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Going For The Split - Blue Jays @ Yankees Doubleheader Game 2 - GameThread

By Minor Leaguer
August 8, 2012; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Ricky Romero (24) reacts in the dugout against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE
August 8, 2012; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Ricky Romero (24) reacts in the dugout against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

Tonight the Toronto Blue Jays are playing game 2 in a doubleheader against the New York Yankees, looking to get a win to get a split. Against the Yankees, the Blue Jays have swept a single double header, split 4, but have gotten swept 5 times.

The Jays will play their next doubleheader on Monday against the Baltimore Orioles to make up for the rained out August 26 game.

Playing two doubleheaders this close together is rare (especially nowadays) but 4 days isn't the shortest amount of time between doubleheaders in franchise history. They have played back-to-back doubleheaders (4 games in 2 days!) 10 times in franchise history. The last time it happened, the Blue Jays faced the Milwaukee Brewers (then in the American League) on July 28 and 29, 1997. Unfortunately, the Blue Jays lost all four games. The four games were started by (in chronological order--click their names to see the boxscore for that game): Roger Clemens (CG loss), Huck Flener (L, 2.0 IP, only start of 1997 and final game of his career), Woody Williams (L, 7.1 IP), and Chris Carpenter (L, 5.2 IP, 3rd career start, just recalled from AAA). The busiest stretch of doubleheaders for the Jays? From June 11 to June 16, 1978 they played four straight doubleheaders over those six days (they finished 2-6)!

Pitching Matchup

Ricky Romero, in the Mother of All Funks, has not won since June 22 against the Marlins. Since that game, he has record is: 0-13, 14 GS, 71.2 IP, 95 H, 48 BB, 44 K, 7 HR, 7.91 ERA, and batters are hitting a cool .352/.424/.479 with a .364 BABIP. Fourteen winless starts--that's exactly halfway to Jo-Jo Reyes' record! That run of badness can't continue for much longer for a pitcher as talented as Romero, right? Man, I sure wish I can see a happy Ricky high-fiving his teammates tonight.

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2012 - Ricky Romero 8-14 30 29 1 0 0 0 167.0 177 115 109 20 94 113 5.87 1.62

The Evil Empire is trotting out David Phelps for a spot start. Phelps, a 25-year old rookie, has started 9 games in his short MLB career alongside 20 relief appearances. As a starter, he has a 4.17 ERA and a 1.346 WHIP with 44 strikeouts on 18 walks. In his minor league career, he had started all but one game. Let's see what our lineup can do against the kid.

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2012 - David Phelps 4-4 29 9 0 0 0 0 85.0 73 33 32 13 31 85 3.39 1.22


Lineups

Lineup

TORONTO BLUE JAYS NEW YORK YANKEES
Rajai Davis - RF Derek Jeter - SS
Colby Rasmus - CF Nick Swisher - RF
Brett Lawrie - 3B Robinson Cano - DH
Adam Lind - DH Alex Rodriguez - 3B
J.P. Arencibia - C Curtis Granderson - CF
Kelly Johnson - 2B Jayson Nix - 2B
Yan Gomes - 1B Casey McGehee - 1B
Adeiny Hechavarria - SS Ichiro Suzuki - LF
Anthony Gose - LF Chris Stewart - C

Rules: be respectful and mature, don't post links to illegal broadcasts of this game, and don't post any pictures until after the game.

GO JAYS GO!

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