Downs' season in limbo
BOSTON — As promised, Blue Jays setup man Scott Downs took some time out on Sunday morning to talk with reporters about last night’s mishap in the eighth inning. As Toronto fans will recall in horror, Downs stumbled running off the mound, allowing the go-ahead run to score in an eventual 7-5 loss in Boston.
Coming off the mound, in an attempt to corral a slow roller off the bat of Jacoby Ellsbury, Downs aggravated the right ankle injury he suffered in mid August. Now, he’s day-to-day and at risk of being shut down for the season. If the Jays are eliminated mathematically soon, manager Cito Gaston said the club would lean toward shutting Downs down.
“It was when I broke,” Downs said. “I think it was my second step — I don’t remember. When I went to break and put pressure on it, it just gave out again. I caught it before it turned, but it’s just something that’s kind of been there and we’re trying to get through it the best we can.”
Also day-to-day is Toronto catcher Rod Barajas, who tweaked a left hamstring issue that first came up in Chicago earlier on the road trip. Barajas said he’s still a little sore, but he’s hoping the two days off will do him good.
Today’s lineups:
TORONTO (80-69) at BOSTON (87-61)
at 1:35 p.m. ET at Fenway Park
BLUE JAYS
Marco Scutaro, 2B
Jose Bautista, DH
Alex Rios, RF
Vernon Wells, CF
Kevin Mench, LF
Lyle Overbay, 1B
Scott Rolen, 3B
Gregg Zaun, C
John McDonald, SS
PITCHING: RHP Roy Halladay (18-10, 2.77)
RED SOX
Jacoby Ellsbury, RF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
David Ortiz, DH
Kevin Youkilis, 1B
Mike Lowell, 3B
Jason Bay, LF
Jason Varitek, C
Alex Cora, SS
Coco Crisp, CF
PITCHING: LHP Jon Lester (14-5, 3.23)
Major League Bastian 
By leaving Lind and Snider out against LHP is not going to instil confidence in these young players,Let’s face it all we as fans have to look forward to is watching some of the young players at this time of year,God only knows when we will be able to enjoy October baseball again so why not let us watch the young studs play the game.
As much as I like to watch Halladay pitch I can’t get up for this game without Snider and Lind over Bautista and Mench,What a waste.
Garry:
Are you a Cito fan? If so, you have to live with how he chooses to use players. I believe that in Cito’s mind the Jays still have a chance. He is playing the team that he thinks can beat Lester. Cito is not in the “seasons over let’s play the kids” mode. And I don’t want him to be.
Once the Jays are “more out of it” then the pitchers won’t be going on short rest and the young kids will play even more than they already have.
Maybe he’ll start Mighty Joe against lefties. Maybe he’ll sit Rios on the bench so that he can mutter at him about attitude and play Lind-Wells-Snider or Lind-Inglett-Snider.
Steve
1. I said if the jays didn’t win at least 3 out of 4 then their season was over, so I guess its over now.
2. I agree with garry, if you truly want to see what you have with Travis Snider, you have to let him face lefties. Most importantly, I think you need to see how he reacts to adverse situations or unfavourable matchups. Lester is a guy who would clearly pitch him tough, but Snider needs to experience failure before he can reach the next level anyways.
I agree with Garry as well. Both Lind and Snider need as much experience as they can get in playing in September.
Besides Mench is worse than a waste of time and Baustista is probably not going to be here next year anyway. Sit them both and play the kids.
I agree with Garry to,OOPS I am the garry guy.lol.
Three days rest was a mistake,when you have the depth we have in the bullpen. Cito is my favorite manager of all time but I don’t agree with that move.Starters are to valuable to risk injury with.Burnett fine ,it looks like he will opt out anyways so who cares.On another note what is the chance that Cito can talk Burnett into staying thinking he can win a world series ring next year.
Six players under 270 AVG what is Cito thinking,we are playing the red Sox not the Royals for crying out loud.
Our only chance and up comes no hit J.Mac.
Hey Cito why not bring Halladay out for the 8th, maybe this way you can screw his arm up,117pitches on 3 days rest is way to much in my opinion.
Ortiz triples? lol
Ryan in the 8th I don’t get it.
I think Cito wanted him to get his inning in, because if we don’t score in the 9th, he wouldnt have a chance
well Blue jays season over now.. I kinda feel bad for halladay =( been in blue jays for so long yet hasn’t had a chance to go for playoffs
guess he wont’ be staying for too long..
lai-Halliday knew we didn’t have a chance this year, the season was gone by the time Cito came here. Gibbons should have been replaced sooner.
What the hell is wrong with Overbay. Getting put out at 2nd is a cardinal sin when we’re done by 2 runs. Stupid base running
You can’t win a game with the weak lineup Cito put out there today;Halladay did not deserve it,I hope they trade Halladay to another team that has a chance to make the playoffs and I will soon switch teams,Every year it’s the same thing,done in Sept.
We are all kidding ourselfs if we think JP is going to put a team together that will get us into October.all we get from him is lies and insults to other teams players and bad deals over and over.And as for you plus or whoever you are like maybe JP if you don’t like what I say about our usless GM tough luck.
Horrible call.. would’ve been a tie game with 2 outs by now.
