After a disheartening loss last night, the Jays look to take the second game of the series tonight against the Indians. Hopefully the Jays can scrounge up a win tonight to get the bad taste out of our mouths. This is a big game because if the Jays can win it, they'll be 3-2 on the homestand and a good series against the Rays means they should have a successful one.
Ricky Romero starts tonight and looks to get back to his winning ways after having a bit of trouble finding the plate against the Red Sox last weekend. Carl Pavano starts for the Indians and hopefully the Jays can knock him around a bit, though he has performed quite well this season, so that certainly isn't a sure thing. The Jays have only scored 11 runs since the All-Star Break, so they need the bats to wake up if they expect to do anything in the second half. I wouldn't count on it, though, so hopefully RickyRo will be at his best tonight. According to Bastian, he doesn't think the season's over and all the talk of the Jays being eliminated "just lights a fire under [his] skin and [he] want[s] to go out there and just do the best [he] can." I will say that that kind of confidence is refreshing, especially after gut-wrenching lost like last night's. Let's score early, score often and watch RR Cool J mow 'em down.
Tonight's thread title comes courtesy of Robbie Fulks. We get to see Dellucci and Chavez tonight, but no Millar against the righty.
By the way, of course I was wrong about Tomo Ohka starting tomorrow, it will be David Huff instead. Huff is basically a left-handed 23 year old version of Ohka. His K- and BB-rates are a little better (4.8 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9), but he's been very hittable so far. In the minors, Huff had strong platoon splits but at the major league level so far, lefties have had success against him (though he's been quite efficient at inducing grounders from them). Like Ohka, Huff throws a fastball in the upper-80's and relies mostly on his off-speed stuff. He tries to keep his change on the outer half of the plate against both righties and lefties and throws both a tight slider and a sweeping curve.