RED SOX-JAYS: SHOULD HAVE LET MANRAM SWING FOR THE DOWNS

Thursday -- Red Sox 5, Jays 3: Orthodoxy, schmorthodoxy. So much for wanting the righty-righty matchups: The first reaction upon hearing about yesterday's unravelling was to wonder what percentage John Gibbons was chasing when he brought in Shaun Marcum to pitch to Manny Ramirez -- who promptly homered to tie the game 3-3 -- after Scott Downs had struck out his only batter, David Ortiz.

That was the gut feeling, and a quick check revealed that the lefty Downs (pictured) has held Manny to four singles and one RBI in 16 career at-bats. Why not give him a chance to go after Ramirez there? Marcum had never raced Manny, so there's an argument that there's no time like the present to give him a shot at shutting down top righty-hitting sluggers.

Anyways, no tears over this one. Roy Halladay hasn't had a bad start yet and the offence shouldn't continue to be this anemic. It shall pass.

Thanks to The Tao of Stieb, Deadspin and Ling Vortex, everyone got to see what it's like when Red Sox fans -- we know Massachusetts is a liberal state, but since when are you apparently allowed to cross an international border while on parole? -- come to the cable box. What a bunch of wads. By the way, a Deadspin commenter kind of put it best. This should put to rest the notion Yankees fans are obnoxious -- most of the people who follow the Evil Empire up to Toronto are downright civil, although that's because they're Establishment types. Red Sox fans, meantime, constantly find new depths of dickishness. Not all of them, just half of them, mind you.

Wednesday -- Sawx, Jays 1: Well, Tomo Ohka had good enough stuff to beat about half the teams in the AL. That is all.

Tuesday -- Jays 2, Red Sox 1: Someone else should go and have fun with the fact that Daisuke Matsuzaka is now 1-2 with the lone win coming against the Kansas City Royals. Dice-K had the classic young Todd Stottlemyre start -- this is perhaps the only time "classic" and "Stottlemyre" will ever appear in the same sentence -- where one bad inning ruined his day. The Jays worked in an infield hit and a Lyle Overbay single with three bases on balls to score twice in the fourth inning and made it stand up. In the immortal words of Jamie Quirk, that was a maximization of a minimum of hits.

• Gustavo Chacin never loses to the Red Sox. This is uncanny. It has to end some time, right? Shame on those among us who put too much into the law of averages.
• Haven't heard otherwise but the Toonie Tuesday games have gained a rep for being crazy. Hopefully, the large contingent of Japanese-Canadian fans who came out to see Matsuzaka (pictured) were able to enjoy the game in peace.
• Didn't Casey Janssen and Jason Frasor get the memo about how the Jays bullpen was super-thin without B.J. Ryan?

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