Thursday, September 17, 2009

Scott Downs can't run without hurting himself

It might not have been his worst sin of the evening - that would have been hanging a curve ball to Hideki Matsui - but Scott Downs once again proved that while he is a decent pitcher, he's barely an athlete.

After coughing up the gopher ball to Matsui to relinquish the lead in the eighth, Downs was forced to cover first on a ground ball. This proved to be such an arduous task that Downs once again came up limping and clutching at his leg.

Maybe Downs is in lousy shape, or maybe he just doesn't like pitching after he's been hit around. Whatever the case, it has become an all-too-common sight to see Downs walking off the field with George Poulos this year.

Catch the Rays!
With their loss last night, the Tampa Rays slipped back to .500 at 73-73. Would it be too much of a pipe dream to expect the Jays to take a last run at the Rays to try to make up the six games between them with two weeks left in the season?

Hey...it's something, isn't it? The Futile Drive for Third Place is on! Who's with us?

18 comments:

DoubleA said...

THIRD PLACE-OFFS!!!

Too bad we couldn't have held on last night (and Monday night), cause sitting 5 back of the Rays would make things a little better. I can't believe after all we've been through this season that the Jays have a slim chance to finish 3rd - and I'd be happy with that.

The Ack said...

Boy, the Rays bed-shitting has really flown under the radar.

I'm on board for the quest. It's something, I guess.

Chris said...

Why not...something has to replace the annual September "Futile drive to get to within spitting distance of the wild card only to be swept by some last place team to extinguish all hope."

plain_g said...

games suck, let's talk about next year. with the rumblings that rogers might expand the payroll, who is worth going for in FA? i posted this on djf (but nobody cares if i'm not calling stoeten a sycophantic nazi pederast) - i I don't like the big money free agents this year, but there's a ton of potential for high-risk one-to-two year bargains. Adrian Beltre, Hideki Matsui, Erik Bedard, vladdy daddy, rich harden, justin duchsherer, and jj putz are all guys i'd consider for short, incentive-laden contracts. also the carl crawford situation bears watching. if the rays let him go, geettt hiimmmm.
thoughts?

Mattt said...

If the Rays let him go and he can be got, get him. Matsui is also of interst. He has always been worth his contract. Bedard scares me. Gets hurt more than Downs does and by doing even less than running. Vlad would be cool. Probably would love it here as would Matsui...

Anonymous said...

Time to turn our attention to the real show in town, THE LEAFS! GO LEAFS GO!

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

I guess the Rays haven't exactly figured out how to win the uber-competitive AL East, after all. Shocking. One-hit wonder, yo.

THIRD PLACE!!1

Anonymous said...

LEAFS!!!!!!!!

Darren Priest said...

Yeah, Tao, I want your take on the idea that the big plan is to increase payroll to $130 million. Also, does Ricciardi deserve to be fired? And I want pictures of Spider-man on my desk by 4PM or yer fired!

Anonymous said...

LEAFS NATION FOREVER!!!!

Anonymous said...

NAZEM KADRI! Go Leafs!

Bruno Van Rottweiller said...

@ DP AKA JOnah Jameson...130 mill Canuck I think they can go 100 mill US next year and need an SS, catcher and two bats on top of that like an Abreu, Bay or Figgins.

BTw, it's JP's fault. He pt this team together so he needs to go. He's had almost 8 years so he's worn out his welcome.

Cito? They need a better manager than this one. His BP management stinks.... And why isn't he playing rookies now? This guy is lost....

Tao of Stieb said...

You know, I'd started doing the whole "$100 million Dreams" post, where I broke all this shit down.

But it's a lot of work. And I'm very busy.

(Hey man, I do this for love, not money. Cut me some slack, Jack!)

Anyways, it's kinda useless to start plotting out off season action until you know the budget and until you know if Cito is going to be back.

I can't believe I'm saying this...but if Cito's back, I might not be terribly interested in following that shit show for another 6 months.

I fucking knackered, mate.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

I don't believe you for one second, Tao.

And I've been working out the $115 million 2010 Jays in my head. And I'm lazier than you.

Mattt said...

Cito or not you'll be following. You can't help yourself just like the rest of us...

plain_g said...

the thing about bedard or harden is that the are legit #2's (when healthy). they might be #2's for 25 starts a year, at 6ip per start, but they are legit #2s. can't really say that about anyone on the jays right now. marcum and romero have been pleasant, but haven't established themselves as top of the rotation guys yet.

QJays said...

Ever the optimist Tao - I bet the O's are looking at the 6 games they need to take over 4th too. The 3-4-5 race is congested.

bkblades said...

The 3-4-5 race is congested.

That just might be the most depressing statement I've seen this week.