DODGERS-JAYS: KARMA, KARMA, KARMA, KARMA, KA-CASEY JANSSEN... IT COMES AND GOES

Thursday -- Dodgers 8, Jays 4: Try to keep some perspective and remember this was uncharacteristic for Casey Janssen and the bullpen — but the hitting was back to soiling the good linen like it has all season.

The game was left out there for the taking vs. L.A.'s lesser lights, fill-in starter Chad Billingsley and Mark Hendrickson, which created bad karma for the late innings. It dumped all over poor Janssen, whose ERA ballooned like Rich Garces, going from 0.95 to 2.37 after his ignominious line 0 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO.

(Hat tip to The Tao of Stieb for pointing this out prior to the game: The Jays are now 0-4 the game after they score 10 runs. Feel free to add that to the people's case vs. John Gibbons and Mickey Brantley.

Vernon Wells, by the way, was 0-for-14 in this series. Just sayin'.)

Wednesday -- Jays 12, Dodgers 1 It seems like only people with no inner life would ever have Dodgers lefty Hong-Chih Kuo on their fantasy team. Live arm, no head — he's like a diamond version of Ryan Leaf, except left-handed and Taiwanese.

Frank Thomas managed to check his swing to save an at-bat right before he hit the grand slam that made it 8-0 in the second inning. He's started to make more solid contact, oh ye of perpetual inpatience. That was the game right there.

Meantime, it's strike two on J.P. Ricciardi's off-season reclamation projects — John Thomson was cut loose, joining Tomo Ohka on the scrap heap. Low-risk, low-yield, indeed.

Tuesday -- L.A. 10, T-Dot 1: For some reason, this was easier to digest than Sunday's somnabulation through a two-run loss to Washington.

It might be resignation to the inevitable, becoming desensitized to seeing Thomas hit weak pop flies like the 250-lb., de-Jheri-curled reincarnation of Manny (Manuel) Lee, or discovering that Showcase reruns Billable Hours on Tuesday nights. (We've been just a little bit infatuated with Jennifer Baxter since her turn on the short-lived Playmakers. She's rather good-looking for a 5-foot-11 blonde.)

Or it might just be that unlike 95% of the callers to the post-game show, we actually looked ahead at the schedule and saw that the Jays have their stopper (Roy Halladay) throwing Wednesday and that the Dodgers just lot Jason Schmidt and have pressed reliever Chad Billingsley into starting Thursday night's game.

Dustin McGowan should bounce back from getting jocked. On the bright side for Canadian baseball, Toronto-born Russ Martin, the future all-star starting catcher, homered in his first game on Canadian field turf.

Last word to Mike Wilner on the FAN 590 post-game show: "This is a frustrating team to watch."

(It just so happens that SI.com has a feature on Alyssa Milano's line of MLB women's apparel which appeared the same day your morning newspaper probably included some mention that Martin, helped by Ms. Milano's campaigning, has a 125,000-vote lead on his closest competitor in the National League all-star balloting. Never underestimate Alyssa Milano's influence, it's right up there with the nefarious Egg Council.)

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Alyssa Milano, Charmed By Russ Martin (May 29, 2007)

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