Nine runs is good for what ails you

(If the above image isn't the enduring scene to date for the 2009 Toronto Blue Jays, then I don't know what is. Love it. And if you don't - learn to.)

When the Jays were winning games early this season (games they probably should have lost) on the back of Aaron "what a ballplayer!" Hill, I consoled my ever paranoid self by saying:

"Don't worry, self, when Hill eventually cools off, we'll have guys like Vernon Wells heating up to pick up the slack."

Well, it turns out that I was partially correct, if not fully crazy for carrying on such a conversation. I'm not going to pile on Vernon by pointing out his woefully inadequate numbers from the cleanup spot this year. Nope, I'm not going to go there. Not going to discuss it. What I will point out is the fantastic effort delivered by the team's forgotten man, Lyle Overbay.

Overbay delivered two crushing blows (homer, double) in big spots against Royals ace Zack "not Roy Halladay" Greinke. Mix in another big fly from Adam Lind, who is just fucking nailing the baseball these days, and a three double night from Marco (marco) Scutaro (scutaro) - who refuses to cool off, by the way - and voila - Jays win.

Oh, Ricky Romero looked pretty good, too. Dominant, if we can pretend the seventh inning never happened. Performances like those are exactly what the rotation needs. It looks like our guy Arnie must have had one of those "YOU'RE A BAD MAN RICKY. A REAL BAD MAN!!" pep talks with young Ricardo before tonight's game, because he was storming off the mound looking to punch someone in the mouth at the end of each inning (I miss Mencherson).

Yeah yeah, Arnsberg was off attending his daughter's graduation or something.....you've never heard of a cell phone?

Alex Rios mans up
Do we still need to talk about this? You know, the incident where the dickless poser calls out an athlete on the street with absolutely no fear of reprisal?

I mean, I get it.....Rios comes off as a major dick for (a) refusing the autograph request, and (b) dropping the f-bomb (how dare he!)...but seriously, the guy calling him out? What a douchebag. Unless you want to play the "well, Rios makes millions of dollars a year, it comes with the territory" card. Because then you're a jealous douchebag.

Aaaaanyway, team mandated or not, Rios confessed his sins and apologized for his improprieties to the ever attentive media before the game.

"I just want to apologize for the situation that happened yesterday at the gala," Rios said. "I just want to apologize to my fans, to the team, to my teammates, because it was something I should have never done. It was a bad reaction on my side."

"That's not the person that I am," he said. "You shouldn't act like that, even if there's sites like that or people following you, trying to make you say bad things, you shouldn't act like that."

Rios acknowledged that frustration with his poor performance Thursday led to the incident.

"It was a long day," Rios said. "I kicked myself, I couldn't help the team win. It was just bad."

So, there. Are you happy now, jealous douchebag? I don't know, maybe I don't care enough about these off-field transgressions, but yeah....Jays win. Dig it.