The Tigers come to town, and the Jays look to continue the getting-back-on-track that started yesterday, and catch a break in that rain didn’t wash out last night’s Justin Verlander start in Cleveland, meaning that they’ll miss him in this series.
Staff Ace Carlos Villanueva (TM) takes the hill, with a defence that once again doesn’t include Yunel Escobar (or Jose Bautista, or JP Arencibia) behind him. And hey! Three lefties in a row in the middle of the order! Except… MAYBE NOT!!!
Dun dun dun…
UPDATE: Shi Davidi tweets: “Before speculation gets out of hand (too late), I’m told Adam Lind almost certainly scratched for physical reasons. No specific details yet.” (Italics mine, because… dun dun dunnnn!!!!)
UPDATE THE SECOND: It’s back tightness for Lind as well. Is “back tightness” the new… um… “back injury”? I’m going to go ahead and say no, even though the conspiracy theorist in me thinks it’s possibly more than a little coincidental that two of the club’s most tradeable position players have come down with this affliction– and so soon after being originally included in today’s lineup. But we’d drive ourselves nuts if we open the door to believing these are lies, and for what? To have an inkling of something for a few fleeting hours– if that– before we’re told about it officially anyway? Forget that, these two are just hurting.
Scuttlebutt
All sorts of stuff swirling at the moment, as Yunel Escobar was a late scratch from the lineup– with back tightness, as a club spokesman made sure to let the press corps. know, according to a Gregor Chisholm tweet– and now, according to a tweet from Shi Davidi, Adam Lind has been an even later scratch from the lineup as well! Hmmm…
“No reason given for that one,” Gregor tweets.
Earlier Gregor relayed these words from John Farrell…
Farrell responded to media reports suggesting Escobar has been a problem in the clubhouse: “Unfounded as far as I’m concerned.” #BlueJays
— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) July 27, 2012
More JF: “I can’t speculate or have any understanding of where they originate from but I did see (those) comments and completely unfounded.”
— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) July 27, 2012
Davidi tweeted earlier about some progress being made on the injury front: Jose Bautista isn’t ready to hold a bat just yet, and the club is hoping that early next week he’ll be able to get in some “dry swings.” Brandon Morrow threw a bullpen session today and is on schedule to make a rehab start at Single-A Dunedin on Sunday. And “Drew Hutchison made 30 throws at 45 feet on first day of throwing program. Will be two days on, one day off for time being.”
TV: Sportsnet One
And now the lineups, by way of the live box score at theScore.com. And for those of you who’ll be out and about, be sure to follow all the action on your phone with Score Mobile…
Toronto Blue Jays
B. Lawrie 3B
O. Vizquel SS
C. Rasmus CF
E. Encarnacion 1B
K. Johnson 2B
Y. Gomes DH
T. Snider LF
J. Mathis C
A. Gose RF
C. Villanueva RHP
Detroit Tigers
A. Jackson CF
Q. Berry LF
M. Cabrera 3B
P. Fielder 1B
D. Young DH
B. Boesch RF
J. Peralta SS
A. Avila C
O. Infante 2B
R. Porcello RHP
Image via Jared Wickerham/Getty.
So, Rajai Davis is our entire bench tonight? Well then.
As crazy as it sounds, I’d prefer Davis as the DH tonight.
Yup, would’ve made more sense for defensive flexibility. Now an injury or ejection to an infielder or Mathis will cause us to lose the DH. Don’t see what upgrade if any Gomes offers over Davis with the bat anyways.
The lineup was updated. Gomes is at 1B, not DH, so that isn’t a problem.
So, we’re rocking a Gomes/Mathis/Gose/Vizquel lineup tonight? Oh, dear.
Different line up fvrom the twitters: Chris Toman @Chris_Toman
New Blue Jays lineup: Lawrie 5; Vizquel 6; Rasmus 8; EE 0; Johnson 4; Gomes 3; Snider 7; Mathis 2; Gose 9
Oy, Vizquel in the 2nd spot.
And I have this nasty feeling that Rajai will be catching before the end of the game.
Woo! Staff ace Carlos Villanueva!
Villanueva’s taken the Staff Ace title from Laffey, eh?
Wow what an atrocious lineup we have going tonight. Luckily Porky Porcello is a sack of shit.
Sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Better make plans with the lady friends, fellas. These shitbags are not worth watching tonight. May as well save up your relationship capital for when the major league team is playing.
from the future…good call on this one.
Interesting to see the all the stories coming out refuting all this Escobar is a bad egg crap. Personally from what I’ve seen I don’t think Farrell or AA are the type of guys to put up with that shit from anyone. Same goes from certain guys in the clubhouse like Jose. I’ll admit he does look like he’s taking things a bit easy from time to time but he did last year as well. I’d want to see a September of Hechavarria at least before I thought about moving Escobar.
It is possible that both Lind and Escobar have “back” problems.
Nice knowing you guys.
Good Luck in Denver.
Vizquel batting second? Fireable offense?
Should be a shit show tonight.
As I’m sure you’re aware Stoeten, I’m a big fan of your work. But I gotta say: I’m not sure the Farrell quote is worthy of being reposted. I mean, if Escobar WAS a dressing room nightmare, do you think Farrell would openly say so to the press? How often does that happen? That said, I can’t help but think all of that talk is being put out there by other teams trying to lower Escobar’s price (if he’s actually available).
If John Farrell was more like TLR, he would’ve been the source of the rumour!
HA!
All the Jays reporters have gone silent on twitter for the last 25 minutes!
I’m way too interested to see what’s up here.
It’s likely nothing, probably… right?
Is it just possible that the Rigors of DHing have finally caught up to Lind?
+1
Anybody want to lay down an over/under on sacrifice bunts by Vizquel tonight? I’m going with two.
Talk about rally killer. why not snider up there vs a righty? more ab’s…far beter hitter..faster….more power..wtf.
Gotta get the left-right-left-right thing happening, right?
I’m a sucker for symmetry.
? It would disturb the righty/lefty balance? I dunno. Could have at least been Johnson. No reason at all for Vizquel to be on the team let alone batting second.
Id rather have luis valbuena.the guy they dfa’d to keep vizquel
McCoy
2.5 is the over/under. With 7.5 being the number of “fake bunt and pull bat back suddenly”
Well then, I guess I take the under.
Zaun says not a trade, but an injury of some sort to Lind.
How he hurt himself between BP and the start of the game….
He had a massive UBF brewing (unblown fart). Well, it blew and his rectal side wall exploded.
+1 zilly
Unknown injury means he ate at Taco Time for lunch and is trying to avoid shitting his pants.
baaaaaad suushi
I just had the best double tapered shit of my life.
(IF) we could do Bautista straight up for Josh Johnson, who would do it?
nope.
I like Johnson and all, but he’s not been THAT great this year while pitching in the NL east. So three years of Bautista for 1 year of Johnson? Sounds kinda nope.
maybe straight up for Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay?
Dear god no.
No, and I’d slap Larry Beinfest, dangle a dollar bill above David Samson’s head to watch him jump for it, then kick Jeffrey Loria in the vagina.
Hell no.
If years under contract were the same, I’d do it. I think it’s easier to get a stud bat then a stud arm (if we’re going under the assumption that Johnson can be a stud).
I have back tightness.
ab flex
All the cool kids are on the DL! Can I go onto the DL, too? Huh? Huh??
Vizquel hitting second? Where’s the strong stuff. Two bottles.
The rigors of DHing have finally gotten to Lind. It was a heroic performance to last even this long.
Escobar and Lind must have went for the 2 for 1 special
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_CaxuKUJeK0I/SerZPc-R12I/AAAAAAAAAyY/fpP_NL0kp94/s320/backwalk.jpg
I think AA and company should seriously look into hiring a new training staff. These are not all freak injuries and could be attributed to bad conditioning which the training staff is responsible for. This also isnt the first year the jays have been “injury plagued” with this same training staff.
I think you should seriously re-evaluate the importance you put on the training staff.
Or maybe you should: http://bit.ly/HhQpZG
Training staffs do matter.
Escobar is a douche(maybe) probably had back issues all year and didn’t tell them until the trade deadline…. wonder why? Johnson is hurt too most likely, so is Romero, they just aren’t telling anyone.
