JUST GIBBON THE O'S A WIN

If there was ever a night to call in to the post-game show and wait on hold for half an hour knowing you would still be angry at your favourite team when you finally got a chance to speak, this is it.

It's a little inaccurate to write this about the Baltimore Orioles, who are still members of the American League in good standing, but memory fails when it comes to recalling the last time a Blue Jays manager so throughly and obviously gift-wrapped a decisive rally for the opposing team the way John Gibbons did tonight. Baltimore won 8-4 after, wait for it, trailing just 2-1 through six. The Baltimore Orioles, for pity's sake.

Shaun Marcum started tonight for the Jays and pitched as well as he's thrown since coming up from Syracuse, allowing just two hits and one run through six innings. That's where it should have ended. Gibbons, sadly for the Jays, had the genius idea that even with a slew of lefty hitters due up in the Baltimore seventh, that he would keep the right-hander Marcum in the game, even though he was close to 100 pitches.

So what if that to anyone who's thinking realistically, you should be happy with six innings of one-run ball from a kid pitcher. Some people will point that maybe Gibbons was trying to save the bullpen after it threw all nine innings on Monday, but none of the pitchers who are used to protect late-inning leads were used in that game: Brian Tallet, Jeremy Accardo and Brandon League pitched.

When Marcum came out to start the seventh, my mind flashed back to July 19. That night, Casey Janssen, the rookie whom Marcum has replaced in the rotation, pitched, wait for it, six innings of one-run ball. Gibbons let Janssen continue, and he coughed up a game-tying home run and ended up taking the loss in a game that he likely would have won if his manager had realized just when the law of diminishing returns had kicked in.

So Marcum got the first two Orioles hitters out, and then lefty-hitting Corey Patterson lined a hit down the right-field line. It ricocheted off the fence to Alex Rios. It was a single for 95% of the hitters in the league, but Patterson, one of the league's fastest players, ended up on second. Some Jays fans might shrug this off as bad luck, but that's missing the point: If it was bad luck, Gibbons clearly brought it on himself.

After all, Baseball 101: Never let the starting pitcher lose the lead late in the game.

Lefty Scott Schoeneweis was brought in with the tying run on second and a slimmer margin for error than he would have faced if Gibbons had let him start the inning, or simply brought him in to pitch to Patterson with the bases empty. Nick Markasis hit a ground-ball single up the middle to tie the game 2-2 -- there was that slim margin of error rearing its ugly head.

Two walks followed, hastening Schoeneweis' exit and bringing Justin Speier, who with the bases loaded and Melvin Mora at bat, had a slimmer margin of error than he would have if he had come in say, to start the eighth inning -- regardless of what the score might have been if Gibbons had been doing his job properly.

Mora hit a three-run double, putting the Orioles up 5-2 and causing this Jays fans to throw anything and everything that was within arm's reach, and when that was proved insufficient, overturn a coffee table.

Now some fans will probably pin this one on the bullpen, but it all started with a manager who didn't do a good job of contemplating the ifs and minimizing risk for his ballplayers. It would have all been moot if the pitchers had got the outs -- but that only would have covered up that Gibbons took three major-league pitchers and put each one in a position to fail.

There's just certain things you don't do. You don't ask Bengie Molina to steal home. You don't ask Troy Glaus to lay down a suicide-squeeze bunt. Maybe a month from now when the Jays are for all practical purposes eliminated and he's got his legs under him a bit more, you let Shaun Marcum come out for the seventh inning with a one-run lead. But not tonight.

So here's the thing. A manager's ability to strategize isn't as important, in the long run, as keeping a tight lid on his team and being able to relate to his players -- keeping their confidence up through the Long Season. That ability to treat keep everyone on an even keel, letting all 25 guys think they're getting a fair shake, should be reflected in how the skipper manages the game. Tonight, and not exactly for the first time, Gibbons made some moves that really raised doubts about his abilities.

It's too much to say, "Fire Gibbons!" or declare a loss by a third-place team to a fourth-place team a heartbreaker. However, Gibbons messed up royally, and if you're a Jays fan, you should file losses such as tonight's away if, by this time next year, this team still has the underachiever label. Maybe it's not them; it's the man in charge. At least Roy Halladay starts tomorrow, and yes, it's getting tiresome having to type that after pathetic displays such as tonight.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.