A wild one in Philly

Image courtesy of Daylife

The baseball gods shall giveth, and the baseball gods shall taketh away. Even though they gave the Blue Jays plenty of chances to win last night’s game over Philadelphia, the baseball gods decided to give the Blue Jays one more chance; and finally the Bluebirds took advantage of it.

Incredibly, the Blue Jays were 0 for 9 with the bases loaded and somehow only managed to win by 5 runs. The Phillies basically gift-wrapped the game for the Jays in the 7th, 8th, 9th, but they couldn’t finally take advantage until the 10th inning. A base-running blunder by Alex Rios almost cost the Jays a chance to win the ball game. Although Nick Leyva was waving Rios home, he should have had the common sense to tag up on a ball hit into left field. In retrospect, it was a big mistake but it’s forgivable because Rios is 10 for 20 since being moved down in the lineup. He’ll likely just have a stern talking to and respond by getting 3 or 4 hits in the next game.

Vernon Wells is officially out of the dog house (for a few days at least). His infield single in the 9th inning helped spark the rally to help tie the game. V-Dub followed that up with another single in the 10th, most likely lowering his status on the Vernon Wells Hatred Advisory System to “High”. Congratulations Vernon, for the first time in a long time your name is not the one that callers will be immediately denouncing on Jays Talk.


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Briefly on the Scott Downs situation; Bastian tweets that Downs’ X-Rays were negative but it’s likely he’ll go on the disabled list for the time being. It’s another bad luck situation for the Blue Jays that their new closer will probably go in the DL and now this could open the door for B.J. Ryan to return to the role that he occupied at the start of the season. Downs has a history of ankle and foot injuries over these past few seasons, so I’m sure everything is just a precautionary measure to make sure he doesn’t re-aggravate it.

Finally, let’s give credit to Ricky Romero for pitching another great game. Romero racked up nine strikeouts – six of which were against Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez. Not exactly an easy feat to shut down two of the most feared hitters in the National League, so a tip of the cap to RR Cool Jay.

It took seven tries, but the Blue Jays finally have a win against a National League team. 1-6 in interleague play, baby!

Ian Hunter

Ian has been writing about the Toronto Blue Jays since 2007. He enjoyed the tail-end of the Roy Halladay era and vividly remembers the Alex Rodriguez "mine" incident. He'll also retell the story of Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS to his kids for the next 20 years.

3 thoughts on “A wild one in Philly

  • June 17, 2009 at 4:24 pm
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    let the interplay winning streak begin! here's to hopin' Rios' gets some baserunning lessons today!

  • June 18, 2009 at 5:20 am
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    I left it on SEVERE. Am I being too hard on him, Ian? I think I need you to serve on the VWHAS board of directors …

  • June 18, 2009 at 12:32 pm
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    The VHWAS Board of Directors? Holy shit, this is getting serious now, man.

    No, the hatred levels are warranted. Once he finally hits a HR, all will be fine in the world once again.

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