Im suprised there wasn’t a pinch hitter for Zaun in the 9th, it just doesn’t make sense not to put one of Lind or Snider in, if it really came down to it im sure Barajas could have stepped in to catch with his sore hamstring, or even Thigpen.
gsjays
did you watch the game on tv? because if you did you’d see that he was actually safe on 2nd…. horrible call.
lai-no I watched it on game day. Even if he was safe, if it was going to be that close he shouldn’t have ran
bmacgregor-Lind had already been put in. I think Cito was hoping Zaun would get on and then replace Macdonald with Snider.
Oh well, even if they win this one its still 2-2 and jays still won’t the playoff.. just like everyother year.
yeah Snider was on deck.
The Jays are losing to many baserunners (possible Runs) to stupid baserunning errors. Rios has been clueless all year round, Rolen Makes a few, Overbay made a few. The Base coaches are unfamiliar with the knowlege and skill of the players.
Overbay was safe at second BUT there was no reason to try for second at that stage of the game.Ryan you are right the baserunning mistakes have cost the Jays dearly.
I know this sounds bad, but I’m kinda glad that the Jays lost. The brass was getting too comfortable with the team. Hopefully this will show them that changes are necessary in the offseason. The recent win streak brought them to respectability, which they deserve. But there is a difference between respectable and being in playoff contention. 85-90 wins is respectable, but you aren’t going to make the playoffs, unless you are in the NL west – zing – But if you want to make a serious run at the playoffs, they need to win 95+. This series was a make or break, and it was all lined up. They got a 4 game series against the Red Sox and didn’t have to face Becket or Dice-K. This series couldn’t have been set up any better for the Jays. They should have won 3. It just goes to show how far ahead the Sox actually are. And the Rays are no fluke. If their management can start to sign those kids to long term deals beyond their arbitration years, they could be looking at a dynasty. The Jays need to do whatever they can to get competative.
Congratulations to Zambrano who pitched a no hitter last night against the Astros.
Time for us to all express our opinions and debate about what changes need to be made in this team in order to compete for a wild card next season.
Any suggestions?
Pitchen should not be a problem so I would leave it alone.
We need a third baseman who is good on defence and has home run power and can carry an AVG of 290 or better and who is injury free.Scott Rolen has had shoulder problems for three years,It will cost money to get rid of him,the Jays will have to eat at least 4 mil. of his contract for 2 years but it has to be done.We need to address the shortstop position.First do we keep J.Mac who just plain can’t hit or do they play scuttaro all season or do they put Hill at short and mighty joe at second to face RHP and Scuttaro to face LHP.Myself i think it will work.Thats all folks.
I think they need to try to get another pitcher. Burnett is probably gone, and McGowan might not be back until May, and it might take time for him to be effective after that. If they can get a solid 2/3 starter, that’d be nice. I wouldn’t expect Janssen to step in as a starter.
I think moving over Hill at SS, and having Joe Inglett and Marco Scutaro platoon at 2B is fine. The middle infield options via free agency are pretty thin I hear. If they can make a trade, that makes sense, to upgrade I’d be OK with that though. JMac would be a late inning replacement, and insurance in case of injury.
They’re stuck with Rolen, so there’s virtually nothing they can do there, but hope and pray.
And finally, the biggest question is do they sign a big DH bat and keep Snider down for another year or two? They’d probably have to keep him down 2 years, because it’ll be hard to sign anybody good for less than a 2 year contract. I’d hate to keep Snider down in AAA, but I think they need a 40 hr type guy in the middle of the order if they want to compete next year. If they can’t get a guy like that, and they can only get an Ibanez-type player, I’d say the heck with it, and keep Snider up.
My prediction is that there actually won’t be many changes this offseason
Snider LF, Wells CF, Rios RF, Lind DH, Rolen 3B, Hill SS, Inglett 2B, Overbay 1B, Barajas C
They will probably spend money on another reasonably good bat as a 5th OF/DH option. They’ll explore trading Overbay, but it won’t happen. They’ll pick up another quality starter.
That’s it. My opinion.
I guess the problem with asking this question right now, is all our thoughts on this team are colored by the recent winning streak. The expectation is next year, we go on from this winning streak to a winning season with minor adjustments. That might be true or false, I’m certainly don’t know if that’s true or not and I’m not sure anyone that posts here does.
What I do know is JP has been here for 7 years and all we’ve done is tread water, only finishing 2nd once. Regardless of what anyone thinks of this team and players, JP’s record no longer holds water. It’s time for his termination. In my view it’s also time for Godfrey’s termination. It’s time to move on and my reccomendation is to hire Pat Gillick as president and let Gillick put in the team he wants to go to war with.
Gillick would be my choice for the head honcho but who is available for the GM position????.
Garry
Thats the great thing about hiring Gillick. He will know who’s going to be available and who
the best person for the job is.
Pat Gillick is 71 years old , I doubt he wants to take on that responsibilty .
Kate.Who would you pick for the Prez,and the GM.Or would you leave things alone.
71 isn’t that old. Right now Gillick is a GM, thats a lot more stressful than president. I just hope we give him the choice.
I don’t agree with you that president is any less stressful than a GM . They carry the weight of everyone’s decision on their shoulders. At 71 years of age , Gillick’s family may want to have their time with him . I think it would be great to see him back with the Jays , I just don’t think its feasible in that capacity .
garry,
For the last several days I have been babysitting several fantasy baseball teams and managed to keep them solid …amazing……Since I love my job, therefore , I am not available to be president or general manager ( hahaha) I will have to think long and hard about who I would choose . Please give me a couple days to think about it . If it was the job of manager , I could answer you .
Take care all and have a great day
Nice to see Cito has both Lind and Snider playing against a left handed starter.