I take a closer look at the AL-leading Blue Jays over at SI.com today:
Thus far the Jays have split their first two games against the struggling Yankees. Their one win came behind Halladay, but their loss on Wednesday night saw Richmond and Murphy get their BABIP comeuppance, Hill leave the game after fouling a ball of his shin and the offense manage just two runs despite receiving four free passes from Andy Pettitte. They’ll face CC Sabathia on Thursday night, with Sabathia coming off a complete-game shutout at Baltimore.
The Jays play two-thirds of their games against the AL East in the second half, but they have six games against the second-place Red Sox over the remainder of May, three games against the defending NL champion Phillies in June and a run of 13 games against the Phillies, Rays, Yankees and Rays again leading up to the All-Star break. We’ll have a much better idea of how good Toronto is by the end of that stretch . . .
Meanwhile, here are Ted Berg and MetsBlog’s Matt Cerrone on tonight’s pitching matchup:
via Pete Abe
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Swisher RF
Cano 2B
Gardner CF
Cervelli C
Jeter and Matsui . . . that's a good sign, but I hope the Cap'n isn't rushing things. Gardner over Melky following his big game and against a lefty who (per Berg above) has been struggling against lefties. Interesting. No harm in hot-handing things, it would be great to have both Gardner and Cabrera swinging well. Even better to have Jeter back, hopefully allowing Angel Berroa to be friggin' DFA'd already!
I have a feeling we'll see who the Blue Jays are well before the allstar break.
I gotta believe that Berroa's still on the team because he's the Armageddon option at Catcher, there was a shot of him in the dugout the other night with the tools of ignorance on.
[2] Since Tallet struggles so much against lefties, I'm interested in which side the Yankees switch hitters go to in the game. I agree with the return of the veterans Cliff, provided as you mentioned, it's not too early for any of them. That notwithstanding, I do not like Damon in the field on the concrete floor of Rogers Centre at all (see also The Trop).
[4] /shudder
[4] Shades of Miguel Cairo.
Unless Girardi's resting Cabrera, I strongly disagree with putting Gardner in there. "Sorry Melky, I know you've been tearing it up lately. And sure you hit a double yesterday but hell Gardner hit a home run. That's better!"