I really wanted to take the series from the Tigers, and not just for selfish reasons like the fact that I had a coffee bet on the outcome with a co-worker who is a Tigers fan.... ok maybe it was a lot for selfish reasons. I really wanted that coffee.
Today was a bit of a drain at work, one of those days where your mind just keeps wandering, I kept thinking how quiet the floor was and with all the cubicles and people just typing away at computers it felt like a scene out of Dilbert, and then I started to think how we resembled Zombies like how it was implied at the start of Shaun of the Dead. THEN I started thinking everyone was more like Robots instead of Zombies, less moaning and groaning. Which of course got me thinking about one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes from the new series that I have seen where the Daleks and Cyberman are fighting it out. At this point I was pretty much useless for the rest of the day as I was just daydreaming and wanting to get home to watch more of the good Doctor. Of course when I do get home I find out my girls aren't feeling well and seem to have got a bit of the flu so no free time for me!
As we move into the final month of the regular season (for those of you who just said, "Hey there are 3 games in October!".... Get out) the Jays are looking to continue there strong season. Strong is a relative term here, I know they aren't going to make the playoffs and they were a longshot to play meaningful games this September but given everything that has happened this year I can't help but think of this as a massive success (the whole mis-handling of Travis Snider aside).
On the mound today is Brett Cecil taking on one of the Rays quality young arms in Wade Davis. Last time out Cecil had the pleasure of facing the Yankees and did great. He went 8 strong innings only giving up 2 runs on 7 hits, he stuck out 5 and gave up 2 free passes, he earned his 11th win of the season. Meanwhile he lowered his ERA to 3.80. For Wade he last faced the Angels and didn't quite earn the quality start as he only lasted 5.1 innings, he only gave up 2 ER while striking out 5, he did surrender 6 hits and 3BBs. He earned his 10th win of the season in that start.
The lineup for our beloved azure-tinged corvidae is a bit wonky as has been discussed on the site over the past couple of hours. Wells is out of the lineup with a regular scheduled rest. Seems like a strange time with all of the other injuries. Wise is going to be in CF, Johnny Mac is playing 3rd in place of the injured Encarnacion and Mike McCoy is playing SS for Escobar who is still out with a sore back, and finally Overbay is still out and as such Lind will take up the 1B position again. Other things worthy of note? Buck batting cleanup and Snider is batting in the 9th spot behind Wise and McDonald. So much Fail....
Tune in after the jump for series info and Lineups.
The SBNation team hasn't updated the lineups for today so I copied them from Bastian's Blog over here. Sorry Jordan!
BLUE JAYS (68-62, 12.0 GB AL EAST)
1. Fred Lewis, DH
2. Mike McCoy, SS
3. Jose Bautista, RF
4. John Buck, C
5. Adam Lind, 1B
6. Aaron Hill, 2B
7. DeWayne Wise, CF
8. John McDonald, 3B
9. Travis Snider, LF
RAYS (80-50, -- GB AL EAST)
1. B.J. Upton, CF
2. Jason Bartlett, SS
3. Carl Crawford, LF
4. Evan Longoria, 3B
5. Carlos Pena, 1B
6. Sean Rodriguez, 2B
7. Ben Zobrist, RF
8. Willy Aybar, DH
9. Kelly Shoppach, C
Keep it Civil and Go Jays Go.
Today's title from the series finale of Doctor Who Series 2.