The last time Yu Darvish took the hill at Rogers Centre, I was watching from a bar in Texas. Kyle Drabek gave him a battle in, when all is said and done, what may end up his best big league start in three full years, while the pricey import looked to be cementing his quick ascension to the upper tier of starters in the league. It was Darvish’s fifth start in the Majors, and while he gave up his first home run (to Edwin Encarnacion), the Jays were the fourth straight team he’d held to one earned run or fewer, and he struck out nine, following up a ten strikeout performance against the Yankees the week before, and walking only two.
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED??!?
Darvish has seen his season go a bit south since then– albeit maybe not quite as far as Drabek– as he’s only managed to walk two or fewer in three of the seventeen starts that followed, with his BB/9 clocking in at a fugly 5.05, while he’s put up respectable-enough FIP and xFIP numbers (3.43 and 3.90), it certainly hasn’t been quite as good as expected. Though… I’m sure the Blue J-AAA-ys will give him a helping hand tonight.
Oh yeah, and now I’m drinking $3 cider tall-boys in my back yard, as opposed to $1 Lone Star tall-boys at the damn bar. Guh.
Scuttlebutt
If you haven’t seen the spectacular catch that Canadian kid made in the Little League World Series today yet, do yourself a favour.
No Rasmus in the lineup tonight, which I’m sure will make some people lose their shit about rushing him back yesterday for no apparent reason. Of course, those people are going to lose their shit about something, so I’d just recommend ignoring their noise. A re-aggravated groin isn’t going to keep Colby out of the next Jays game that matters, which will take place some time early next April.
Encadwin back in tonight, though! So… even if those shit-losers were somehow swayed about my comment above about Rasmus, they’re probably pissing their little pants about Encarnacion being back so soon. Just swathe them in bubble wrap and call up org. guys from the Gulf Coast League team to play out the string, amiright? And shit, better not let anyone key risk cramping up on the bench, or driving, or eating solid foods.
I can’t pick a single source to relay it from, but I can assure you that earlier in the afternoon all of Twitter went out of their way to let us know that Ryan Dempster won’t be with the Rangers this weekend for “personal reasons” and that Leonys Martin has been called up. Hopefully not one of them Dave Foley things. Or… anything bad. No ill will for DemOpster.
According to John Lott of the National Post, John Farrell does not care for your speculating about the speculation that he’s being considered by the Boston Red Sox… uh… speculatively.
TV: Sportsnet
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 or tablet with Score Mobile…
Toronto Blue Jays
R. Davis LF
K. Johnson 2B
E. Encarnacion DH
D. Cooper 1B
Y. Escobar SS
M. Sierra RF
O. Vizquel 3B
J. Mathis C
A. Gose CF
J. Happ LHP
Texas Rangers
I. Kinsler 2B
E. Andrus SS
J. Hamilton LF
A. Beltre DH
M. Young 1B
D. Murphy RF
G. Soto C
C. Gentry CF
M. Olt 3B
Y. Darvish RHP
Image via Jared Wickerham/Getty.
Omar Vizquel…
not liking Happ’s chances against Texas. although if Darvish throws a turd of a game then the lineup might be able to squeek out enough runs for a win.
Fucking bottom third of that lineup is disgusting.
That entire lineup is disgusting, minus EE
Sierra worth watching to see if his hot start is for real
Cider tallboy?
Trout, Adam Jones and Romero all tweeted about that catch. Jones said, “That might be the catch of the year in all of baseball.”
So Yu is done with the hair dye and flowing locks – a little more humble perhaps – no rock star look
Probably just realized how stupid it looked.
That’s much more likely than humble.
So I’d say his shoulder is just fine. Fuck off whiny bitches!
Too late they fired AA and Farrell and Beeston afetr that guy complained yesterday.
bomb
The Wing-Thing. Thanks EE.
My boy EDDDDDDIE!
Pun time:
EE aint scared of YU
hu mee?
If EE, Bautista, Cletus and Lawrie can all stay healthy next year it could be fun to watch.
Lawrie, Cletus, Joey Bays and EE. That 1,2,3,4 punch would be about as good as any in the Majors.
The Happ-ster! HAmmy Happster
This guys is starting to look untouchable…I’m not trusting what I’m seeing
What do you guys think of this trade idea for off season?
arencibia and sierra to mets for daniel murphy and niese…we can also add a single a or double a prospect if need be. doable? logical?
I think the Mets would laugh you out of the office unless there were significant prospects involved.
This is a little nuts.
It Happ-ened One Night!!
and we are watching it
Anybody else see the giant pile of douche sitting in the front row right behind the plate, in the sunglasses? I think they should profile the people who get to sit back there…
which one of the 4 douches in sunglasses do you mean? my money is on the guy in the ball cap
Haha, yeah, take your pick…
These douches are paying respectable people. Take a look in a mirror to see a true douche bag!
ja happ
holy crap!!
Yu Happ-y, Bro??
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=you%20mad%20bro%3F
Steal home! Steal home!
Whay a nice little stretch for Happ. Nice to see to get some peeps on board.
It’s a “K” party tonight!!!
No perfecto tonight…
Ok you’ve got a choice here between Tabby and Alan “Dr Peabody” Ashby….what did we do to deserve these guys?
I’ll still take Ashby over Tabby all day.
All day, every day. No contest.
We live in a demon haunted world.
Happ is looking pretty good tonight. Nice to see and hope that this is why AA went out and got him…albeit a small sample to draw any conclusion
I like him too. He seems to be confident and has handles Texas pretty well 2 X through their lineup. Not throwing that high fastball too much which I like. Teams tend to sit on stuff like that after a while.
Anyone else noticing Davis is getting a bit more comfortable in LF?
hope he doesnt get too comfortable
Touche.
Wonder if that’s his problem?..He gets too relaxed and flubs ordinary balls. Hmmmmm….
I was alluding more to the fact that he should only be our starting LF for another month.
Now that you mention it——yes.
Rajai’s looking more & more comfortable in left. (or maybe I’m just remembering certain others who didn’t.)
nice to see MLB “considering” a space-ago gizmo – early adopters are sooooo overrated
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8278062/major-league-baseball-test-two-experimental-replay-systems
Speedy fucker, isn’t he?
Its a pleasure watching him run
Little looper triple!
Drink!
Quality AB Rajai – great approach to drive in that run
Nice job Rajai.
Speed kills! Awesome duo on the bases. It’s great to see another offensive weapon besides the long ball.
Now if KJ only knew how to cash a runner in…
Is this a little bit of competition for speed?
Yes please.
Objects thatnhave the least documented sightings:
Unicorn
Bigfoot
Salman Rushdie
David Coopers chin
Your sense of humor.
+ Billions and Billions
He sure has nice eyes.
Oh Kelly. You big tease.
Quality start for Happ
Book it.
Super small sample size alert, but nice couple starts for Happ.
If, say, he and Villanueva are duking it out for 5th starter/long man in 2013, I could live with that.
Stoeten you are on to me!
Takig out Delabar after he’s loaded the bases might be an idea.
Omar just lost my H o F vote.
No way! Damn you old man!
Hechaverria at third woulda got that…
He had a senior’s moment.
Fuckin aaaaayyyyy, Omar. What is that… like 3 goofs now??
Omar Vizquel…..a true VWKHTW!
The ball is eluding Omar’s bat too Alan, not just his glove.
Is it Casey time yet?
I’d be Lyon if I said yes.
Don’t let it send you for a Loop.
You were Oliver that one!
Now its time…
Having a drink at the Delabar and laughed at these posts
It could’ve been anyone though….Farrell’s got all of these guys at his Beck and call.
Ok I’ll settle for Brandon, then Casey
Let’s see, what to do tonight…
DJF on a Friday night during a meaningless August game? Nah.
SI.com game thread? Damn, no one there.
ESPN.com game thread? Ew, Rangers fans. Ew, ESPN trolls. Oh right, that’s why I stopped going to ESPN.
Hmm, well time to check the other forums I frequent.
What’s the topic du jour today? Male circumcision?!?! Ew. Gross. Screw this.
Hi DJF. Exciting game?
Oops, Brandon, Loup, then Casey….trying to figure out where Cecil fits in if Oliver comes back and they keep Loup up..
whoa, haha
Scooper Cooper.
This guy will be playing somewhere in the bigs next year.
I like him too, the Cooper Fan Club could meet in a phone booth (if you could find one.)
uh oh Lincoln Logs
Wow Farrell must really want this one !!
Where’s Zaun?
He’s down in Williamsport with his Ugandans
he got embarrassed with the lincoln move on heart attack night
for all the bettors out there, the jays win alot of first series games this year when the other team is roadtripping long distance.wonder if this happens alot with other teams too. like skewered stats in back to back games in nhl. i would assume this will carry over next year as well when the jays are healthy
It does happen to every team. Always bet against an East team when they first go out West. Or bet against the Jays every game on the West.
Sigh. Every once in a while I remember why I used to really like KJ. Not often enough though.
