Normally, a split with the Red Sox in a four games series at Fenway park wouldn’t be all that bad but being ten games down, the Jays needed at least one more win to make up some ground. Now they’re a game below the Yankees rather then tied with them like they were at the break and they face another, critical, four game series beginning today.
Alex Rios continues to amaze me. He was shut down in the last two games of this series but he still finished with eight hits because two four hits games to start things out. He’s only had one homerun since June 25th but that one homer put him at a new career high and he’s also getting his share of doubles.
Jeremy Accardo has established himself as a solid closer option and at the league minimum, he’s been quite the bargain. In fact he makes that huge contract we gave B.J. Ryan look kind of silly. Anyway, since June 8th when he lost back to back games, he’s taken only one loss and he hasn’t blown a save. He’s good for a strikeout or two every time he comes out and opponents are hitting just .206 against him. I’ll definitely take it and if he weren’t locked up through arbitration the next few years, I’d say he’d make some decent trade bait with a lot of teams looking for closers.
Roy Halladay has hit a rough stretch, and even though he’s 2-2 in his last four starts, he’s given up five runs in three of those. In fact his best start, in which he gave up just three runs, was one of the losses. His strikeouts are down and his walk rate is coming up and you wonder if he’s nursing another injury (or the same one that had a chance to rest during the recovery from the appendectomy).
Vernon Wells is stuck in the .750 OPS range and you wonder if he’s evern going to get out of it this season. The strange thing is, if he has just a decent second half, he could still end up with 100 runs and 100 RBIs, which is something he’s done only once in 2003.
The Jays kick off a big four game series at Yankee Stadium against the Yankees. Whoever wins the series will lay claim to second place and three out of four might mean the pickup of a game with the Red Sox, who face the Royals. Josh Towers gets the start tonight and he’ll face Kei Igawa. Towers had the best start of his season his last time out with eight shutout innings (and the Jays just won it 1-0) so hopefully he can build on that.
