Buffalo Boy's Blog

This is more than just a Doc Watch, its a "Bird Watch". The Toronto Blue Jays continued their late season push last night and while it may be too little too late to capture a playoff birth, I think its safe to say that no one in the AL in contention for a playoff spot wants to see the Blue Jays in the opposite dugout.

Cito Gaston said a few days ago that he wants to make a statement closing this season and let other teams take notice. Well, here it is and the team is responding to that.

Roy Halladay last night was lights out again in getting his 18th win, giving up just one earned run over 7 innings. Lets compare that to the Joba Watch, 4-3 on the season and only one win since July 30th. Not much to watch there Yankee fans. Again, the bandwagon is driving by again, hop on board before the train passes.

Speaking of passing, that could happen tonight, a Blue Jay win and a Yankee loss and the Toronto Blue Jays will over take the New York Yankees for third place in the AL East, at which point we can look for a volcano to erupt in NY as the members of the Steinbrenner family all simultaneously combust with anger.

The Jays have now won 6 in a row, they are 8 games over .500 and have turned the competitive corner under Cito Gaston.

Say what you want about JP Riccardi but by bringing Gaston back he brought back a guy that I was looking for earlier in the year, a guy who bleeds Blue Jay Blue. Gaston does that and the players love playing for him.

He has developed Brandon League who is now throwing 98-100 mph smoke again coming out of the bullpen, thats before you get to BJ Ryan. He has gotten guys to hit who were not hitting, pitchers to pitch even better than they were before and most of all, he has gotten the attention of the fans of Toronto.

Lately, attendance has been up consistently at Rogers Centre. Its been hovering around 30,000 a game, with over 32,000 last night against the Rays who despite their winning record is not a huge draw. Slowly but surely, you are starting to feel a buzz about this Toronto team, Im here in Buffalo watching games on TV and I can tell the crowds are bigger, the announcers are more excited and there just seems to be more optimism about this team.

Instead of going out and trying not to lose and hoping the pitching holds up like was the case earlier in the season, the Jays are finding ways to win. There is a difference and it makes watching the games more exciting. If they pass the Yankees this weekend, I have a feeling there will be no looking back.

The playoffs may be mathematically out of reach, but realistically there are still four games to play against the Red Sox and four games against the White Sox. Its not unheard of to go into the final two weeks 5-7 games out of a playoff spot and overtake a team or two. It happened to the Mets last year, we all know and try to forget about 1987 with the Tigers, and Oakland did it a few years back when they went on their monster late season streak and got in by winning 20 something in a row.

No matter what happens, Cito wants to make a splash and make something happen. Regardless of what happens, they are turning heads and JP's job for now is safe in my book.