I missed a couple of links this afternoon that I had intended to add. One is to a bunch of photo-shopped Blue Jay baseball cards that are kind of cute and funny at Morehardball.
Also in answer to a question I sent him, Sky Kalkman put up a fanpost at Beyond the Boxscore linking to a bunch of studies on the subject. So if you haven't read enough about pitch counts yet today, there is a bunch more here. I always find I don't write carefully enough when I bring up these subjects because people jump way past what I say, figuring I'm insulting baseball or something by mentioning that Doc threw more pitches yesterday then he ever had before. Like I said in the post, I wouldn't get on Cito for leaving him out there, but I'd watch in the future. I do though think it was strange that he didn't get anyone up in the pen until after the 2 out single. By the time those pitchers were warm the game could have been lost, so why bother at that point?
For those wondering why Dirk Hayhurst was called up over Accardo, Jay assistant GM Alex Anthopoulos talked to Jordan Bastian about it. Short answer is that the Jays were rewarding him for showing loyalty to the team and not signing with someone else when they removed him from the 40 man roster this spring. Longer answer, click the link, but here is part of it:
Hayhurst made five starts out of necessity to open the year and posted a 6.75 ERA in those outings. As a reliever, the right-hander was much sharper, limiting hitters to a .239 average with 16 strikeouts, five walks and a 3.44 ERA over 18 1/3 innings across 10 games. More than anything, it was his showing this spring that won Gaston over.
I think Dirk's showing this spring won us all over. I hope he has a long stay with the team.
Tonight's pitchers are Casey Janssen (1-1,4.15) and Jered Weaver (4-2, 2.36). Weaver's been great this year. Jays bats have their work cut out for them, but they looked great last night. Janssen is 2-0 with a 0.47 ERA against the Angels, his home town team, so we can hope that he keeps it up. Starting lineups:
Lind gets to wear a glove today, Millar DHes after a good day with the bat yesterday. Vernon Wells has had a bad week after looking like he was turning it around last week, .143 in his last 4 games. Would be nice if he could drink some of the water Alex Rios has been into. Rios is .467 the last 4 games, with homers in the last two and had a good May. Hill and Scutaro snapped hitting streaks yesterday but the way they are going you feel sure they start up new ones today.
The Thread title is from one of the lessor Beatle's songs, Blue Jay Way, which George Harrison wrote. It isn't about the road that Rogers Center is on.