Major League Bastian 
bosox
I hope Ortiz is getting rid of this before we play you. 2 at bats, 2 home runs and 6 rbi’s. I thought he was supposed to miss Manny.
I know it’s a day late but welcome back Jordan!
I didn’t think Scott’s demotion would come so soon. I would’ve thought he could’ve had one more start but maybe a long relief/spot starter bullpen role could be what he ends up being. Jesse has never overly impressed me as a Major League starter but hopefully he can show me an ability to bounce back after a string of rough outings the rest of the way. If anything he, Richmond, Purcey etc. should be nice competition for the 5th starter next year.
How to motivate Gary Sheffield. Put the guy out on wavers and he hits two home runs. Maybe we should try that with a few of our guys.
Bosox
Great football game in Fenway tonight. lol
Bottom of the 7th: Texas-16, Boston-14
Gsumner,
Texas sacked the q.b. for a safety. lol. Boston should be ashamed of themselves. Leading 10-0 in the 1st. If Boston loses tonight, they should pack there bags and go golfing.
naw-not golfing, put on the pads and play the Pats. lol Hey, would you like to have Burnett now?
That was a MAJOR single by Lind in the top of the 9th to drive in a run and give BJ a two run cushion. Made all the difference.
Bosox
I guess Charlie Zink isn’t a keeper, huh? Would you tell Terry to make sure and pitch him against our guys next week. We need a break.
Gsumner,
Zink is off to the minors. Next time he is at Fenway, he’ll be in the stands. lol.
Looks like they scored another field goal. Boston 19 Texas 17.
Bosox-I’d bet fans are happy that’s over. Look at the game line
Texas: 17 runs, 20 hits, 2 errors
Boston: 19 runs, 17 hits, 2 errors.
Ortiz hits two-3 run home runs and drives in 6 runs in the first inning. I think we have htters that havent done that in 6 weeks. lol
Gsumner,
A crazy night in Boston. The Rangers lineup is insane. There pitching is just horrendous. Nolan Ryan will hold pitching tryouts in the Dallas/Fort Worth area tomm. Are you interested? lol. Bring your own glove. All you have to do is throw it over plate and you’ll be starting for the Rangers on Thurs. night.
Boston’s pen is either good or bad. Tonight they STUNK. Aardsma and Delcarmen were PATHETIC. Francona left Zink in too long. Ask Zink about any city in the minors and he’ll let you know everything you need to know. He is quite knowledgeable about the minor league cities. He can drive blind thru Pawtucket, lol. He had a 10-0 lead and he couldn’t even get a win. Have a great time in the minors Mr. Zink, hardly knew ya. lol.
Too bad about Richmond. Obviously, JP has no long-term plans for him. They should have let him go to the olympics and win a medal, rather than treat him like this.
Burt. you can bet if it wasn’t for the Olympic issue, Richmond would have been sent back down after his first start. As it is, I expect we’ll keep him in the pen ONLY until the Olympics are completed. His demotion will coincide with the recall of Accardo or Tallet to fluff it over.
The Jays knew fully well what his capabilities are and it wasn’t enough for prime time at the MLB level.
Bosox
I think your pitching overall, not just the pen, is no were near where it was last year and certainly not world series winnable. It looks to me like it’s the year of Angels from the AL.
Gsumner,
Red Sox overall aren’t nearly as good as they were last year. A year ago Boston was the team to beat in baseball and right now the Angels are. Angels are the class of baseball right now. Right now being the key word. Have the Angels peeked too soon? All the pressure is on the Angels and nada zip zero on Boston. That could be a good thing. If I was a betting man, I put my $$$$ on the Angels. Crawford being out for the season is a killer and Longoria being out hurts big time. T.B. needs to get a bat, they needed one before those 2 got hurt, now they need one in the worst way. Boston has a very good chance to squeak out the division.
I like Boston’s rotation but there pen is very inconsisent. Delcarmen who knows what you’ll get from him. He doesn’t even know, lol. Too many games are won and lost late in the game. Boston has lost so many 1 run games on the road this year because of there pen and lack of clutch hitting. At Fenway they are solid for sure. They should win 55 games at home. The road, they look lost.
I would go with Angels and Cubs for the W.S. Pretty lame prediction I know. lol. Going out on a limb there. NOT.
Okay this is it! Right after this series with Detroit, we have 15 games against the teams ahead of us in the east. If we can win 12 or 13 of those games, we still have a chance!!!………………………..(phhht who am I kidding)
freedom
We have 6 this month with Boston and NY. We need to sweep all 12 of these games and do no worse than 2 of 3 against Tampa Bay. That would get us back into the race.
If Purcey settles in, Litsch pitches like he did at the start of the season, Accardo comes back strong, the offense gets on a roll, Boston, NY and TB all have a bad lossing streak, there’s a new moon, it rains in the dome with the roof closed-who knows, stranger things have happened. Keep the faith. lol
Bosox
I’m with you on the series contenders, although Milwaukee could be the dark horse this year.
I like how Arnsberg and Cito are handling Purcey. That kind of management should get him settled in sooner than later. Although, there’s no question how good his breaking ball is and how effective he will be when is going, I still think he needs some work on his changeup.
The problem I see with the changeup is, he changes arm speed when he throws it. If we can pick that up on TV, you can bet hitters pick it up in the box, and they sit on it and blast it to Kingdom come. By comparision, you see nothing different at all when Marcum throws his changeup-which is why it’s so effective.
Hopefully, this comes after he gets the breaking ball and focus into control, because when he gets the changeup going as well, he will be lights out.
Let’s hope it comes together tonight.
I know Rios was safe last night but the “heck” was that. The guy has talent but he does some things that make me wonder if he ever will realize his potential. Even Rod Barajas looked as if he was in disbelief at the way he went to home.