Peskiness Is a Virtue

The Pesky Blue Jays of Toronto came into Yankee Stadium II last night, to start a 3-gamer before the Yankees' 1st West Coast trip of the season. And, just as the Yankees rode a single big inning to wipe out 8 not-so-good ones against The Other Team the day before, the Jays rode a 5-run 6th to wipe out what could have been a good Yankee win.

(Is there any such thing as a bad win? Well, somebody could get hurt during it.)

Jays 7, Yanks 3. WP: Carlos Villanueva (2-0). LP: Bartolo Colon (2-3).

Jose Bautista hit his League-leading 19th homer off Colon. That's 19 homers before Memorial Day, a pace for over 60. I think it's time to test him for steroids.

Not much good to take from this game. Hector Noesi pitched 3 innings of 1-run relief of Colon, his 2nd big-league appearance, giving him a career ERA of 1.29 and keeping his won-lost record at 1-0. Okay, that won't last, but strictly in terms of "Was he good?" his career record is 2-0. Alex Rodriguez got 2 hits, though neither was a home run, leaving him on 622. Brett Gardner also got 2 hits.

The Yankees remain tied for first with the Tampa Bay Rays, one game ahead in the loss column. The Red Sox are half a game back, one in the loss; the Jays now a game and a half back, two; the Baltimore Orioles 3 1/2 back, 3. The AL East race is as tight Mickey & Billy halfway through a night out on the town.

Jeter 2975 25
Rivera 572 29
A-Rod 622 141
Magic Number 116 (to eliminate Scum, 115 for the other 3 teams)