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The Jays enter the series at 5-4, having lost their past two. Seattle sits at 2-7, having dropped seven in a row. And while the Jays' offense tailed off in the Angels series, it has nothing on the Mariners' woes of late: they've averaged 2.6 runs over the losing streak, and their team OPS is currently hovering around .600. No one expected them to hit (they were the worst offensive team in baseball, by far, last year), but this is pretty bad even by their standards.


Game 1: Monday, April 11th. 10:10 EST

Mariners win, 8-7.
W - Josh Lueke (1-0). L - Shawn Camp (0-1)

Game 2: Tuesday, April 12th. 10:10 EST

RR Cool Jay



vs.

Michael Pineda




Pineda is making just his second career start, but the kid has real talent. He throws very hard and backs it up with a pretty nasty slider, though he needs to keep working on his secondary stuff. Still, he has a repertoire that should play against righties...which could make for an interesting night, given our dearth of lefties. The Jays would do well to be a little more patient than usual, and hope that he shows some rookie jitters.


On the flip side, this is a great matchup for Romero. The Mariners don't have much right-handed power (Smoak has less power from the right side, though Bradley has a touch more), and generally suck at the plate. Control will be the biggest issue...pound the zone and good things will happen, but as we saw last night, even the worst team can score runs with a bases-loaded handicap.


Matchups to watch


Pineda vs. Snider and Lind - if Pineda is on, the two lefties are going to be pretty important...3 of the 5 hits surrendered in his debut were to left-handers, despite comprising just 7 of the 24 plate appearances against him.

Romero vs. Ichiro - he's 4 for 9 against Ricky, and if the Mariners are going to do much, it'll probably start with a couple slap-happy hits and small ball...the instigator of which tends to be Ichiro.

Game 3: Wednesday, April 13th. 3:40 EST

ugh... fat ginger kid vs King Felix. At least it's against the Mariners, so maybe we can hope for a fluke run or two and win.

it's gonna be low scoring game for both teams. tough to hit on felix, and no one can really hit on mariners

didn't the Jays win a 1-0 game against Felix last year?

Damn, We just faced Weaver! Now we got to face King Felix? We could be looking at another 3-1 lose tomorrow night

isnt Pineda scheduled on tuesday or wednesday? what does anyone know about him?

Raider917 wrote:isnt Pineda scheduled on tuesday or wednesday? what does anyone know about him?

He's a stud.

Raider917 wrote:isnt Pineda scheduled on tuesday or wednesday? what does anyone know about him?

Big potential. He's huge in stature (and girth), and throws in the mid-90s with good movement from a slightly unusual arm angle. Slider is nasty, and he has a changeup that needs work. Heh, part of the problem with the change is that it might be too hard...there isn't enough differentiation between it and his fastball.

As a fastball/slider guy, he's going to be excellent against righties, but lefties should have a shot to hit him.

Tough break in facing King Felix, but maybe we'll get lucky. We're due for some luck.

I don't know about tough break, the Blue Jays have avoided some stud pitchers, Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez, Dan Haren

Avenger wrote:I don't know about tough break, the Blue Jays have avoided some stud pitchers, Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez, Dan Haren

The last two times the Jays have faced Haren they've beaten him easily, and Gio Gonzalez is mediocre.

It shouldn't have to be said, but Felix is kind of on another level.

Hoping for a big series for snider.

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Avenger wrote:I don't know about tough break, the Blue Jays have avoided some stud pitchers, Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez, Dan Haren

The last two times the Jays have faced Haren they've beaten him easily, and Gio Gonzalez is mediocre.

Felix is kind of on another level.

lol, What difference does that make? You're hilarious, just the other day you'er whining about having to face Haren in relief because he owns us. I don't need to preach small sample size to you, Dan Haren is a stud. He's consistently been among the best pitchers over the last 5 years. Gio Gonzalez is a #2 on any staff, its laughable you use the word medicore to describe him when you combine that with your obsession with real mediocrity like Litsch, Zaun, Hinske, Towers, Wallace etc etc( i could go on and on). Brett Anderson is another legit ace, so far the Jays have avoided two legit aces and a #2 guy. The Blue Jays if anything, have gotten lucky with pitching matchups

Its not a tough break if you face an ace of the other team in a three game series, it happens more often than not

Not sure if it's been posted, but Patterson has been called up, and Richmond sent down already.

