Romero got some early support and cruised against the Rangers

The Jays bats can lay a hurting in more ways than one, it turns out. Vernon Wells, Aaron Hill and Yunel Escobar each hit homers in a 7-2 series-opening win against the Rangers this afternoon, and Jose Bautista inflicted a different sort of damage, fouling a seventh inning pitch off the Jackie Robinson nameplate on the 400 level behind home and sending a flying steel “B” about 15 feet below into the 200s. A fan was hit in the shoulder and not seriously injured, which is more than most of the pitchers Bautista has pummeled this year can claim.

Toronto jumped on Tommy Hunter early in this one, scoring five times in the third on a three-run homer by Wells and a two-run shot by Hill, the second in as many days for each and their 25th and 23rd of the season, respectively. Escobar’s solo shot in the seventh was his fourth of the year and marked the Jays’ seventh run of the day off Hunter, who came in at 12-2 and having given up more than four runs just once in 17 previous starts.

Ricky Romero was his usual fine self, tossing seven innings and giving up a lone run on six singles and a double. He improved to 12-8 with the win and lowered his ERA to 3.51, including a 6-2 and 3.31 mark in 10 starts since a pair of hellish outings against New York and Boston (13 earned runs in a combined five innings) to start July. Romero is shaping up for a stronger finish than his rookie year in 2009, when he had a 5.54 ERA over his final 16 starts before finishing at 13-9 and 4.30.

The win sets Toronto at 71-66 and five back of Boston for fourth in the division — a little something to play for, if motivation is necessary. With two in a row already in the bag, the Jays look to keep rolling tomorrow night at Rogers Centre, with Shaun Marcum (11-7, 3.53) on the hill against Scott Feldman (6-9, 5.43).

Wells and Hill both hit two-run shots and Brett Cecil pitched the Jays to a win in New York

Alex Rodriguez plays and the Yankees lose — that’s the way it is. A-Rod was back off the disabled list this afternoon, just in time to help New York lose 7-3 to the Jays, snapping an eight-game Yankees win streak. Of course, it helped that Phil Hughes had the ball and having forgotten how to pitch sometime back in mid-May.

Alright, so Rodriguez isn’t necessarily the kiss of death — the Yankees did manage to win a World Series with him last year after five years and a wasted $120 million, after all. This year, however, they’re 21-3 with him out of the lineup. He managed a pair of hits in five at-bats in his return this afternoon, including an RBI single with the game already out of reach in the seventh.

Brett Cecil was good enough for the Jays, lasting six-and-a-third and leaving with a 7-2 lead before A-Rod’s single off Casey Janssen closed his book with three runs on seven hits and four walks. More importantly, he grabbed the win, bumping his record to 3-0 in four starts against the Yankees and a combined 6-1 against New York and Tampa Bay for the year, the latter of which beat him for the only time five days ago. Throw in three strong starts against Boston and Baltimore, and Cecil is 8-2 with a 2.35 ERA in 11 outings against the AL East. As a rookie in 2009, he was 1-3 with a 7.90 ERA in six starts (two apiece against Baltimore, Boston and New York and none against the Rays) against the division.

Cecil’s counterpart, Hughes, was roughed up by Toronto for the second time in less than two weeks, coughing up six runs over six innings, including two in the first on a Vernon Wells homer and another pair on an Aaron Hill shot in the third. John Buck added a solo homer in the sixth off Hughes, who dropped to 16-7 with the loss. Since starting the year 10-1, he’s loafed to a Joba-esque 7-6 mark with a 5.55 ERA in his last 13 starts.

The win means the Jays escape Yankee Stadium without being swept and wraps up a road swing through Tampa Bay and New York at 2-4. The AL West-leading Rangers, with Josh Hamilton and Cliff Lee apparently on the shelf for the near future, come to Toronto next to start a four-gamer tomorrow afternoon, with the Rays following for three on the weekend. Ricky Romero (11-8, 3.60) goes in the opener against Tommy Hunter (12-2, 3.64).

Sparks flew. Emotions ran high. Jose Bautista was tossed for giving Ed Hickox a piece of his mind in the seventh.

Last I checked the Jays and Yankees were tied 5-5 with two on and none out in the seventh for Jose Bautista, with my guy Jesse Carlson in line to pick up the win after two flawless innings of relief. With the home run champ and Vernon Wells due up, nothing could go wrong, or at least you had to figure. Think again. Fast forward to the present: I’m home from work to see the Jays lost 7-5, with Jason Frasor picking up the loss for giving up a two-out, two-run homer to Marcus Thames in the eighth. Can we just skip tomorrow’s game and end the road trip?

Bautista, it turns out, ended up striking out looking and getting tossed for arguing, and Wells, realizing it was no longer April or May, grounded into an inning-ending double play. Joba Chamberlain, who pitched out of the mess, grabbed the win and Kerry Wood tossed a scoreless eighth to set up Mariano Rivera’s 29th save.

