Q.  Another day, another Cy candidate with a dominating performance.  Did Doogie pitch Doc tough?

A.  Final line was 6.2 ip, 7 h, 4 er, 0 bb, 5 k.

But Fister retired the first 13 Jays, and was locked in a 2-hit shutout, scoreless duel with Halladay into the 6th inning.

Then the Jays' star Hill hit a changeup into the bullpen for a 2-0 Jays lead going into the 7th.

Fister got two out, then gave up two singles in the 7th... in comes Jakabauskas, needing one out... immediately allows both runners to score, then immediately gets out of the inning.

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Q.  What's up with the 5 strikeouts and 0 walks.

A.  Doogie followed the D-O-V script, IMHO, and got less of the plate.

Picture a grade-schooler working with geometry shape-aids... say a pitcher with good command has a red 12" square that represents the area that he can hit with his fastball.  Say there's a yellow 18" x 24" square the represents the strike zone.

The question is how much of that red square the pitcher wants to overlay the yellow square.  In previous games, Doogie threw virtually all pitches so that the red square was basically all the way inside the yellow square.

This means he either hits the black or misses over the plate.

nter called strikeout.

Lind, 79 change a little bit outside off the plate, swinging strike three.

Same thing on all five strikeouts here:  expanding the strike zone in Hunter style, catching the hitters confused about whether the ump is going to call it or not.

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Q.  Had a good fastball, looks like.

A.  Brooks had him for a solid 90 mph average, touching 92, with all kinds of swerve on it.

Interestingly, Fister threw FAR more heaters than in his previous starts.   After getting beat twice, the coaches evidently came up with a new game plan -- they're sitting on your change, let's go after passive hitters with located fastballs.

Worked fine, considering his command.  Ain't easy to walk 0 hitters against a real solid lineup.  Everybody at 90+, pretty much, and three plus hitters in Lind, Hill, and Overbay.

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Q.  Anything else?

A.  Doogie's still in my starting five for March 010. :- )   Now sitting on a 32/14 control ratio, showing a variety of ways to attack, love the makeup.

Go Doogie.  ::pom poms::

Cheers,

Dr D