GILDING THE LILLY

Again, go figure. Tigers closer Todd Jones gets an entire post devoted to him, then turns around and gets the save in Detroit's 5-3 victory at Rogers Centre. Todd, you were supposed to wait until after this series to snap out of your funk.

This is the kind of season Theodore Lilly is having: his pitching got the Jays in a five-run hole, but after he manfully ate up innings to save the bullpen for tomorrow and finished with 12 strikeouts in 8 2/3 innings, Sportsnet's Jamie Campbell and Darrin Fletcher acted like Lilly had just pitched a no-hitter on LSD.

One of my Ottawa Sun colleagues is a big baseball fan and suggested that maybe if we referred to Lilly by his full name, it might help his pitching. It can't hurt, so Theodore Lilly it is, for the duration of his time in Toronto or until his ERA is below 3.75, whichever comes first. (More likely the former.)

OTHER BUSINESS

• But, of course: Barry Bonds is apparently willing to cooperate with baseball's drug investigation, but only if he's protected from federal prosecution.
• The new NCAA women's high jump champion is named Destinee Hooker. What kind of name is that?
• This is kind of similar to last weekend's Tommy Lasorda saga. The Toronto Sun's Bob Elliott wrote today about the Curse of '87 which afflicts the Tigers, who came into today's action with a dismal .438 winning percentage since that magical season (well, magical if you were 10 years old at the time, which I was) that they stole the AL East from the Jays on the final weekend.
  
  Ah, The Geek and I remember it well, and he can't help but pick a few nits:
  
  -- There were nine games, not eight, left in the season after the night Tony Fernandez broke his elbow after Bill Madlock slid hard into him to break up a double play;
  -- On the second-to-last Sunday of the season, Sept. 27, the Jays lost in 13 innings, not 11; -- It also wasn't an 11-inning game on the final Saturday, Oct. 2, when Alan Trammell (one L) the double-play grounder that shot through Manny (Manuel) Lee's legs; that game went 12.
  
  It's a bit uncomfortable noting these gaffes by Mr. Elliott, who not only got his start at the Kingston Whig-Standard but has written a great book, The Northern Game, that shows we aren't all a bunch of puckheads up here. Alas, sometimes a veteran sportswriter can't hold a candle to what you remember from when you were 10 years old, especially if you have Baseball Almanac for confirmation.

Live blog for Game 3 starting in less than 15 minutes. Dun-dun-dun-duh-dun, Dun-dun-dun-duh-dun . . .