Autumn in New York

So, that was an incredibly long weekend of baseball. Two extra inning games, one featuring Doc (aided by Aaron Hill) blowing a 4-0 lead in the 9th after pitching an absolute gem of a game. The look on his face when he was getting pulled was great. The guys who patted his back when he went back to the dugout were some of the bravest men ever. That one finally finished when Zaun pounded a homerun in the 14th.

The other was five hours long. No one had pitching. Aaron Hill hit a double in the top of the 10th, Matt Stairs tried to score from first. Although it appeared his thigh was on the plate before Posada touched his chest, the homeplate umpire misplaced his balls and was unable to make that call in front of the aggressive New York crowd. Melky Cabrera hit the walkoff about 5 minutes later against a rather feral looking Sparrow. It was really quite the celebration, screaming and crying and prancing. And that was just A-Rod.

On Sunday, Peaches had nothing. It was very old-school Peaches. Lot's of walks and no out pitch, blew a 3-0 lead. Mussina settled in and got his 250th career win. Joba Chamberlain (who apparently was "unavailable") was chanted into service and got his first save ever. It was pretty gross.

Today, AJ Burnett didn't start because he went to Maryland to deal with a "family problem". Ever since I heard his wife gets 6 limo rides to and from Toronto to Maryland, (on the Jays, of course) because she doesn't like to fly (and $55 million just doesn't go as far as it once did), I've been fascinated by this family. What sort of "family problem" would AJ be dealing with? And I feel okay making fun of it because he is coming back for the Baltimore series tomorrow. Well, actually, it's probably really serious and now I'm going to hell.

Anyway, Jesse Litsch, pinkly, roundly and efficiently, had a sinker working and walked not a Yankee. Reed Johnson, totally asleep at the wheel, fired a ball home in the 8th even though his catch was the third out. Jays split the series with a 4-1 win.

Shaun Marcum is done because he needs surgery on his knee. He supposedly will be ready for the spring. On and on and on it goes.

An Ode to Russ Adams

Yesterday, blinded by love for AJ Burnett, I completely forgot to mention that it was Russ Adams that hit the pinch-hit game winning double in the 8th. Well, Russ, feeling slighted, decided to hit a freaking GRAND SLAM off of Jonathon "The Picker" Pabelbon, turning a very close 2-1 game into a much more comfortable 6-1 pounding. The replays this morning don't show how boss the whole at-bat was.

Running the count to 3-0, taking one pitch, fouling the next off to run it full and then tatooing the next thing he saw into the second deck in right field. Confidence is a glorious thing. Russ, because of his yips last season, spent most of this season in the 'Cuse, was congratulated by his teammates, especially his husband, Aaron Hill. It warmed my heart so.

Oh, and Jesse Litsch got his first win since August and pitched his way out of more than a few jams. Pinkly, roundly and efficiently.

Nostradamus is my dad

Back in about May, my dad was sitting in his backyard and he said to me "You know what this team is going to do? They are going to fall off the pace for the playoffs and then they are going to get hot and play incredibly well."

F the Devil Rays

Fuck 'em.

Dustin "Peaches" McGowan pitched beautifully Friday night and the Jays won it. Unfortunately, that's all they would get in the win department this weekend. AJ Burnett renewed the feelings of baseball love I felt towards him earlier in the year by taking a 7 strike-out, 4-1 lead to the 9th, only to have Acorn hand all of it back and then some. The shots of AJ looking like he was getting kneed in the privates on the bench right before BJ Upton hit the walkoff were a nice touch, Sportsnet. And then Jesse Litsch, in his hometown, lost 3-2. No idea what happened, it wasn't on tv. But I'm just going to go right ahead and blame it on the offense. And what the heck, I'll blame Gibby, too. And to follow a recent trend in the Jaystown blogosphere, I'm going blame Richard Griffin. Cause he's a Dick, in more ways than one.

As for the Troy fiasco, I don't know what to think. But that media scrum when he nearly cried while saying "no comment" and taking big sighs was painful. Blech.

J-Effin' Mac

Royals 1 Jays 2

Shaun Marcum was multiple kinds of awesome last night and had 6 1/3 innings of no-hit baseball. Unfortunately, his calf didn't want to cooperate. He gave up a hit to Butler (despite a valiant effort by Jmac, who caught the ball but kind of did this spinning roll with it. More on him in a tick) and left the ballgame with a 2-run lead and an ovation from his hometown KC crowd. It isn't a serious thing, his cramp. Apparently, it's just because of the heat. In a pre-game interview, John McDonald talked about how he began drinking water as soon as they got to KC. It worked, because he made an absolutely kick ass play to save the game, when he turned a barehanded dp with the tying runs on base. It was totally boss. Vernon hit a 2-run double which was the offense that was mustered. So the lesson is, and I hope everyone is paying attention, when Vernon hits, the team wins.