Thursday -- Cleveland 6, Jays 5: Chin up, like Chuck Tanner once said, the second-greatest feeling in the world is to lose a major-league baseball game. It seems a bit rash -- OK, so it doesn't -- to pronounce Dustin McGowan a flop based on one lousy start vs. one of the best-hitting teams in the American League. His pitches were up, and he started overthrowing everything and was unable to get ahead on the hitters. Then again, we've seen this from him so often when he's been up with the Jays, so patience is running thin.
This was a basic stomach-punch loss, where Cleveland scoring the go-ahead run off Jason Frasor in their final at-bat seemed as predictable as the sun setting in the west.
At least the Jays' next series is someplace where they aren't cursed. Wait, it's Texas? Never mind.
Wednesday, Cleveland 7, Jays 6 (11 innings): That's nice -- the Jays' failure to push a run across over the last five innings leaves a taxed bullpen for Dustin McGowan's big debut today.
Cleveland is officially a Jays fan's least favourite team for reasons that go beyond the result the last two nights. Talk about a pokey bunch. They score a lot of runs, their hitters see a lot of pitches and their pitchers tend to take their sweet-ass time delivering the ball, so any time they play a nine-inning game in less than three hours is a miracle. It's bad enough that the Jays have lost two in a row to this bunch, but neither game ended until after 11 p.m.
Oh, and the bullpen just worked seven-plus innings with a high-maintenance rookie due to start the next game. Nice effort by Scott Downs, Casey Janssen and Jeremy Accardo, though.
(UPDATE: The Tao of Stieb has a better report.)
No worries for those of you who have Aaron Hill, Troy Glaus and Alex Rios in fantasy leagues, those dongs did count. Unfortunately for the Jays, so did A.J. Burnett's effort.
To quote a line once attributed to another reviled right-hander, Erik Hanson, Burnett was throwing up volleyballs and the Indians were spiking them for kills. Travis Hafner and Jhonny Peralta took A-Joke out of the yard and the game got out of hand faster than a Queen's homecoming street party.
A-Joke's pitches were up and against the AL Central-leading Indians, that's asking for trouble. At some point Jacobs Field became a house of horrors for the Jays, who have lost nine of their last 10 games there.
Everyone's aware Indians second baseman Josh Barfield's dad used to play for the Jays, right? Good, just checking, since Jamie Campbell will probably mention it every time younger Barfield (pictured) comes to bat against the Jays.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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