Some would say they were 24 hours late in light of what appeared here yesterday, but the Toronto Star's baseball writers have dug a third-place grave for the Blue Jays after yesterday's walk-off 6-5 loss to Oakland.
Not to shoot the messenger, but it's fairly easy for beat writer Geoff Baker and columnist Richard Griffin, along with the scribes from the other Toronto papers (which don't update their websites until after I go to sleep) , to arrive at that conclusion after yesterday, when the Jays turned in a performance that was the equivalent of listening to fingernails being dragged across the chalkboard for three hours.
Only the true believers would think the Jays aren't teetering on the edge of the cliff as far as their playoff hopes go. For anyone in the media to offer anything but a written or verbal push, figuratively speaking, would just seem like a waste of energy, or worse yet, shilling for a sinking ship. (Hey, maybe Shea Hillenbrand was on to something.)
Fingernails across the chalkboard. Blown opportunity after opportunity against a rookie, Shane Komine, on a day when Roy Halladay was good enough to deserve his 14th win. Finally, after Doc was out of the game, a three-run rally off Huston Street in the top of the ninth to take the lead, only to have Oakland match that when Milton Bradley homered off B.J. Ryan with two out in the home half of the inning. (Baker did point out, astutely, that the real killer was Ryan walking Mark Kotsay in a lefty-lefty matchup one batter before Bradley's moon shot. That was the cardinal sin.)
As any cynical conjurer can tell you, that whole collapse typifies a season where this team has spit the bit mre often than not. It couldn't just be that Ryan was extended after throwing 30-some pitches two days after he'd pitched a rare two-innings save. No sirree. Even if it was, that's more of an indictment on the rest of the club for putting its closer in that situation by not getting good enough pitching earlier in games or scoring enough runs, now isn't it?
If nothing else -- and that's not just a throwaway phrase -- 24 of the remaining 57 games remaining are against the teams the Jays are trailing for either the division or wild card race. And this is a team that tends to play better against good clubs than the ones it's supposed to beat.
There's nine games left against the Yankees beginning with this week's series in New York, plus eight against Boston, four against Minnesota and a three-game set against the White Sox this weekend at Rogers Centre. There's certainly no lack of showdowns with the top teams. It's just that, with the likes of Dustin McGowan and Shawn Marcum thrust into the starting rotation, the Jays keep bringing a knife to a gun fight.
Incidentally, if you're wondering, Cool Standings has downgraded the Jays to 86.3 wins and a 4% chance of making the playoffs. Don't look so glum there. Baltimore and Tampa Bay fans would kill to be in that position at this point in the season.
The wise route: Reaffirm the goal that 90 wins would be enough -- playoffs, schmlayoffs -- and opt for baseball-themed therapy each day until Stage 5, acceptance, is reached. Tonight's, by the way, was watching Eight Men Out on DVD for the first time.
OTHER BUSINESS
- Us redheads have to stick together: Lindsay Lohan's mom was completely right to rip into the movie-company lowlife who chastised the full-time party girl and occasional actress for coming down with heat exhaustion during a movie shoot. Someone text-message this to this guy's Crackberry: You put a 95-pound girl with asthma through a 12-hour day in 105-degree heat that's killing people in California and you get mad when they get heat exhaustion?
It would come as no surprise if this guy drives some ozone layer-wrecking gas-guzzling SUV. That's going to make the heat ever really unbearable for him when he's picking lettuce in the Salinas Valley in his next lifetime. (This assumes the existence of both reincarnation and a just God with a keen sense of irony, but what the hey, it's 3:30 a.m.) - The Detroit Lions are terrible and the Vikings are not. Don't get all smug, Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers fans. Your uppance shall come.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment