The Showdown in Beantown

By Ian Hunter…
Not even the most clairvoyant of fortune tellers could have predicted that the Blue Jays and the Red Sox would be fighting for first place during their series in mid-May. While many experts predicted the Red Sox to win the American League East this season, almost nobody gave the Blue Jays a chance to even finish above fourth place in the division.

As with any series against the Red Sox, the key to victory for the Blue Jays will be to score runs early off the starting pitchers and to score them often. Although technically the Jays are the better hitting team at the moment, traditionally the Red Sox are a very powerful offensive club. Luckily for the Jays, Kevin Youkilis is still sitting on the disabled list and David Ortiz has no homeruns with an average that’s barely staying above .200.

Boston will be fortunate in that they won’t have to face the American League player of the week, Roy Halladay. But despite that, the rest of the starting rotation is nothing to scoff at. Aside from one horrendous 10-run outing in Oakland, Brian Tallet has settled in as a dependable starting pitcher. Brett Cecil and Robert Ray both pitched fantastic games in both of their previous starts, and will both get the ball later this week against Boston. Throwing in a game against the big bad Red Sox will likely be the biggest challenge of their young big league careers.

This series should be a great test for both teams to gauge what we can expect from them for the rest of the season. For the Blue Jays, it’s whether they can compete against the best in the American League East. For the Red Sox, it’s reconnaissance work against a potential opponent in the playoffs.

Blue Jays clinch series sweep with 3-2 win over the White Sox

By English Paul…

Once again, the Toronto Blue Jays came through in the clutch, completing their second sweep of the season, with a 3-2 victory against the Chicago White Sox.

Toronto, on the back of a strong outing by Scott Richmond, had forged a 2-0 lead heading into the eighth inning.  The scoring was provided by Kevin Millar’s second home run of the season in the second and a sacrifice fly RBI by Aaron Hill in the third.

Richmond finished with 74 strikes in 109 pitches.  He also had five hits, no runs, seven strikeouts and one walk, before being replaced by Jesse Carlson for the eighth inning.

Asked about his performance after the game, Richmond said, “I just wanted to make sure I prepared myself, I didn’t try and change too much.  I went after my same game plan, stuck to my strengths and battled through.   If someone gets on, they’re not getting to the next base.  I just take it one pitch at a time.”

Coach Cito Gaston was pleased for the rookie pitcher.  “He did a heck of a job, he really pitched well today.  It probably might be one of his better starts, he bounced back; his velocity was 91-93.  He had good control, he had to work hard one inning, but otherwise, the only sad thing is he didn’t win the game.”

The North Vancouver native was denied the win when Jim Thome hit his seventh home run of the season off of Carlson, with a man on base, to tie the game at two.  It was the designated hitters 548th career home run, tying him for thirteenth all time.

The 24,206 home crowd was visibly stunned, but didn’t have to wait long for the chance to raise the roof again.  Chicago’s relief pitcher, Octavio Dotel, walked Jose Bautista, who then advanced to second after a bunt by Marco Scutaro, only given the all clear to play one hour before first pitch.

With two men down, Alex Rios, who has returned to form recently, came up to the plate.  Bautista appeared to surprise Dotel by stealing third, setting the stage for Rios to hit an RBI triple and regain the lead for the home side.

Scott Downs entered the game in the ninth, and, aside from a walk, had little trouble retiring the side, securing his fifth save of the season.  Gaston summed up the game perfectly.  “We had a team win once again today.  These guys haven’t quit all year.  They keep on battling.  Some times we come up short, but a lot of the time we don’t.”

The Blue Jays now head to Boston in good spirits, despite the prospect of their sternest test yet.  Their 27-14 record equals the best start in team history.  This is also the first time that Toronto has been more than 12 games over .500, since August 12th 1999.

Talking about his approach for the series against the Red Sox, Gaston said, “It’s a tough place to play, but we’ll go there and take the three guys (Tallet, Cecil and Ray) that are going to start and go and play one game at a time and see if we can win one at a time.”

Paul Taylor can be contacted at: [email protected]