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Two players from the heart of Red Sox Nation, John McDonald and Rajai Davis, the Jays’ own Connecticut connection combined for six hits, three runs, five RBIs and a pair of steals as the Jays finally and inexorably wore down righthander John Lackey in a 9-3 thrashing of the disappointing Red Sox. Where’s the love? The Jays swept the brief two-game series, into a needed off-day on Thursday.

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“To get him going, when he gets on the bases he does a lot of different things,” McDonald said of Davis, who had hurt himself on opening day and is just re-discovering his running game. “It plays with the pitcher a little bit because they’ve got to change their game a little bit. Defences have to shorten up a little bit. There’s a whole ‘nother dynamic to our club when he’s going.”

But the key moment for the Jays may have come on defence with the game in doubt, a one-run lead, and the speedy Carl Crawford on first base with a leadoff single in the seventh. As a cerebral Casey Janssen battled Jarrod Saltalamacchia, he changed his look and timing to the plate. Then on a full count strikeout, catcher J.P. Arencibia gunned down Crawford on a nifty tag by Escobar.

“It’s one of those things that’s a big part of the game,” Arencibia said. “It’s huge. However I can contribute, as long as we win. Defensively, offensively, running the bases, however I can contribute for this team to win is what I want to do. Defence is obviously first and I know that. My biggest thing is to get that pitcher through that game. I feel like I’m starting to get a real good understanding.”

It’s becoming part of what Arencibia is bringing to the table. That’s why it was not surprising that before the game, manager John Farrell confirmed what was already evident, that Arencibia’s duties are expanding to include Kyle Drabek as his fourth starter that he will be trusted with.

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“He’s handling both sides of the game,” Farrell explained. “He’s separating his at-bats from his game-calling. It’s not affected his game calling in any way when maybe some at-bats have not gone the way he’s liked. He’s handling the bat well, probably as much as we might have expected. What you’re seeing is a very steady rate of progression, a steady rate of establishing himself as an everyday player.”

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Leading 2-1, the Jays added a pair in the fourth with the Coonecticutt version of thunder and lightning. First it was McDonald turning on a Lackey curveball off the back wall of the bullpen. Then it was Davis replicating his Tuesday trip around the bases. He singled, stole second and third and strolled home on a sacrifice fly by Escobar.

Each home run Jose Bautista slugs prompts more interview requests for the Blue Jays right fielder, more autographs and more speculation about whether he can repeat last season’s all-star performance and justify the $65 million contract it earned him.

Bautista accepts praise and scrutiny equally, and insists the expectations placed on him aren’t heavy.

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While media and fan obligations consume ever more of his energy, Bautista continues to find time for off-field role modelling while riding a still-evolving skill set to the top of several statistical categories.

Entering Wednesday, Bautista was tied for the major league lead with 11 home runs, and led the majors with 32 walks. He was also batting .354, third in the American League.

Still, Bautista has already had to tackle challenges that never arose last season.

While he missed just one game in 2010, Bautista has already sat out eight.

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After batting an underwhelming .260 in 2010, Bautista entered Wednesday two points from the league lead in batting average.

Both men say Bautista’s batting stroke remains unchanged from last season, and the secret to his increased average lies not in the times he swings, but the times he doesn’t.

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“He lays off sliders and changeups that most guys don’t lay off of, and they get themselves out,” Murphy says. “He makes the pitcher bring the ball back to him. There’s times they don’t pitch to him but he’s taking his walks, and I think that has a lot to do with his average.”

Toronto’s offence has been a hit-and-miss affair much of the year, but Farrell wasn’t about to blame the absenteeism for the team’s sub-.500 record.

“But I want to be clear that there’s a standard that we’re working to uphold here – and that’s to win every Major League game that we can,” he said. “Guys that are in the lineup on days when guys are missing, that doesn’t lessen our expectation by any means. These guys are major league players – we have a level of standard that we’re expecting.”

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“If he wasn’t with the Blue Jays, I’d love to sit here and talk about him,” Francona said of last season’s home-run king, who already has 11 this year. “I mean, that bat comes through the zone, man, it’s pretty. If you’re a baseball fan, it’s fun to watch.

“Unfortunately, if you’re on the other side, it’s not.”

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Rajai Davis continues to be a nuisance on the basepaths. He stole two more – second and third in the fourth inning – before scoring Toronto’s fourth run on a Yunel Escobar sacrifice to centre. That gives Davis 11 swipes on the year in just 18 games, placing him among the American League leaders. Davis’s bat is finally warming up. He went 4-for-4 in the game – all singles – driving in two of the Toronto runs.

