CLEVELAND-JAYS: TIME FOR A TEASE

Sunday -- Jays 1, Cleveland 0: Getting the win forgives (a) the failure to hit Paul Byrd; (b) letting Josh Towers start the ninth inning when the law of diminishing returns would suggest he'd given all he had to give; (c) why I can't get a date (just throwin' that out there); and (d) not pinch-hitting for John McDonald with two out in the bottom of the eighth and the go-ahead run in scoring position.

It's a little funny Goober Gibbons presumably didn't pull the trigger and pinch-hit for McDonald in the eighth since he was likely worried about weakening his infield defence. McDonald ended up being charged with an error in the ninth, when the Jays had less margin for error then they would have if they managed to get the lead. Still, they won.

At least someone evidently reminded the manager the rules do permit him to call on the closer in a tied game. Jeremy Accardo, who was left in the bullpen for an extra-inning game in Minnesota a while ago, got the final two outs in the ninth inning and credit for the win. Reed Johnson got a hit with one out, and Alex Rios drove him for the only run.

About Kenny Rodríguez, the Cuban defector the Jays have reportedly signed: He's a right-handed reliever who isn't as coveted as countrymen such as Jose Contreras or Yuniesky Betancourt, although he has the same agent, Jaime Torres. Baseball America described Rodriguez last summer as a "below-average pitcher in Cuba's highest-level league, Serie Nacional," but he had 72 strikeouts and held batters to a .227 average in 75 innings in 2006, mostly as a reliever. That doesn't sound half-bad given the quality of Cuban baseball, especially if he was only 20 years old last year. (Some sources say he's 22.)

Rodríguez, according to one article that turned up on Google, played for Cuba in the 2002 world junior tournament held in Sherbrooke, Que.

Saturday -- Cleveland 9, Jays 4: So far today it's quintessential Gibbsons-era Blue Jays. They put a couple wins together, have the old false sense of security set in and then their uppance comes courtesy of a gen-u-ine contender.

The foreboding hit right when Sportsnet threw up a graphic titled "Starting To Roll" in the pregame with some of the team stats across, wait for it, their little 3-1 stretch. Jamie Campbell, God love him, he knows who signs his paycheques, was talking about the Jays getting a sweep this weekend to get above the .500 mark. However, in a favourite phrase of one of our (unrequited, it goes without saying) high school crushes, As if.

Anyone who knows a little baseball knows that winning three out of four is too random, too small a sample size to indicate anything. Even the Rays and Royals have 3-1 stretches. You could look it up. The Jays might be turning this around, just not today.

Cleveland tagged hard-luck Shaun Marcum for six runs -- all on two-out hits -- in their first two at-bats. That's not really a fair reflection on him. He ran into the best bunch of hitters in the majors, that's all. Meantime, Fausto Carmona, who came in averaging less than five strikeouts per nine innings, had that many just in the first three innings.

Friday -- Jays 8, Cleveland 6: Hey, it was like Reed Johnson never left or something. Roy Halladay laboured to last enough to qualify for his 10th victory and tie Brad Penny for the major-league lead, but Doc was due for an evenout after getting nothing to show for his previous start last Saturday in Seattle.

No one has seen anything like that pitch of Casey Janssen's which ended up in the Jays third-base dugout. Considering Matt Stairs also legged out a triple, there must have been some kind of ionic disturbance.

(UPDATE: And what did the Detroit Tigers do in their first game since Neifi Pérez was suspended? They beat the league-leading Red Sox 9-2. You don't say.

Much obliged to The Tao and Hum and Chuck for the links on Friday to the A.J. Burnett-J.P. Ricciardi post.)

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