A Fresh Start

Two months have officially gone by in the '09 baseball season.

The Jays stand 1.5 games back of first place and 1 game back in the Wild Card...not too shabby for a team a lot of people thought would end up 4th in the division. (I realise there's still 4 months left, but I'm being optimistic!)

Things are lookin' good in Blue Jays land...

Sure, yesterday's loss wasn't so much fun. But good pitching will always beat good hitting and it was about time for Lester to start being the pitcher he is again. We still won the series and ended the losing streak. I'd call that a good weekend.

As for being happy the Red Sox are gone, I am. I will say though it was very heart warming to see Kevin Youkilis (mainly) and a lot of other Sox clapping along with a fan in the stands as he was calling out their names. The Sox were doing their pre-batting practice stretching and it was actually pretty awesome to see.

Day off today, and then Doc heads to the mound against the Angels. I always hope my Jays win (of course), but it would be great to put a nice winning streak together before heading back out on the road next week to play in Texas. At least it's not another interleague road trip. We've been swept enough in NL parks this season.

And on the girlie side of being a baseball fan, I agree with Jennifer Rolnik, except for me it remains a tie. I also agree with Joe Torre that Manny should not play in the All-Star game. As much as I love that the fans get a say in the starting roster, I've always thought the players/managers should have more say who the starting 9 is and the fans get to vote on filling out the rest of the lineup. 'Cause really...how can fans of teams in smaller markets compete with fans in larger markets to get their deserving player in the starting 9? That's right, they really almost can't.

Not completely sure how I feel about Cito putting Johnny Mac in late in the game yesterday. Not that I don't love to see Mac play. I do. It was even awesome to see him playing catch with Janssen before the game yesterday and to stick the gear on and catch Janssen's bullpen session.

But, by putting Mac in late...are you admitting defeat because you took Wells and Scutaro out? So, you'll only use Mac as a pinch runner or give him some playing time when it doesn't mean anything? I'm not saying replace Scutaro with Mac all the time or anything, but this is the only situation that I haven't been impressed with Cito's ability to get everyone some playing time. Sure, Mac's bat is not the greatest to begin with. But I never expect anything of him at the plate now (except his best effort, which he would always give anyway) because how can you expect the guy to hit when he hasn't seen in-game pitching in a week? I would be very sad to see the Mactasticness leave Toronto, but it's not like he's doing much from the bench anyway. And this is why I don't want Cito's job...

Enjoy the off day today and seeing the Doc pitch tomorrow.

Go Jays!
JaysGirl5

P.S. I can add Paul Beeston to my list of people I've almost run into in the media area...and add another two notches in the J.P. Riccardi column. One of these days there is going to be a collision. It will be interesting to see who I actually do end up running into.