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Speaking of runners, Toronto starting pitcher Jesse Litsch – who will never be accused of having the build of a marathon man – displayed some good footwork of his own in the fourth inning. With the defence shifted far to the right side of the field for David Ortiz, Litsch was the closest to the towering foul ball that Ortiz struck to the left side. Litsch raced off the mound like Ben Johnson out of the blocks but just failed to get to the ball, which fell into the first row of seats down the left-field line adjacent to third base.

Even before he had stolen his first of two bases in the game, and he was standing at first base in the third inning for the Toronto Blue Jays, you could tell Boston Red Sox pitcher John Lackey was getting antsy.

“I don’t blame him,” Davis would proclaim after Toronto had kicked sand in the Red Sox' face to the tune of a 9-3 victory Wednesday night at Rogers Centre. “I would be too if I was him.”

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Davis followed with a single to centre and -- as he did the night before in orchestrating Toronto’s 7-6 10-inning victory over the Red Sox -- he swiped both second and third base before coming home to score on a sacrifice fly.

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Afterward, Lackey displayed the demeanour of someone whose dog had just been run over by a transport truck.

“Everything in my life sucks right now, to be honest with you,” said the dejected pitcher, whose record dipped to 2-4 on the year with a 8.01 earned-run average.

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Davis was outstanding, going four-for-four at the plate, driving home two of the Toronto runs while swiping two bases.

He now has 11 steals on the season in just 18 games, placing him among the AL leaders in that category.

“More than anything he creates a lot of distraction for the guy on the mound that can have some other affects to the ball crossing the plate or pitches that guys will get to hit when they’re in the box,” Toronto manage John Farrell said. “It’s just good to see him with the confidence he has currently, the way he’s swinging the bat. He’s hitting fastballs, breaking balls alike.”

McDonald punched his second homer of the season, a game-breaking two-run double and turned a brilliant double play with Yunel Escobar in the ninth. Davis had four hits, two RBIs and now has 10 steals in his last 11 games.

Meantime, Casey Janssen and J.P. Arencibia combined on the key defensive play and while starter Jesse Litsch didn't stay around long, he was steady. Litsch has come from being demoted to winning his club-high fourth game.

"I think this is the way we expect ourselves to play. Nobody was happy with the way we played against Detroit (three lopsided losses)," McDonald said. "Our execution wasn't where it needs to be ... we came back today."

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He stole second and third -- the second time in two games he'd done that -- and the 19,153 fans loved every step and dust-filled dive. "It rubs off, the energy," Davis said. "It gets rowdy, the fans get into it and it makes it fun."

He scored on Escobar's fly. "He took over the inning. He creates havoc on the basepaths," Farrell said.

Specifically, let's think a little about just what the **** are the Jays going to do when they need to start adding some of their talented, young players to the 40-man roster in order to call them up to the majors.

Provided I'm counting correctly, the club's 40-man roster is currently maxed out and then some-- with Jesse Carlson and Dustin McGowan technically off it until they're ready to come off the 60-day DL-- and while there are a number of interesting young players already on it (David Cooper, Moises Sierra, Darin Mastroianni, Adeiny Hechavarria, etc.), the ones we most want to see, and who are generally thought to be most-ready (Lawrie, Thames, Stewart), aren't. (The same is true for potential bench outfielders Scott Podsednik and Dewayne Wise, neither of whom are on the 40-man.)

Just how prohibitive will the fact that those three aren't on the 40-man will be to the timing of their call-up, we don't know. We do know that to bring any of the three up before September, the Jays would have to open up a spot on the 40-man by designating a player for assignment and/or placing one on waivers-- or possibly through trade.

So... who might go?

Candidates from the majors...

The names that jump out at me from the club's active roster-- some probably more as a matter of wishful thinking than others-- are Octavio Dotel, Edwin Encarnacion, Corey Patterson and Juan Rivera.

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John Farrell obviously values Patterson more than I think a reasonable man(ager) should. Juan Rivera, sad as this sounds, has actually been one of the team's few sources of offence lately, putting up a .304/.371/.446/.817 line over the past 15 games.

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At first I excluded Jo-Jo Reyes because, if the Jays are enamored-enough of him to keep him starting, and as short on left-handed relief options as they are, I tend to believe that once he leaves the rotation, he'll be headed for the bullpen and not waivers. Then again, if they go the other route, and are going to have to expose him to waivers to send him down anyway, maybe he's exactly the guy.

