The homers allowed by Toronto pitchers in the last 24 games have been 31, sadly………..

I meant to say that Philly played at home against Boston last weekend……I’m a bit tired…..

………..it has scored at least five runs in four of the last five games……..(concerned look)

………..Toronto is 3-23 when scoring three or fewer runs this year and on the other hand is 29-7 when allowing four or fewer runs.

The Jays have 14 comeback wins this season.

As far as runs scored (323 in all or 4.97 per game), Toronto in 2009 has scored 158 runs in the first four innings and 157 from the 5th to the 9th inning plus 8 runs in extra innings.

As far as runs allowed (296 in all or 4.55 per game), Toronto in 2009 has given up 133 runs in the first 4 innings, 154 from the 5th to the 9th innings plus 9 in extra innings.

The biggest rough patches for the Jays seem to be the 5th inning (42 runs allowed) and the 7th inning (43 runs allowed this year).

Looking at the club’s record when the game is tied or when the Jays are behind, there’s not much to be happy about: when the game is tied after a certain inning, the Jays have a .500 mark in all situations but two (a 4-3 mark when tied after 6 frames and a 5-3 mark when tied after 8 innings). There’s no impressive mark anywhere in these figures.

They are 2-3 in extra innings in 2009. Moreover, they have sub-par records in all situations when they are behind after a certain inning (from a 7-10 mark when trailing after 1 inning to 5-24 when behind after 6 frames or 3-23 when trailing after 7 innings).

Their largest comeback so far this year (for a win, of course) was from 3 runs behind.

On the other hand, Philly is 1-18 so far this year when scoring 3 or fewer runs. Yet, the Phillies are 15-3 when giving up 3 or fewer runs in 2009.

Philly has 21 comeback wins out of 36 and its largest comeback has happened from a deficit of seven runs! It also blew a six-run lead though.

The Philles have so far scored 193 runs in the first 5 innings in 2009 compared to 132 scored from the 6th to the 9th innings. They are 6-3 this year in extra innings.

They are just 8-6 in 1-run games though and only 13-16 at home. Toronto is 13-18 on the road (or 13-9 without that 9-game road skid) and 3-3 in extra innings. In 1-run games, the Jays are only 9-9 so far this season.

Despite their losing home mark, the Phillies have scored 145 runs in 29 home games for an average of 5 per contest. Yet 161 runs allowed at home or 5.55 per game is a ton!

I like to think that they are strong but they aren’t invincible, just ask Brad Lidge about what happened to him against the Dodgers……

…………factoring out the 0-9 skid……..but Philly has more power so the keys are playing small ball when possible, I think, and hoping to get some chances to take advantage of their weird behaviour at home this year. Their ‘pen isn’t too bad aside from Lidge so the Jays can’t think about going in feeling like they can score one more run, no matter what.

Winning this series would be a great way to begin a new good stretch, especially since the following series is in Washington (hard-luck team, despite their figures, in my view).

……..so far this year, Toronto leads the AL as it has held the opposing team to a .207 batting average with RISP and 2 outs.

It also leads the AL for the lowest percentage of opposing hitters (13.4%) that have managed to score with RISP and 2 outs.

We definitely need this good trend in clutch situations to continue to stay in this race!!!

Hoping for a good series between these two teams (and again next week).

I liked the preview, but just some minor corrections/clarifications/additions:

- Rollins has been struggling a bit, but he does in fact have one hit in his last 16 ABs – a solo home run against Beckett that wound up being the game winning run. He was dropped to the six hole during the Mets series and seemed to be figuring some things out. Once he got put back into the leadoff slot, though, it seems he went right back to his slump.

-Lidge has had a rough season, which is part of the reason why he’s now on the DL. Ryan Madson’s stepped in as closer in the meantime and has done pretty well. If you want to attack the Phillies bullpen, you want to get at their long relievers/6th and 7th inning types. They have two regulars (Lidge and Scott Eyre) on the disabled list and as a result have had to make do with lesser lights in the front end of the bullpen. JC Romero and Madson have done pretty well over the last year on the back end.

- The Phillies have given up more HRs than anyone else, but a good deal of that is that they got SHELLED early in the year. Even Hamels didn’t look like himself. The staff regulars have settled down a good bit (Hamels, Blanton, and Moyer), but the more unproven pitchers who are there due to injury (Antonio Bastardo) or as a replacement for an incompetent pitcher (J.A. Happ) have been inconsistent.

Like I said before, I enjoyed reading this and hope for a good pair of series between our teams. Go Phillies!

……….because I played it, because I wanted to get a job in the game as a journalist until a few years ago (it was my dream when I was 17 to 23, in no small part because of the 1992 and 1993 Jays’ great titles!) and because I love this game more than any other.

Plus, I haven’t seen Toronto in quite a few years and it would be superb to visit again in October, reconciling my birthday and who knows…….the World Series? :)

Best wishes, everybody………and thank you very much, Hugo!

………perhaps Vernon Wells would instantly turn into Joe Carter! (oh well, right!) :)

(wishful thinking?)