So for those of you out there that didn’t know, today was Canada Day. As a result the majority of the working population in Canada got the day off, yours truly included. In celebration of a Wednesday with no work I went with the obvious day off activity, a Blue Jays game. The Jays had been struggling recently, 4 game losing streak, but it didn’t matter. There is nothing better than sitting in a ball park with the family with a beer in one hand and a dog in the other and in the middle of a nice summer day. Okay, I have just completely filled up the maximum amount of pussy writing we allow for posts here at BWB, so I will skip the rest of my story and move onto the baseball game.

It has been hard to watch the Jays this season. One week the are riding a 5 game winning streak, are batting .293 as a team, and Roy is pitching complete game gems. Then the next week they lose 4 straight, drop the wooden bats for ones of the wiffle variety, and lose ball games even with the Doc on the mound. Oh wait, that was this week right? The Jays lost the last 2 against the Phillies after winning the first game and proceeded to lose the first two games to their division rival, Tampa Bay Rays. It was starting to feel like it did at the beginning of last month’s 9 game slide. But it was Canada Day, they couldn’t lose, right?

The team took the field wearing red unis to celebrate the big day, unfortunately it was one of the ugliest shades of red they could have picked. But at least they made up for it by replacing every players name with Canada, a nice touch, classy like no names on Boston and New York. Jeez, I gotta stop that now I’m well over… back to the game. Ricky Romero was on the mound and was looking to repeat his performance against the Phillies in which went 7 innings without giving up a run. That was the last time the Jays won a game.

Well worry no more Jays fans. The Jays are back on track after a gem of a game from Romero. Vernon Wells got the day off but the lineup did fine in his absence, scoring 5 runs spread through 4 different innings, which that would be more than enough for Romero.

Romero has been the Jays second best pitcher this season behind All-Star Roy Halladay. After today’s game Romero is 6-3 with a 2.85 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, and 61 strikeouts despite missing more than a month on the Dl. With Litche, McGowan, Mar every starter from last season other than Halladay on the DL, it has been the play of Romero, Tallet, and Richmond that has kept the Jays just 7 games back of the Red Sox in the East and 4.5 back of the Yankees for the AL Wild Card.

Now if the Blue Jays can just stay within 10 back of the Sox or Yankees then we have a chance. It has been rumored that McGowan could be ready to pitch by late August and Schneider will likely return to the lineup sometime in August after some necessary tweaking to his game in Triple A (get Russ Adams back in the minors!). The biggest question for the Jays moving forward are their two superstar hitters, Alex Rios and Vernon Wells. The two of them are batting .260 and .248 with an OPS of .736 and .689 respectively. That is not nearly the output that Jays management, or more importantly Jays fans, were expecting when both signed lucrative contracts with the club a few years back. If the two slumping stars can even salvage a decent season the Jays could be playing important games in September.

Now I’m probably getting way ahead of myself. It one fucking game right? Yeah, I know. But with the way the Jays have been playing recently this is something to get excited about. Cito mixed things up and it worked. Maybe the answer is to leave Vernon on the bench and play Lind, Rios, and Bautisa? I would prefer to let Wells fight his way out of the slump, but I trust Cito’s judgement and if he feels that is the answer then I will believe him.

Regardless, the Jays are now on a 1 game winning streak (yes that IS a streak) heading into their all important series with the Yankees, who are on a nice 7 game win streak themselves. Now, I’m not going to say anything about the implications, because the last time I did they went and lost 9 straight games, but make sure you watch the Jays this weekend because it may or may not be VERY important.

That got way longer than I intended. Sorry.

- KC Roberts