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Now, first off an admission: when it comes to what the Jays might be thinking long-term about some of the more fringy minor leaguers in their system, I don't have much of a clue. I'll do my best to guess here, but I wouldn't doubt some of the folks more knowledgeable with the system might have corrections, or scoffing at some of my inclusions/exclusions.

The names that jumped out on me as guys the club might (though probably not) remove from the 40-man at some point are pitchers Joel Carreno, Alan Farina, Scott Richhmond, Josh Roenicke and Luis Perez, as well as (though not really) catcher Brian Jeroloman.

I include Jeroloman because I assume anyone looking at the list of players on the 40-man might wonder what the **** a defence-first catcher with a .652 OPS in the PCL is doing there. He is, however, next in line, should JP Arencibia or Jose Molina need to hit the DL this season (gulp), and he actually had his best offensive year as a pro last year across two levels, putting up an .876 OPS between New Hampshire and Vegas. Not exactly a sexy name, but a depth guy we can rule out being dropped, I think.

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Roenicke, on the other hand, is struggling in Vegas. Not that Richmond's 6.67 ERA is any great shakes, but the soon-to-be 29-year old Roenicke has given up 14 hits and 11 walks in just over 13 innings this year. Sure, he's got 15 strikeouts to go with it, but one wonders just how much longer the Jays are going to hope he can find the command necessary to go with his great arm.

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Another name to be considered is Robert Ray, who you'll remember from the four starts he made for the Jays in 2009. Ray is currently on the DL in Las Vegas, hasn't pitched all season, and I can't for the **** life of me find out what the hell is wrong with him. Could he be a candidate to get moved off the roster and onto the 60-day DL? Depends on the extent of the injury.

So... yeah. There you have it. Not a lot of flexibility there, and not a lot of obvious candidates to take off the 40-man. Which leads me to believe that maybe we're not as close to seeing those three major prospects as some have been thinking. (Or maybe I'm totally missing something here.)

It’s difficult to decry the running game when Rajai Davis makes it look so valuable, but please remind me what the point of stealing a base is when Jose Bautista is at bat. The last two times that Corey Patterson has stolen a base while Bautista was up to bat, Bautista ended up getting walked.

It’s really hard to pick on anything Farrell did when Terry Francona left John Lackey in for far too long without any immediately discernible reason.

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John McDonald was 0 for 8 coming into his home run at bat. That’s a bit misleading considering he had three quality plate appearances last night resulting in two walks and a great catch by Carl Crawford on a liner to left.

Coming into tonight’s game, McDonald has been much more patient at the plate than in previous years. He’s swinging at 12.6% less pitches outside of the zone than he was a year ago.

New Angels outfielder Vernon Wells surely will return from his groin injury and lift his .183 batting average from below the Mendoza line to something more befitting the high-priced major leaguer that he is. But whatever he does do, the trade that sent Wells and much of the hefty amount left on his contract from Toronto to the Angels was still the Holy Grail of trades for the Blue Jays and the best move made this winter by any team.

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The remarkable thing about this deal was that Wells had a no-trade clause and limited the teams to which he would accept a trade to the Angels and his hometown Rangers. With Texas not interested, Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos had to make a deal with the Angels if one was to be made at all. Fortunately for Toronto, the Angels needed to add offense and were turned off by a free-agent market that was yielding monster deals to the best players. Wells had a decent bounce-back year in 2010, making the All-Star team and hitting 31 homers, which it turns out was just enough to convince the Angels they were getting a productive middle-of-the-order hitter. The Angels also apparently sold themselves (or maybe Toronto sold them) that they were getting a star on the shorter term of four years. What the Blue Jays actually did get was financial relief to the max. Anthopoulos said by phone, "Financially, it put us in better position to do what we wanted to do.''

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Toronto saved themselves tens of millions with this master stroke, building on the brilliance of the Wells deal. Anthopoulos was annihilated at the time, as some figured he was wasting the money saved from the Wells miracle. But by giving big bucks to Bautista, who some figured was a one-year wonder after he hit 54 home runs in 2010, it turns out Anthopoulos kept the player who has turned into a superstar in Toronto. Bautista has not only improved from his alleged career year, he has been the best player in baseball this season. And it's not really close. He has an otherworldly 1.301 OPS overall (and a crazy 1.772 OPS at home). As Rays manager Joe Maddon said, Bautista is like Barry Bonds, circa 2001. Anthopoulos said, "I'm done saying he can't do something. I'm just going to watch and enjoy.'' Bautista really can't be blamed for quickly capitalizing on his out-of-nowhere season. How could anyone have known even better was yet to come? But it looks now like if Bautista had waited, he would have joined Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols in the superstar free-agent market this winter and probably beaten $150 million. And the Jays would have been out of luck.