Toronto actually led early, 3-0, behind a solo shot from Lyle Overbay and a two-run Johnny Mac light show (astonishingly, his sixth in 122 at-bats this year and third in his last six games) off Javier Vazquez in the second. Marc Rzepczynski struggled again though, giving three back in the third on three Yankee hits and two walks and another pair in the fourth on a pair of hits, a walk, a hit batter and a wild pitch. He lasted four innings, giving up five runs on six hits and walking three, leaving his line at 0-2 with an ERA of 9.00 in four starts (covering 17 innings, in which he’s walked 15) since blanking the Angels over seven innings on Aug. 13.

Overbay, in his second game back after missing five while sick, added a two-run double in fifth to tie things and finished with three of Toronto’s five RBIs. Dewayne Wise added a pair of hits and a walk out of the leadoff spot.

The loss leaves the Jays 69-66 and on the brink of being swept at Yankee Stadium, with Brett Cecil (11-7, 3.74) looking to avoid that fate in tomorrow’s finale against some one-month wonder named Phil Hughes (16-6, 4.10).

Young punk talks during points, gets slapped by old woman, an agument breaks out, and the youngster proceeds to toss the woman’s husband off the balcony and onto the court (as far as I can see, that is). Yes, it’s all just another day at the U.S. Open.

In true Don Zimmer form, the old man that took the fall broke down in tears when reached for comment, admitting he was embarrassed both for the sport of tennis and for being a New York Mets fan.

Morrow's final start of the year was far from his finest

I’m gonna miss you Brandon Morrow. Well, I’ll miss the way you pitch sometimes, at least. The righty made his final start of the season this afternoon in New York, rearing his shaky side to the tune of five runs over three innings in a 7-3 loss to the Yankees. For the year, Morrow wraps at 10-7 with a 4.49 ERA — 8-1 and 2.74 at home and 2-6, 6.72 on the road.

Morrow’s shutdown is purely cautionary and not health-related, and the same action taken last year on rookie lefties Brett Cecil and Marc Rzepczynski. His 146 innings are an increase of 21 over the amount he threw last year between the majors and minors with the Mariners, and near the max of what teams will allow these days because of the fear of young arms falling off. All in all, Morrow turned in a fine 2010 after a bit of hellish start — after going 3-4 with a 6.66 ERA through 10 starts, he finished 7-3 with a 3.17 ERA over his final 16. His 10.9 K/9 rate currently sits atop the majors, nearly a strikeout ahead of the closest runner-up. Stretch the guy’s arm out a bit and throw in a tad of consistency and we’ve got potentially one of the league’s top starters on our hands.

Back to this afternoon, though: Morrow struggled from the get-go, giving up a pair of runs in the first and second on RBI doubles from Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson and was done to start the fourth with a 5-1 deficit. Toronto got back in with a pair of runs behind Lyle Overbay and Aaron Hill doubles in the fourth, but a triple from Brett Gardner and Granderson’s second double in the sixth was enough to put it to bed for New York. Travis Snider hit the game’s only bomb, a solo shot off Ivan Nova in the first.

The loss is the Jays’ third in four games of the current trip, with a couple more in the Bronx before coming home to the Rangers on Monday. Rzepczynski (1-3, 6.03) gets the ball tomorrow afternoon against Javier Vazquez’s dead arm (10-9, 4.86).

David Price was his usual self against the Jays

In case you hadn’t noticed, something isn’t right with Adam Lind this year. A one-out Vernon Wells triple went to waste with Toronto down a run in the ninth last night, as Lind struck out and John Buck flew out to the track to wrap a 2-1 Rays win. Lind’s ever-common line: 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. After a nice little stretch out of the All-Star break to seemingly break his season long slump, he’s now hitting .167 (9-for-54) with 14 Ks over his last 13 games.

Of course, Lind wasn’t the only one not getting it done against David Price last night — the Jays managed just five hits, with their only run coming on Buck’s solo homer to break a scoreless tie in the fifth. Sean Rodriguez’s homer off Shaun Marcum tied it in the bottom half and an Evan Longoria single off Scott Downs brought home the winner in the eighth, with Shawn Camp taking the loss for issuing a one-out walk to Ben Zobrist.

Marcum was strong again for Toronto, striking out seven and giving up five hits over six innings for his fourth straight quality start. Price was even better for Tampa Bay though, lasting eight and giving up just four hits to beat the Jays for the fourth time in four starts this year. His earned run average in those outings, however, rose drastically, bumping from 0.39 to 0.58 with the run he so-uncharacteristically allowed on Buck’s homer.

The loss means the Jays leave as losers of two of three in Tampa Bay — not at all unexpected, given they haven’t won a series there since 2007. Next up, a trip to the Bronx, with Brandon Morrow (10-6, 4.27) getting the ball in the tomorrow’s opener against “Home Run” Javy Vazquez (10-9, 4.86).

Dear Nyjer Morgan,

Please accept this clothesline to the face on behalf of the entire league. Also, stop throwing baseballs at the back of fans’ heads. Keep doing things like this though, because that’s still pretty funny.

