August 21, 2008

We Were Due...

For a shit-kicking. David Purcey vs. Andy Pettitte was really a no-contest from the get go. Purcey struggled, Pettitte was effective, and the Jays bats were eerily silent yet again.

For the Yankees, there were positives all around. They stroked 10 hits, including a two-run bomb from Derek Jeter, Pettitte was lights out, and Johnny Damon didn't drop a fly ball all night.

I was hoping to see Purcey step up and deliver against a lineup the likes of New York's, but he was brutal, falling behind most of the hitters he faced in his four innings of work. You can't do that up here in the big leagues, especially against the Yankees. They'll burn you everytime, those bastards.

The esteemed Robert MacLeod of The Globe and Mail completely stole my thunder and wrote the post I was thinking about writing, over at Globe on Baseball. With Purcey and Jesse Litsch manning the back end of the Blue Jays rotation, it's going to take a Festivus miracle for the Jays to get within striking distance of the wild card. The injury to Dustin McGowan really, really fucks things up.

Doc Halladay takes the ball in tonight's rubber match. There's no other guy I want on the mound in what is pretty much a must-win game.

I wonder, if the Jays can somehow close the gap to within five games, might we see a four-man rotation of Doc, A.J. Burnett, Shaun Marcum, and Litsch? A.J.'s only a Blue Jay for 40 odd more days, why not send him out there every four days.

Yesterday's silver lining? The Baltimore Orioles did us a solid and finally beat the Red Sox. We're still 7.5 games back.

4 comments:

wrap around curl said...

Holy balls. Pettitte still plays baseball?

Nathalie Caron said...

Thank god for that turn around with the Orioles, they certainly didn't look so good at the start of their game.

But I thought Burnett was sticking around? So what's this 40-days business?

I have a feeling Halliday will be a star tonight.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

@ wrap: yep, pettitte's still chuckin! been around since '95. 420 career starts. dude's had a long and pretty decent career, but since the majority of it was spent with the yankees, he's a douchebag.

@ nat: yeah that was a huge comeback by baltimore. finally. as for A.J., there's about 40 days left in the season, and Burnett will most certainly opt-out of the remainder of his contract. he'll become a free agent. we could re-sign him, but i doubt it, since he'll probably ask for another 5 year deal at something absurd like $15 million plus. if he doesn't opt out, his agent deserves to be fired because he's not doing his job. A.J.'s as good as gone, so enjoy his final month and a bit in a jays uniform. hopefully he can help us sneak into the playoffs.

Anonymous said...

There is still time for the jays....they gotts sweep Boston....