We should have Cito Gaston Day more often. Jays beat Yankees.

by Tom Dakers on Sep 29, 2010 11:46 PM EDT in Toronto Blue Jays Game Recaps

Love the look Travis. You can see pictures of the Cito tribute by clicking on the picture above. (Photo by Abelimages/Getty Images)

Now that was a game that's start, middle and end was perfect. A great and very well deserved tribute to Cito. Very nice to see Joe Carter, George Bell and Pat Hentgen again. Then the game starts and the Jays score early and often. The 9th inning starts out a little rough, the strike zone dissolves to the size of a postage stamp with Derek Jeter up, but Kevin Gregg comes in to get three quick outs. Life is good.

Home runs by Travis Snider (to lead off the game and set a new team record), John Buck and Aaron Hill. That's number 20 for Buck (maybe we can see Arencibia now?) and number 26 for Hill. we also 'manufactured' a few runs. Snider, Hill, Vernon Wells and Buck each had two hits. Hill drove in 4 runs. The only 0 fors were from Jose Bautista and Lyle Overbay (who took a walk and scored). Jose has been in a minor slump the last few days, he's gone 4 games without a hit, but with the year he has had, he is allowed a little slump.

Brett Cecil pitched 5 scoreless innings then ran into troubles in the 6th. ARod hit a homer, Cano took a pitch for the team, an out, a walk and two singles later, Brett was out of the game. Before that inning Cecil looked great earning his team leading 15th win.

Jason Frasor came in and got out of the 6th with a double play, then pitched a perfect 7th. Shawn Camp pitched a scoreless 8th. Jesse Carlson threw, by my count (and gameday confirms it), 2 perfect strike 3's before walking Jeter to start the 9th. Swisher singled and Cito brought in Gregg in a non-save spot. Gregg got the last 3 outs, helped out by a spectacular play by Yunel Escobar, going a long way to his right and making a leaping throw from a lot closer to the third base line than a shortstop should ever get.

Jays of the Day are Snider (.153 WPA), Cecil (.129) and Frasor (.097). Honorable mention to Buck and Hill. No Suckage Jays, Bautista had the worst number at -.082.

A perfect night for Cito, starting with the tribute and ending with a gatorade shower. It is always good to beat the Yankees and even better to win a series from them. A number of the Jays painted on grease mustaches in Cito's honor. It looked best on Snider, since it till be a few years till he can grow his own.

It is always good to beat the Yankees and even better to win a series from them.

The Jays are off to Minnesota for four games to finish off the season. Shawn Hill faces Francisco Liriano in the first game.

I forgot to mention the attendance, 33,143 there to say goodbye to Cito.

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Great game

It’s funny that Buck got his twentieth homer tonight and we face Liriano tomorrow. It’s the only Cy Young candidate that JPA hasn’t faced this month.

I really with I was heading down to Minny this weekend, but I’m headed out Tom’s way for some work and a wedding.

by ayjackson on Sep 30, 2010 12:22 AM EDT reply actions

He's getting sent right through the gauntlet for his september call up, isn't he?

by Spitballer on Sep 30, 2010 12:40 AM EDT up reply actions

you'll be in Calgary?

by Tom Dakers on Sep 30, 2010 12:41 AM EDT up reply actions

some of the time…I’ll be in the mountains a bit too…family trip, but mixing in a bit of work….looking forward to it….first trip back in a while

by ayjackson on Sep 30, 2010 5:37 PM EDT up reply actions

send me a note if you would like to go for a beer or something while you are here

by Tom Dakers on Sep 30, 2010 7:31 PM EDT up reply actions

do you work downtown?

by ayjackson on Sep 30, 2010 8:19 PM EDT up reply actions

More on the team HR record

It’s been rightly overshadowed by Cito’s farewell at the Dome, but that club record by the Jays is pretty impressive. With 247 HRs on the season (and hopefully still counting), the Jays have broken the previous club record of 244 HRs set in 2000.

But even more impressive, this is actually the fifth-highest total by any club in MLB history:

1. 1997 Seattle Mariners 264
2. 2005 Texas Rangers 260
3. 1996 Baltimore Orioles 257
4. 2000 Houston Astros 249
5. 2010 Toronto Blue Jays 247+?

If we can knock out three more in the four games remaining, we can take fourth spot.*

(* This is assuming that the Mariners, Rangers, Orioles did not have any other seasons with more than 249 HRs, besides the one listed above. This Baseball Almanac page only listed the records for each club.)

Nine different Blue Jays have reached double-digits in HRs this season, but in one respect this doesn’t quite top that 2000 Jays team, which is tied for the MLB record for most players with at least 20 HRs in a season on a team – at seven.

We’d actually have tied that record if Alex Gonzalez had not been traded or even just stuck around a bit longer, as he has 17 of our HRs this season with six other players being over the 20-HR threshold (Bautista, Wells, Hill, Lind, Buck, Overbay).

by jabalong on Sep 30, 2010 12:36 AM EDT reply actions

They haven't. by the way

The Jays have sole possession of the fifth spot.

I'm thinking that when the Leafs win the Cup, I'll lose my drinking problem.

by leafsfan4life94 on Sep 30, 2010 11:30 AM EDT up reply actions

I did a sort of the stats at MLB and it’s list matches yours so your assumptions are correct. The Jays are indeed the fifth most prolific HR hitting team. They have an excellent chance at moving to 4 and an outside chance at moving up to 3.

They’d have to go absolutely bonkers to take top spot (but wouldn’t that be fun!)

by siggian on Sep 30, 2010 11:31 AM EDT up reply actions

18 homers in 4 games vs the Twins?

Can’t see that happening, but if it did Ron Gardenhire would probably have a heart attack.

by TakeoutArtist on Sep 30, 2010 12:29 PM EDT up reply actions

One of these teams is not like the others.

*cough*steroidera*cough*

by neilrqm on Sep 30, 2010 2:01 PM EDT up reply actions

Hentgen

Hentgen for the Wall of Fame.

by Gautam on Sep 30, 2010 1:28 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs

love Hentgen too

hope he manages for a long time in our system

when he was talking about the “funnel incident”, I was thinking about the “tractor incident” from Seinfeld. I was glad to hear an explanation a few moments later.

by ayjackson on Sep 30, 2010 5:40 PM EDT up reply actions

The "golfcart incident"

What’s Pat Hentgen’s “funnel incident”?

Speaking of that and the tractor incident reminds me of an incident back in 1989 or 1990 at the Dome. One of the groundscrew guys had a batting practice fence loaded in the back of the Jays then mini-pickup-truck-style golfcarts. Those cages would kind of straddle the back so they’d stick out on the sides wider than the actual golfcart, which can make the driver misjudge the width. Sure enough on one occasion, though I can’t remember which year (I just know it was one of those two as I was working there), a groundscrew guy clipped the Red Sox Mike Greenwell as he was driving in the outfield toward the gate in left field. As I recall he was scratched from that game, though it wasn’t widely reported as to why.

by jabalong on Sep 30, 2010 10:49 PM EDT up reply actions

did Greenwell get gonnorhea?

by ayjackson on Sep 30, 2010 11:39 PM EDT up reply actions

Yes, Buck mentioned it twice in the broadcast, before he finally got Hentgen to explain what it was. Basically, Hentgen stepped on a funnel in his garage and messed up his foot for a month or 6 weeks or so.

I hate Buck as an announcer. Can we please get a new one for next year?

by siggian on Oct 1, 2010 9:43 AM EDT up reply actions