Alot of injuries but so do the Yankees and Redsox, Rays… every team really. Maybe AA learned you also have vets on minor league deals for depth reason. You can never have enough SP and they needed it. They had only four real options healthy going into spring training and didn’t do a fucking thing. Alvarez,Drabek where ?
I wonder why they’ve been terrible….. sign a bunch of SP this offseason and at least one legitimate one, just like you should have done this past offseason. It’s Clear AA is extremely overrated. ALl the player actually contributing on a regular basis are prodcuts of JP.
Lind’s back would be better if he actually worked out…. could hurt even more with inproper weight ltraining but with Light weights it can be extremely benefical to your back. (Back brace LInd while you work out)
Free AA
Riot!
My name
Or… maybe AA didn’t think this team was ready to contend yet and treated the off-season as such.
Still need a valid pitching staff…… overrated and depth always the chance of competeing no other team came into the year hoping 2 rookies and 2 healthy SP would carry the workload.
He’s the GM he has no idea when to compete the team tells him by playing and winning. If he provided them with a Edwin Jackson on a one year deal we could have three more wins right now. You don’t not compete when you have one of the top five postion players in baseball.
Can someone please teach Farrell on why that lineup is a bad idea. Put how many fucking left handers you want in your lineup to face a RHP, your bench solves the right, left situation later in the game. Farrell shouldn’t worry about the bullpen when this Jays team makes the shittest RHP in the world look like Jesus….. more lefties in a row Farrell ya cock.
Gose
Lawrie
EE
Rasmus
Snider
Johnson(switch Gomes with Johnson if your really worried about the bullpen when every starter that faces the Jays usually goes six or longer. Does any SP ever throw 100 + pitches against the Jays in six innings (Dwanye fuckin Murphy)
Gomes
Mathis
Vizquel(yuck)(put Lawrie at SS and Gomes at 3B)
Zaun loves Vizquel in the 2 spot tonight. Could we not have a former player that’s not retarded be our tv analyst?
Wow. Zaun just said he loves the idea having Vizquel bat second. Yeah, you definitely want a sub-500 OPS getting the second most at-bats in a game. Thanks.
I’d rather have the batboy bat second; no really I would.
DEAR FANS:
http://a1.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/82/f1d8eecc84b04c70869696be52363035/l.jpg
Colby’s your daddy
this is a familiar start
Deja Vu
We’re down 2-0 already? Oh, fuck me blue!
Don’t panic! i’m sure vizquel, gose and mathis can bat us out of this
Actually…they did. lol
Romero’s shitti-itis is apparently contagious, QUARANTINE THAT MAN!!!
Greinke to the Angels (kenny ken and morosi)
Angels are about to acquire Zach Greinke.
The Angels have five aces compaired to this SP staff.
None of our SP would make that angel’s team……. 2013 SP FA please!
Just a word to everyone, once again,,,, there’s is no help coming, everyone should go into not giving a fuck mode like myself and others have. Put your feet up and just enjoy the trainwreck. dont get stressed, just understand that this year is over and there’s no trade in the world that can make it better
A trade for Coco Crisp would make it better. Love that guy’s name. Fister makes me laugh too
The Fister/Furbush trade last year is among the best ever.
For fuck sakes lawrie would it hurt to take a few pitches?
Holy power, Batman!
Yeah? Fuck you all! Haaaaaaa haaaaaaa.
what the fuck? okay, I’ll take it.
Omar to the haters: It’s okay, I understand, but I will still go out and try my best – oh, a double, yeah fuck the haters.
OMAR’S COMING (home)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmtuRRhtGQw
Mathis has a 7 game hit streak…?
Love grows where our anthony gose and nobody knows…
+ Billions and Billions!
Isn’t that Vizquel’s first extra base hit of the season?
’tis
Everytime Cabrera is up, I expect him to hit it out .
Lol who is this Gareth Wheeler that Stoeten is berating on twitter?
Who gives a shit, Stoeten isnt happy unless hes arguing with someone about something.
He’s from TSN radio, and he’s generally an idiot.
A match made in heaven.
That was a BS call, our boy Rasmus was safe.
Safe as houses.
Word.
wow, look what happens when you dont swing at everything the pitcher throws up there
MATHIS !!!! FUCK YEAH
are new starting Catcher!!!
