=== Ryan Rowland-Smith ===

Up 3-0 going into the 7th inning.  And was allowed to lose the game.

Somebody go count the times that RRS has had a pitch count >100 and then gone out and started the next inning.

Somebody go count the times that his ERA has been inflated -- and, just incidentally here, the game lost -- because he went out there for the Roger Clemens inning.

It seems like it's been fully five games that RRS was smokin' through 6+, and then was left out there to mess up his game late.  Check me on that.

Is Wok buying into the Aussie vibe?  This is a young lefty with a history of losing the OOOOMPH in his left arm.   Why are you picking THIS guy to see if you can get him to 115 and 120 real late in his season?

...............

I don't buy the consensus that RRS is a workhorse.  Not at all.  He looks like one, but that ain't what the back of his baseball card says.

This guy is either the M's #3 starter or, if Erikkkk isn't ready, their #2.  And he's volatile.  I'd be babying him, not trying to see if I had Warren Spahn.  But that's just me.

.

=== Tui ===

Video of the tater is up.   It went over the Jays' bullpen in left, not Jose Lopez left, straightaway over the LF's head or a bit to center.  Just a lefty slurve, 86 on the gun, nothing that wouldn't have been thrown in AAA.  Hittracker didn't have the distance up yet.

If you go to mlb.com, their scatterchart has Tui's Rogers Center batted balls going up the middle and all over the field, Edgar-style.  One more BIP to the right side of the field than to the left of it. 

Folks who held their breaths until they turned blue, about young Lopez' pull habits, are now obligated to root Tui.  He's the anti-Lopez as far as the pull goes.

.................

I flat enjoy watching the kid hit. 

The pitch didn't prove anything, but the swing does.  To me, if not to a court of law.  Couple of 70's, 80's guys he reminds me of:  he's Mike Schmidt-, Johnny Bench-powerful at the plate.  Similar leg load, compact to the ball, brawny turn on it, short followthrough, yet the ball jumps off his bat.   He looks more like Bench in setup, and more like Schmidt as he follows through.

Just chat, not sabermetrics, so lurkers don't write in.  :- )  I'm not saying he's going to hit 500 homers from third base.  He visually looks like Schmidt and Bench to me.

Not that it means anything -- it doesn't -- but it's fun to see his 263 / 318 / 474 line, 0.50 EYE, from second base in his first six games.   We'd take that on the infield in 2010.  So would Adrian Beltre >:-}

...............

Interesting that Tui, after being in the freezer early, has now played what ... 4-of-5?   I guess Wok had to sneak him in there on the vets.

.

.

=== Cranklin ===

Dr. D panned his second half a few days ago.  Grizzle pointed out that the knee is a big factor.   Well, okay, saith, Dr. D.

Not okay, saith Guti, who homered THAT NIGHT lol to make me eat dirt.  Then tonight, went downtown again.

This has happened at least once before -- I think I wrote up a caution on him right before he went bananas in May or June or both or whatever it was.  I'm developing a Franklin Gutierrez Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx on this blog.  :- )

No problem ..... Franklin Gutierrez is weak!   Ditch the guy for a lefty sock!

.

=== 80-76 ===

I'd have thought that Wok wanted these next two wins as bad as he wanted his first one.  

He had to have smelled the Sunday win like Ichiro smelling an infield hit down to first.  Interestingly, though, Wok unselfishly mixed his bullpen changes, keeping a long view. 

He lost the game, but again showed the class and leadership.  Ballplayers evidently respond to that.

All the right moves man,

Dr D