Game 127 – Sir Sidney

When the Yankees have no one better than Sidney Ponson to throw out there every 5 days, you know things are not well in Yankee Universe. The Jays jumped all over Ponson for 7 runs in 2+ innings. The offence did not stop there adding 6 more off Robertson and Traber over the next 3 innings. It all adds up to Halladay cruising to the win.

Halladay gave up just 3 hits and a walk through the first 6 innings before surrendering a 3-run HR to Matsui in the 7th. No doubt if it were a closer game Halladay handles that AB differently.

I was ok w/Downs getting work as he hadn’t pitched since he got hurt in DET 6 days ago. I would rather not see League used on the same day as Downs though in a blowout game. League had the past 3 days off but we saw what can happen when you use your main setup men w/large leads as they were all unavailable in a 1-run game in the DET finale. I don’t think 4 days off would have killed League especially during the dog days of August.

To see Lind tag from 2nd on that medium fly ball to CF and easily advance to 3rd in the 2nd inning just reiterates my belief that Damon has the worst OF arm in baseball. Almost any other outfielder and you don’t even think of tagging.

In the 3rd inning the Jays had 1st and 2nd none out and Stairs up. Stairs took a 1-2 fastball for strike 3. I’m not sure what he was thinking as he has to try and at least make contact in that situation. With 2 strikes you should always be protecting the plate but Stairs took a pretty good fastball w/o even offering. If I recall correctly, this is not the 1st time Stairs has gone down looking w/RISP.

There were a lot of big days offensively for the Jays. Inglett had 4 hits (3 1B, 1 2B), a BB, and scored 3 runs. Scutaro also had 4 hits (2 1B, 1 2B, 1 HR) and scored 3 runs while driving in 4, combining for a nice 1-2 at the top of the order. Rios and Stairs each picked up 3 RBI’s. Wells was the only one not to get a hit, but he did BB and score a run.

Here are the stats:
Adv: Nady, Scutaro (4), Stairs (3)
P-Adv: Ponson 2, Halladay (5)
Adv+: Rios (7), Lind (3), Scutaro (5)
P-Adv+: Ponson 2, Traber
NAdv: Stairs (8), Wells (7)
P-NAdv: Robertson 2
DE: Scutaro (5)
ME(r): Giambi, Scutaro (5)