I always picture Jeff Mathis watching a hologram of David Farrell in the style of R2D2 speaking to Princess Leia. “Help me Jeff Mathis. You’re my only hope.”
I can’t believe I posted my ex-manager’s name there, I obviously meant John Farrell. I tried to be cool :/
Oh my Mr. Mathis!!
Mathis!!!! i spoke ill of you earlier, forgive me!
Villanueva fell behind early in his last start and came back to win as well, didn’t he?
Jeff Fucking Mathis and his 800+ OPS.
Dwayne Murphy, Turnaround Specialist (TM) says you’re welcome.
He did pull the ball!
Small Sample Sizes be DAMNED: 128 WRC+ and .361 wOBA!
Mike Scioscia says I always knew it!
GOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSE
And the last shall be first.. The maligned bottom of today’s lineup comes up big
Hell, man, you were the one disparaging them!
alas I was
stealll Gooooooooooose
Carlos V= Shawn Marcum?
Certainly would be a bonus if he ends up pitching as well as Marcum did for the rest of the season. Should be interesting to see what AA does with him seeing that he is a free agent. Almost tempted to try and lock him up now with Drabek on the shelf and Alvarez or Hutch possibly needing more time in the minors to refine things so they can take it to the next level. Having him around next year would be one good way to keep Cecil and Happ out of the rotation if they don’t do anything with Alvarez or Hutch next year.
it is idiot night on here i see. all the cocksuckers show up afterwards.the beginning of the game all of you shittting all over the lineup, players and farrell. then a big lead happens and the slurpfest begins.neurotic fucks
speaking of neurotic……
Isn’t the reaction of most fans to cheer when something good happens and boo when something bad happens?
The unluckiest bastard isn’t most fans. He just has the most handles.
grab these handles stubby. you have too many eyes on your skin, time to get peeled.
“touche” was what you were searching for my friend.
no. touche wasnt what i was searching for. but i think i will try fornicating with a bigger potato now.hahaa
Be careful. You could catch ring rot, or black scurf, not to mention early or late blight.
i think the booing happened before the game started
Anyone know what’s Loup’s contract (or Control) status is with the Jays?
they have him for at least 4 more years
Does this make Perez a chip when he comes off the DL?
now I know Omar did not get as much as Escobar would have on that throw to first, but Johnson could have put a little more charge into his relay to The Old Man
umm, fuck yeah Omar
The old man can still do it.
Mr. Aye Carumba folks. Hopefully on next year’s bench.
Mathis borrowed the swagger sleeve from Snider.
Oops Rasmus, I mean, dammit.
So did Johnson and Gomes it seems
off topic, but I checked the weather for London, rain in 10 of the next 14 days, with no high temp above 20, and lows below 10 on Sunday and Monday – get ready for the subplot of these Olympics: “Who the fuck agreed to Summer Games in England? Should have been bigger bribes!!”
Did anyone else notice they played the sex pistols ‘anarchy in the UK’ in the feel-good opening ceremony? when did my youth become elevator music?
When you became an old fart, you old fart.
Wait until they use it to sell suppositories or something. Aging is humbling.
Johnny Cash ‘Ring of Fire’
Ouch
Only if your brain is still working.
how about the prominence they seemingly gave to Firestarter – who knew The Prodigy was such a cultural icon in Merry Olde . . .
It isn’t exactly a bang-bang play when the runner isn’t in the frame.
our old friend Octavio – maybe he gets to face Rasmus (The Circle of Life moment)
the angels paid dearly for greinke. their 1,3 and 8 rated prospects for a rental.supposedly greinke wants to resign with the angels though. oaklands offence has 8 on the o’s. but can they compete against the yanks, rangers and halos?
The Angels got Grienke? What have I been missing?
Beast Mode engaged
I wish the Maple Boner would learn how to slide, nor skid.
MOTHERFUCKING OMAR VIZQUEL, PIMP, BOSS, GANGSTA
His first two extra base hits of the season. Not too shabby, old guy!
