Live Game Notes – Gyroball is a Hoax 

In a well played game the Blue Jays, somehow were able to prevail for a 2-1 win against the Boston Red Sox with Dice-K on the mound.

The Jays hitters looked terrible agaisnt the young Japanese star.  The first time through the order Matsuzaka was able to freeze hitters and rack up the strike outs.  Flailing bats categorised the rest of Dice-K’s game.  However, the Boston hurler lost his strikezone in the 4th.  Vernon Wells led off with a single, Frank Thomas walked, Overbay singled scoring Wells and then two more batters walked.  Including a Gregg Zaun basesloaded pass which held up to be the winning run.  With one out and the bags juiced Matsuzaka was able to get two quick outs and stop the bleeding.  Dice-K has a very slow wind-up that accelerates until he is throwing a mid-90s fastball.  He changes speeds and throws 4 or 5 pitches commonly.  Takes things off his slider and his curveball.  He will throw a 76mph and then a 85mph curveball then a funny change-up.  However, the scoreboard tracking feature never mentioned that a gyroball was thrown.  Frank Thomas looked hopeless his first time up.  Jays hitters looked really bad on this night. The Jays only managed three singles but three walks in the fourth provided enough scoring to win.  The Blue Jays defense surprised me.  The Ortiz shift was on and it worked perfectly a normal single was fielded by Aaron hill in medium right field and was able to make a shakey through to first.  I wonder if they practise making those long throws for an infielder.  The next batter, ManRam, Hill turned to Rios in right and directed him to move 10 steps toward centre, sure enought ManRam hit a fly right at Rios.  Aaron Hill has been doing it with his bat and his glove.  Look for good things from this guy. Prospect Adam Lind looked terrible against Matsuzaka.  He fanned three times and grounded out weekly to second.  He also displayed his lack of arm strength in a throw from the wall to second base. Red Sox hitters could not get to Chacin except for a tremendous blast off the Windows by Willy Mo Pena.  The long ball is Chachin’s Achilles Heel but with no walks and scattering 6 hits it is not a big a worry. With great back to back starts against first place clubs from Josh Towers and Gus Chacin the Jays are in good shape.  I don’t expect this kind of outing everynight from these guys but at least they are giving the pen a rest especially when the back-end is hindered.