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The Doc Watch
He got to 20 wins last night with you guessed it, another complete game. I don't care what Cliff Lee did this year, Roy Halladay has done this consistently for the last 6 years and deserves the Cy Young. He has 9 complete games and has pitched 20 more innings than any other starter in baseball.
His 9 complete games was good for first in all of baseball, the next closest? Cliff Lee with 4. Roy Halladay dominated.
Category: The Doc Watch | Toronto Blue Jays
The Doc Watch
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.
Category: The Doc Watch | Toronto Blue Jays
How Good Are They?
Tonight against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Toronto Blue Jays showed how good their pitching staff really is. Of all the pitchers they rolled out tonight (5 all together), no one had an ERA higher than 2.69.
Roy Halladay had the highest at 2.69, BJ Ryan had the second highest at 2.68. Everyone else was substantially lower!
5 pitchers and everyone was in the mid 2's or lower and one, Scott Downs has an ERA of 1.31. Folks, just because you knock out the Jays starter, doesn't mean you are going to get a cream puff reliever.They are the leagues best pitching staff by a mile.
Any kind of offense for the first half of the season and this team is in first place.
Category: Sports | The Doc Watch | Toronto Blue Jays
The Doc Watch
The Doc Watch continued last night, no it wasn't a shutout or a complete game. It didn't have to be. What was impressive about last night wasn't the fact that Doc was lights out again. (he was as usualy). It was the fact that the Toronto Blue Jays broke out the whooping sticks and laid a 21 hit, 14-3 beating on the evil empire New York Yankees.
Next up is the Boston Red Sox. Cito Gaston has this team playing passionate baseball and it shows as they have won four out of their last five games which have all been against the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.
If the Jays can keep it up and either win this series against the Red Sox or by some miracle sweep them, they can officially start talking about wild card races. The offense is finally starting to turn around what was a horrible start into what could be a great finish and the pitching looks like it is what its going to be, great the rest of the way so its not an impossible task.
Category: Sports | The Doc Watch | Toronto Blue Jays
The Doc Watch
The Doc Watch rolled on tonight. Remember the Doc Watch was started in response to the "Joba Watch" while Yankee fans watch their mediocre player do mediocre things, Jays fans are being treated to their superstar doing incredible things.
Roy Halladay against the Redsox pitched ANOTHER complete game. His 8th of the season allowing only one run. The Jays also got a win against a team they need to catch if they have any chance of seeing October.
Alex Rios added to the excellence of Roy Halladay by finally showing some power and hitting a two run homer.
Stay tuned and remember we are always accepting of Yankee fans who may be getting tired of mediocrity and want to watch a real pitcher instead of that wanna be in NY, Joba, they can come here and watch greatness in action in Roy Halladay.
Category: Sports | The Doc Watch | Toronto Blue Jays
Boycotting Allstar Game
Im not a huge fan of the Major League All Star Game to be begin with, but Im boycotting tonights because Terry Francona is a jack ass.
Cliff Lee will get the start and maybe he deserves it, but there is a guy from Toronto that deserves it even more. Roy Halladay should be the starter hands down.
He has an 11-6 record, the only reason he has 6 losses is because he doesn't come out of ball games. Many of those 6 losses came in games the Jays anemic offense couldn't muster more than a run or two. He has 7 complete games this season and 3 shutouts. No team has 7 complete games amongst all their starters, no team has 3 complete game shutouts on its roster.
Halladay should be in there as the starter because he is and has been the best pitcher in baseball since 2003 year in and year out, the only thing he is proving this year is that he is all that and more.
Category: Sports | The Doc Watch | Toronto Blue Jays
The Doc Watch Continues
The Joba Watch crossed pathes with the Doc Watch and of course, since the Doc Watch is about quality pitchers doing quality things, we will only mention that the Joba Watch, well, it was nothing special tonight.
The Joba Watch got steam rolled by the Doc Watch as Halladay went the complete game, his 7th of the season already, dealing a two hit shut out to the evil empire.
Doc, has 33 complete games since 2003, that leads the universe in complete games, as does his 7 so far this year.
To add to the Doc Watch, "The Canadian", Matt Stairs hit his 250th career home run to give the Jays the 5-0 lead and win. Its starting to come together boys.
Category: Sports | The Doc Watch | Toronto Blue Jays