Vizquel isnt fucking around tonight…I like it
*Farrell cackles in the dugout*
50 Shades of Grey (Omar Vizquel and Octavio Dotel)
I guess Leland forgot not to have Dotel face lefties.
cmon, Colby we traded this guy for YOU
Venezuelan Hall of Fame meeting at third base there with Miggy and Omar
how about Farrell with the Citoesque line up card (I just had a feeling there with Omar in the 2 hole)
So here’s a question. What instances are there of managers who started out poorly in, say, tactics/lineup writing, and as they got more experience got better at these aspects?
One can only hope that there are myriads of examples. (Or, as Carl Sagan would say, billions & billions.)
Thank you, thanks a billion!
wow, tough because who even keeps track of that type of “stat”, it would have to canvas the best writers, but probably as Tango and James would say “observational bias” would make that very unreliable
“beat writers” not “best writers”
i dont know but farrell hit a jackpot with lawrie and rasmus 1 and 2 for awhile
Oliver’s another grey ghost doing just fine.
Another HR off a Lefty!
Lunchbox Hero
another LEFTY HR
The Sniderman looks locked in don’t he
He’s hangin’ in there alright against lefties right now.
nom nom nom nom
Please let this not be just Travis’ usual hot 20 games.
I second that emotion.
The Detroit broadcasters just said that Snider has a “squatty body” – made me think of Buck + Tabby + their obsession with the male form…Squatty Body is a good nickname though.
Squatty Lunchbox.
I prefer Lunchbox Squatty. Sounds like an emergency turd on the job. Hmmm. It’s late
To be fair, Snider also played highschool football as a lineback and running back.
They are going to talk shit about Snider’s frame when they have Miggy and Fielder?
Move Lunchbox up to batting behind EE!
Snider has a plan.
Stay in the fucking majors?
Im not crazy about using oliver and jannsen in games where they are up by more than 3 runs. This is the second straight day farrell has used them meaning they could very well not be available tomorrow.
When Oliver was in, the were only up by 3. And Jannsen was already warm. So…
That’s the problem with having such an inconsistent ‘pen. Do you trust Crawford/Happ/Carreno *NOT* to give up 3+ runs? There is no easy answer for Farrell.
they were up by 4. oliver gave 1 up.
Fuck tomorrow. I want this win (and I just got it.) WOOT!
Isn’t this the second game in a row Janssen was brought in to defend a huge lead?
Just watch tomorrow be a one-run game and Janssen won’t be available.
in the bigs always take the win. like blackjack you dont split a winner
cito?
thats ridiculous.
yeah and you can tell when a 10 game losing streak is due.fuck off brandon
I’m looking forward to what the graph that Stoeten is going to caption tomorrow. Particularly with Omar V’s hits.
I dunno. I’m thining 3HR against lefties has got to instill some confidence from the manager. It’d probably even impress Cito. (Especially since he pulled that one.)
Fuck, yeah!
A 2 game winning streak, and I’ve now completely forgotten about the shit show that we witnessed earlier this week.
In the late 70′s I was hitch-hiking from the other side of Hamilton going to Toronto. The driver was an older man listening to a very staticie radio channel from Detroit. His son was pitching. The son was John Hiller who established the, then, record for saves at 41. John Hiller had had a heart attack but came back from that to be a premier reliver.
You old softy!
It happened, Ernie Harwell was the braodcaster as I recall
Try ding that kind of thing today, and you’ll wind up as a rosin bag
i am puttting this out there. i think yu darvish isnt going as high ceiling as predicted. middle of the pack pitcher tops. a slide downwards into the fall because of durability? he might be expensive by alot. i dont mind an overpay but if its way crazy it could inflict tons of pain.overrated teams detroit, cleveland arizona tampa
you’re on a roll tonight.
so are you i see
I’m not a big believer in catcher’s ERA, but I’m actually interested to see how Romero pitches with Mathis.
I think Rickey will bounce back. he needs to remember the passion he had in Spring Training when he gave his “I’m tired of going home early” speech. Go get em Rickey!! Stop thinking and start throwing.
I suppose it’s ironic that the Jays were counting on him & Morrow to lead the team this year. MORROW has pitched very well but has been hurt since June 10.
Ricky has been horrible since about the time Morrow got hurt, yet the team is still 1 game above 500.
I wonder if AA will be allowed to upgrade the team next year, because without injures this year, it is a playoff team, so any upgrades would give the Jays a playoff cushion.
Carlos “The Villain” Villanueva