Yours truly,

Major League Baseball

(EDIT: MLB Media has shut down all footage of it on YouTube, but Deadspin has a nice clean look at it here.)

Bautista topped 100 RBIs with his sixth inning homer

When Johnny Mac is slugging to the tune of .509 for the season, you have to figure something is going right with the Jays’ bats. McDonald homered for the second time in three games (his career-high fifth of the year) and Toronto scored 10 times off Jeff Niemann and Lance Cormier in the sixth last night in a 13-5 win over the Rays.

McDonald’s solo shot in the third inning gave the Jays a 1-0 lead, which Ricky Romero held till the fifth before another Aaron Hill gaffe opened the door for a two-out, three-run Rays rally to make it 3-1. With two down in the inning and Tampa Bay without a hit a in the game, Hill mishandled a Ben Zobrist grounder to score Evan Longoria and load the bases for Dan Johnson, who doubled home a pair. Hill was originally charged with an error, though the call was swapped to a hit after Toronto followed with 10 the next inning. The overturn was the third such for Hill since Saturday.

Hill made amends in the sixth, homering for the second time in as many days, but only after consecutive doubles by Vernon Wells, Adam Lind and John Buck already pulled the Jays c0mfortably ahead. Jose Bautista applied the icing with a two-out, three-run homer off Cormier — his 43rd of the season — to make it 11-3 and bump his RBI total to 102. Not bad, but I still think Robinzon Diaz could do better (Note: I didn’t write that. I don’t know who did, but it’s pretty amusing to look back on).

Romero ended up going seven-and-a-third for the Jays, giving up five runs (four earned) on three hits and five walks. More importantly, he won, running his record to 11-8 and leaving his inning total a comfortable 20 short of the 200 mark with about six starts to go. Niemann, meanwhile, in his second start off the disabled list, was laced for seven earned runs over five innings for Tampa Bay, giving him 17 over his last two outings and bumping his ERA from 3.12 to 3.97 in that span.

The Jays and Rays are back at it for the rubber match tonight, with Shaun Marcum (11-7, 3.61) on the hill against David Price (15-6, 3.01). Toronto is due against Price — in three starts this season, he’s 3-0 against the Jays and has given up just one earned run in 23 innings.

Yeah, Manny Ramirez is a cool guy...

Manny Ramirez is back with the Sox, albeit of a different colour this time around. Ramirez took his female hormone drugs to Chicago today, joining the White Sox after being claimed off waivers earlier in the week. Like their $60 million claim on Alex Rios last August, the Sox are picking up all of Ramirez’s contract, though it’s just the remaining $3.8 million on the two-year, $45 million deal he signed last March.

Even in his Boston days, I was a big Ramirez fan. Then we all found out he was as big of a cheater as Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz. That, of course, after he alienated the Red Sox franchise and was dealt to the Dodgers at the deadline in 2008. He hit .396 with 17 homers in two months to lead Los Angeles to the playoffs before making an ass of himself in contract negotiations and missing 50 games with his steroids suspension in 2009. Ramirez made three trips to the disabled list this season with the Dodgers, playing in only 66 games and hitting just eight home runs. So, note to White Sox fans: Don’t expect your honeymoon in Mannywood to end very nicely. Anything could happen, but don’t go crying to the fine folks of Boston or LA if you get hurt.

The White Sox, by the way, sit four games back of the Twins in the AL Central — definitely attainable, considering Minnesota came back from a deficit about twice that big last September to top the Tigers in the division. The Chicago Manny era starts tonight in Cleveland, with Ramirez on the bench for the second game of a three-game series with the Indians.

Pena's Hill-aided homer was all the Rays needed

A little Aaron Hill error isn’t about to convince me Brett Cecil isn’t still the greatest guy in the world. Cecil was strong in Tampa Bay last night, giving up just two earned runs over seven, but a Hill error on a Carl Crawford grounder extended the third inning before Carlos Pena’s three-run homer, which was enough damage in a 6-2 Rays win.

Cecil, fresh off eight strong innings in a win over the Yankees last week, lost the first time in seven starts against Tampa Bay and New York this season, falling to 5-1 and seeing his ERA bump to 2.19 in those outings. Sure, 7-0 would be better, but those numbers aren’t all that bad considering the Rays and Yankees have laid a combined 162 beatings on the majors as a whole this season.

Hill’s error was his eighth of the season, though he had two reversed on the weekend on routine plays that the official scorers somehow determined to be hits. One thing is for sure — Hill’s bat isn’t the only thing that’s taken a step back in 2010. He did manage to hit his 20th homer of the year last night — a solo shot in the fifth — and added a double to spike his average to a sparkling .212.

The loss drops the Jays to 68-63, with five more tough ones in Tampa Bay and New York before coming home for the Rangers next Monday. Ricky Romero (10-8, 3.54) and Jeff Niemann (10-4, 3.67) are on the hill tonight in the second of the three-game set.