Aww what I wouldn’t give to see Scoop make the rangers pay…
thanks for comin out murphy
fuck off sportsnet for interrupting jansen for bullshit
Gose wasn’t calling that
It wouldn’t matter–Yescobar doesn’t listen.
How the hell has Gose gotten this far without knowing as CF he has to call off everyone else?
Very nice, Casey. Very nice.
Woo!
win
Nice wins Jays!
The Blue Jays have beaten the great Yu Darvish.
in style too.
Happy looked every bit like Cliff Lee tonight
He did. And Lee was a late bloomer. As lefties tend to be.
Why does Roger Millions remind me of Rob ” the fool” Faulds?
remember when KC offered us Greinke for Snider and Drabek and we said no-I’d like a mulligan on that please
Seriously we have to get off the snide and realize a lot of these prospe3cts are really suspects and ove a couple of em for say Gallardo of Milwaukee whom a lot of people aren’t aware of but he is effectively Milwaukee’s best picher. Then sign Marcum as a free agent and voila 2 SP;s.
Then trade for another, somehow so that if RR has turned into Steve Blass overnigfht we won’t have to call up fuckin Chavez or Coello or rigahashi ( whatever) or Carreno or Crawford or.. u get the idea
I thought Greinke had the power to veto any trade to Toronto?
Yes the Jays will have to trade prospects for MLB players because they don’t want to spend large amounts on free agents.
The key for AA & his scouts is to maximize the development of his draft pick, so that he can turn them into MLB controllable talent with at least 1 year experience.
Every time I try to talk to someone it’s “sorry this” and “forgive me that” and “I’m not worthy”…
Save our Queen!
Please dont frickasee us!
See before the trade for Delabar, and Lincoln, that game would have been blown in the 7 or 8th. That was a solid win.
Nice control on Nicolino this year – 104 innings, 101 Ks and 15 walks (almost 7 to 1 K:BB), even better over his last 10 – 52 innings, 52 Ks and only 5 walks.
Hope the Happ bashers over the three low A guys took note tonight. The guy can pitch and will be a solid starter in 13 for the Jays
Exactly. This non-tender talk is pure nonsense.
I don’t expect him to be as good as last night going forward – though that would be fantastic. But I agree the non-tender speculation was never realistic. The salary costs for Happ are low enough that AA would keep him around regardless of how he performs the rest of the season. More games like yesterday’s would sure help clarify things for next year.
Agreed. I doubt Happ will be going anywhere next year. This year taught the Jays that they need at least 10 qualified MLB starters on the depth chart
Happ will very likely be in the 4th or 5th spot next year.
I assume AA will find a #3 on the trade market or free agent.
Need to see way more of him before that sure it was a great start but just one. Again if he’s your 4th starter this team is seriously fucked. Bad enough he might be your 5th starter.
One good start doesn’t mean he’s great. He’s still got a 5.06 ERA in his 3 starts in total.
Christ even Cecil still manages to put up a good start every now and then. Laffey for that matter has had 5 starts where he allowed 3 runs or less and gone 6 innings. 2 of those he didn’t allow a run.
Those are all guys that borderline 5th starters. Not sure why everyone is happy about that.
The jays should be looking for a #1 or 2
Cecil has had 2 really good starts in Vegas (home games) since his demotion – 16 innings, 6 hits, 3 BBs, 15 Ks and only 3 ERs
one start was against a good Omaha offense
This is a good cider song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lAdFlP56kQ
In sad news, JJJ “Hammer” Cust is at a buck seventy-two in Vegas. Come on Cust: Diamond Nation in Toronto is your destiny.
I think Cust has always just been a depth guy for AAA. I don’t see what he could offer to the MLB team that we don’t have in McCoy.
Really? Let me know when McCoy can average 28 bombs over a three season span.
It must have taken some real effort to misread what I said in such an outrageous way. Yes, Cust had power in his prime, which he’s three years removed from, and during which he was one of the worst defensive players in the league. There is no one Cust should be taking playing time from on this team. If we had a need for a no-field bench bat, and it was 2010, maybe, but not now.
Bautista is taking live BP. Thank you baseball gods.
This time next week we could have Bautista, Lawrie, Lind and Morrow back. Want to see what their record will be over the final 35 games with those guys all reasonably healthy.
They’re still shit, whatever way you slice it
Arent you a giant ray of sunshine!
Are Rogers going to charge AAA ticket prices for these games? Buy some fucking pitchers this offseason or make some noise with a trade for a starter. Get rid of Omar vizquel as well