A look at Tuesday's win and a peek at Wednesday's game

Each of our first 8 batters had at least a hit Tuesday night. For example, in our June 17 win (7-1 in Philly) each of our first 6 batters in the lineup had at least one hit. The day before (in an 8-3, 10-inning win in Philly) each of our starters from the 2 to the 8 spot had at least a hit. Spreading out the offensive production can only make us happy although we wouldn't mind getting a big game from Wells or a game like June 16 from Millar (2 for 3, an RBI and a walk).

Sounds crazy but the Jays hadn't scored more than 5 runs and won at home since doing so June 5 (a 9-3 home win against KC) and since then, they had played 5 home games losing 4 of them while being outscored 30-17.

Toronto has improved to 30-4 when leading after six innings this year. Yet, the 7th inning is the frame in which the Jays have allowed the most runs (47) after the 5th inning this year. A bit worrisome, maybe? However, a 32-6 mark overall when scoring five runs or more should be a very encouraging sign for all of us.

Brian Tallet is now 5-4 but unfortunately he has two losses in quality starts so yes we have 3 pitchers who are 2nd on the team in wins with 5 but things could easily look much better than they do. Infact, the team is 6-8 in Brian Tallet's 14 starts this year.

Brian has 8 quality starts out of 14 so far. Turning to the bullpen, for example 3 of the 7 runners that were on base this year when Tallet exited the game eventually scored. Not good. Overall, well over 30% of the runners on base when one of our pitchers leaves the game have eventually scored thus far this year.

Interestingly, in 22 cases so far this year our starter had more than 4 days of rest with Scott Richmond leading the club since that's happened to him 4 times already this year. He's third on the club with 71 1/3 innings pitched.

Richmond is also second for run support received at 5.7, one full run behind Doc. In IP per game started, behind Doc (7.4), there's Ricky Romero at 6.4. Same story in pitches thrown per start: 103 on average for Doc, a hefty 101 for Ricky Romero.

While Doc has thrown 100 or more pitches in 10 of his 14 starts this year, Romero has thrown over 80 in all of 9 starts including 4 cases in which he went above 100 pitches. Richmond and Tallet are 2nd on the team as each has thrown over 100 pitches 5 times this year. Including Tuesday, Tallet has thrown more than 80 pitches in 11 of his starts this year. Very encouraging, no doubt.

Including Casey Janssen, five Toronto pitchers have a maximum pitch count this year at 108 or more. The others are Doc (133), Romero and Tallet (118), Richmond (109). As far as the bullpen, the bunch is 10-11 this year but 5-10 if we take Jason Frasor out of the equation so yes the GM must go shopping for at least one reliever this year.

More scary still, our pen has only picked up 12 saves in 23 chances! Aside from Downs (8 saves in 9 chances), the tally is only 4 saves in 14 chances! Yikes! Here's the difference between leading the division like on May 18 and not!

Our pen has 19 holds but just a bit over 30% of inherited runners have scored so far. Too much! Overall, a Toronto relief pitcher has entered a game in 200 different situations this year: in 90 cases, he had a lead, in 35 cases it was a tie, 74 times we were trailing. Luckily, only in 55 occasions (27,5%) there were runners on base.

It's interesting to note that in 40 cases a Toronto reliever pitched on consecutive days: it happened 10 times to Carlson (who's 1-3 with a 5.18 ERA and 2 blown saves in 2 chances), 7 times to Downs, 5 times to Frasor, League and BJ Ryan, 4 times to Camp. To me, this is a big problem. Another arm or two for the bullpen could be helpful.

Just slightly over 10% of Toronto's hits allowed were infield singles. A little of 40% of dingers allowed were hit by lefties. In the clutch, things don't sound too good: just over 55% of the times our opponent had a man on 3rd and less than 2 outs that baserunner eventually scored.

As far as baserunning, we aren't taking due advantage too often: 44 steals realized in 53 tries (3 for 3 on Tuesday night) but also 42 steals allowed in 63 attempts. On the other hand, we have 82 homers hit as a club but just 23 against left-handed pitchers. Lately, our PH results have improved a bit, we are now 6 for 23 overall this year.

I have looked at GIDP situations (overall the team hits into a DP in about 11,5% of all the cases in which it could happen) and have found out that 4 starters (Hill, Lind, Rios, Wells) have a GIDP ratio higher than the team average and that doesn't leave me too confident, also because of the clutch numbers I'm about to point at.

It isn't enough to score about 51% of the time when Toronto has a man on 3rd and less than 2 outs. It isn't good enough at all to score only about 45% of the time when there's a Jay on 2nd and nobody out. It must improve fast!

In other news, Lind's 16% in swinging at the first pitch is 10 points below Toronto's club average. Scutaro has seen the most 3-0 counts (21) on the club and the Jays have only swung at a 3-0 offer less than 6% of the time! Good patience at the plate is everything if you want to win (ehm Boston docet).

Lyle Overbay needs 5 long balls to reach 100 homers in his career (he also has 95 GIDP in his ML career). Rod Barajas reached 80 for his career with his solo home run Tuesday night. Millar is 7 RBI shy of 700 for his career. Only Rolen (112) and Rios (106) have more than 100 career steals on Toronto's roster as Wells has 79.

Vernon was 1 for 1 in steals Tuesday night and that one was his 100th career steal attempt (he's 79 for 100). As far as Wednesday, it's exactly 1 year since Bronson Arroyo (the Reds' starter on Wednesday) had the worst start of his career, yes it happened in Toronto. We won that game 14-1 and took that series 2-1 in June 2008.

Arroyo lasted 1-plus inning on 24 June 2008 giving up 11 hits (including 3 homers, one apiece by Rios and Rolen) and 10 runs, the most he has ever allowed. Overall, Arroyo is 2-2 in 5 career starts against the Blue Jays (the first four came when he played for Boston). However, Arroyo kept the White Sox in check during his last start.

On Friday June 19 of this year, Arroyo went 6 2/3 innings scattering two hits and yielding two runs while fanning seven in a 4-3 home win for the Reds against the White Sox. Hopefully, Toronto will keep on swinging well after scoring a total of 39 runs in its last five wins (four of them came on the road too).

In each of those wins, the Jays have scored at least 7 runs. It's the first time such a streak happens this year. We will hopefully be led again by Scott Rolen (a .360 career hitter at 9 for 25 with 2 HR lifetime against Arroyo). He hit a homer on Tuesday night, his 5th this year. Only 2 of them have come in the last 10 games though.

Scott Rolen and Adam Lind got 2 hits apiece Tuesday and over the last 4 games, they have posted a .390 batting average (23 for 59) with 4 homers and 11 RBI. Hopefully Scott Richmond, facing the Reds for the first time ever, will build upon his best start ever. Infact his last time out, Toronto won 7-1 in Philly June 17 as he allowed just a run in 8 innings striking a career-high 11.

Sadly, Scott came out of pen last Saturday in Washington and yielded the walk-off, two-run homer to Washington as Toronto lost 5-3 for its second straight extra-inning loss (the Jays are just 4-5 in extra-inning games and only 10-10 this year in one-run games).

The Reds are 3-7 in their last 10 games, 8-14 in their last 22 and just 17-18 overall on the road. Willy Taveras has just 1 hits in his last 52 at bats. I must said that Joey Votto's recent problem has really touched me. It could happen to anyone to feel that way for the reason he cited before Tuesday night's game. Let's hope the Jays keep going.........