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Avenger wrote:I don't know about tough break, the Blue Jays have avoided some stud pitchers, Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez, Dan Haren

The last two times the Jays have faced Haren they've beaten him easily, and Gio Gonzalez is mediocre.

It shouldn't have to be said, but Felix is kind of on another level.

Explain how Gio Gonzalez is mediocre

Hoopstarr wrote:

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Avenger wrote:I don't know about tough break, the Blue Jays have avoided some stud pitchers, Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez, Dan Haren

The last two times the Jays have faced Haren they've beaten him easily, and Gio Gonzalez is mediocre.

It shouldn't have to be said, but Felix is kind of on another level.

Explain how Gio Gonzalez is mediocre

He can't throw strikes consistently in a **** division and has a career 1.80 K/BB (1.86 in 2010). That spells mediocre, not "stud pitcher."

Avenger wrote:lol, What difference does that make? You're hilarious, just the other day you'er whining about having to face Haren in relief because he owns us. I don't need to preach small sample size to you, Dan Haren is a stud. He's consistently been among the best pitchers over the last 5 years.

I've always been a fan of Dan Haren, but he's not one of the top aces in baseball and has always been a bit of a product of his division (whether that is the weak AL West or the even weaker NL West). And yes, Haren has been destroyed throughout his career by the Blue Jays (particularly last year). It does mean something.

Gio Gonzalez is a #2 on any staff, its laughable you use the word medicore to describe him when you combine that with your obsession with real mediocrity like Litsch, Zaun, Hinske, Towers, Wallace etc etc( i could go on and on).

On a bad staff, maybe. But I don't want a guy that can't throw strikes as the second best pitcher on a playoff team. You called the guy a "stud pitcher," though, don't go back on it now.

Not sure what Litsch, Zaun, Hinske and Towers have to do with this, other than being mediocre. But for the record, just because I'm reluctant to trade a major league 1B for a single A CF who can't hit doesn't mean I think much of Brett Wallace as a baseball player.

Brett Anderson is another legit ace, so far the Jays have avoided two legit aces and a #2 guy.

Anderson is damn good, but who knows whether he'll be able to stay healthy.

The Blue Jays if anything, have gotten lucky with pitching matchups

When in the **** did I ever say they hadn't, you insufferable twat? I said they caught a tough break in getting King Felix (mostly because it's coming off facing Weaver and going through the Davidson screwjob), yet you felt the need bring up some irrelevant **** in order to start yet another argument.

Its not a tough break if you face an ace of the other team in a three game series, it happens more often than not

Thanks for the odds lesson, I'll be sure to keep that in mind on the next innocuous comment I make.

Randle McMurphy wrote:I've always been a fan of Dan Haren, but he's not one of the top aces in baseball and has always been a bit of a product of his division (whether that is the weak AL West or the even weaker NL West). And yes, Haren has been destroyed throughout his career by the Blue Jays (particularly last year). It does mean something.

You go after people for innocuous and meaningless comments all the time so i can't let this one go, you of all people need to know what it feels like to deal with a pain in the ass. Just yesterday you said Dan Haren owns the Blue Jays and now you're saying WE own him? And us beating up one him doesn't mean ****, anyone who knows anything about baseball knows the value of a 1 start sample

sweep would be huge

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Hoopstarr wrote:

Randle McMurphy wrote:The last two times the Jays have faced Haren they've beaten him easily, and Gio Gonzalez is mediocre.

It shouldn't have to be said, but Felix is kind of on another level.

Explain how Gio Gonzalez is mediocre

He can't throw strikes consistently in a **** division and has a career 1.80 K/BB (1.86 in 2010). That spells mediocre, not "stud pitcher."

So Ricky Romero is a mediocre pitcher. Same control issues, same problems against Boston and New York (which most pitchers would have), both power lefties, except Gio is a year younger. Just admit that you hastily called him mediocre.