At least for the moment, it's safe to say that the Yankees' decision to sign Bartolo Colon to a minor league deal has paid off.

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What's to explain Colon's resurgence, at age 37 and after five years dominated by shoulder and elbow problems? According to a story in the Dominican daily Diario Libre, the new life in Colon's arm could be partially attributable to two treatments of stem cells - or "células madre" as they're called in the Dominican Republic, where Colon had the procedures. The doctors, Sergio Guzman and Leonel Liriano, told the newspaper they had envisioned using the treatment on Pedro Martinez, but they also sent "an invitation" out to Colon, which he accepted in March 2010. (Pedro's invitation, the article says, is still open).

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"We have not invented anything, nor have we done anything new. This is being done the world over," Guzman explained. "We received some training overseas to handle this type of things. Harvard University donated the centrifuges. This is no invention. What we do is take a little bit of bone marrow and we put it into an affected area."

Among major league pitchers, the bar for success with stem cell treatments is Takashi Saito, who received an injection of platelet-rich plasma in his pitching elbow in July of 2008, at age 38, in an attempt to avoid Tommy John surgery. Saito was closing for the Dodgers again by September, and was a largely reliable option for the Red Sox and Braves over the next two seasons.

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While Colon has had success on the international stage after his treatment, this new chapter in his career has yet to truly play out. But with no imminent threats to his role with the Yankees, he stands likely to be given the opportunity to prove himself as the first stem-cell success in a starting rotation.

youngLion wrote:There are some interesting tidbits in both the Sun article and the entry from Getting Blanked, so I encourage you to click the links and check those out. Apparently since Sept. of '09 Bautista is leading the league with 75 homers. The next guy in line is Pujols, with 20. That's pretty scary.

evilRyu wrote:great post as usual, youngLion.

A couple of thoughts from the papers:
- Great to hear that JPA will be catching Drabek more - as he should. They're both going to be here for a long time.
- Only 19,153 at the game yesterday? Considering it was the Red Sox, I was hoping for more. If the Jays are against an unbalanced schedule because they want more Red Sox and Yankee games at home, this isn't exactly helping their case.
- Pretty awesome that the Jays have the top-2 moves from the off-season.

youngLion wrote:There are some interesting tidbits in both the Sun article and the entry from Getting Blanked, so I encourage you to click the links and check those out. Apparently since Sept. of '09 Bautista is leading the league with 75 homers. The next guy in line is Pujols, with 20. That's pretty scary.

I think yo u meant Pujols has 55, which is 20 less than Bautista

A Toronto broadcaster has been fired after he posted on Twitter about the debate surrounding New York Rangers forward Sean Avery's support of same-sex marriage.

Damian Goddard was a host on Rogers Sportsnet. On Tuesday, he tweeted his support for hockey agent Todd Reynolds, who used Twitter to voice his opposition to Avery's position.

Goddard wrote: "I completely and whole-heartedly support Todd Reynolds and his support for the traditional and TRUE meaning of marriage."

The TV network then issued its own tweet, saying: "Today's tweet from Damian Goddard does not reflect the views of Rogers Sportsnet."

On Wednesday, it severed ties with Goddard

SharoneWright wrote:In other news, Damian Goddard fired for personal beliefs:

A Toronto broadcaster has been fired after he posted on Twitter about the debate surrounding New York Rangers forward Sean Avery's support of same-sex marriage.

Damian Goddard was a host on Rogers Sportsnet. On Tuesday, he tweeted his support for hockey agent Todd Reynolds, who used Twitter to voice his opposition to Avery's position.

Goddard wrote: "I completely and whole-heartedly support Todd Reynolds and his support for the traditional and TRUE meaning of marriage."

The TV network then issued its own tweet, saying: "Today's tweet from Damian Goddard does not reflect the views of Rogers Sportsnet."

On Wednesday, it severed ties with Goddard

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Very surprised "Sportsnet" has taken upon itself the role of Thought Police.

Maybe Rogers should ask fans to fill out a quick questionnaire at the ticket window before they accept payment and allow entrance to the park.

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nhl/ ... id=6532954

vaff87 wrote:People should realize that when they're a public figure, what they say publicly will reflect on the company they work for. I don't have much sympathy for him. He should know better.

vaff87 wrote:People should realize that when they're a public figure, what they say publicly will reflect on the company they work for. I don't have much sympathy for him. He should know better.