Crazy Eights

The Toronto Blue Jays continued a rather good tend at home today at the Rogers Centre.

Coming into today, the Jays lead the majors in winning percentage at home with a 27-10 record (.730). Toronto had won 7 straight games coming into todays game with Texas and looked to get a sweep.

The game started out like the previous 2 in the series, and Texas scored a run off starter Dustin McGowan in the 1st. And just like the previous 2 games, the Jays bounced back tying up the game with a Frank Thomas single with Matt Stairs on 3rd. Then, after 3 1/2 scoreless innings, Matt Stairs doubled in Ray Olmedo, a call-up that got the start today. Then the Jays really opened things up 2 innings later, as Stairs and Wells both picked up a RBI to give the Jays a 4-1 lead. McGowan would shut down the Rangers for another inning, and Jeremy Accardo got his 20th save of the year as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers 4-1.

The game was dominated by 2 people - an up and coming super-star in Dustin McGowan, and an old, Canadian boy celebrating his 1,500th game in Matt Stairs. McGowan was up to his old tricks looking un-hittable at times, and Stairs hit 3 doubles that cashed in 2 runs and scored a run himself.

"He's a good professional hitter. If you give him a pitch in the zone when he's ahead in the count, you're actually not expecting to get the ball back. He got me in a couple of big situations that I'd love to go back and do over again." -- Rangers starter Brandon McCarthy on Stairs.

McGowan seemed to blow away former teammate in Frank Catalanotto, who left for the Rangers just last season. "He's finally put it all together," Catalanotto added. "We always knew he had the stuff but now he's putting it together, mentally too, and being able to execute."

Toronto will now try to extend their home winning streak of 8 games to 9 against the New York Yankees tomorrow with another young star on the mound, Jesse Litsch.

Stairs Leads Jays To Victory

Yesterday, Matt Stairs contributed greatly to the Toronto Blue Jays game against the Minnesota Twins.

After Roy Halladay gave up a run in the 2nd, the Jays scored 3 runs in the 3rd off homers from Rios and Wells. After a bunch of 2 run innings by each club, the game was tied at 5 going into the 8th. In the inning, Matt Stairs launched a homer to right field to give the Jays a 2-run lead. They added one more in the inning. Minnesota wouldn't come back from that as the Jays took this one 8-5.

The Jays offence is finally looking up, as they have the most home runs in the American League since May 18th. Vernon Wells is finally getting hot as he homered for the 3rd time in 4 games. Matt Stairs also contributed with the eventual game winning home run, and has been very consistent.

"When I signed here, I expected to maybe get 200 at-bats. You hate playing due to injuries. Trust me, I'd love to see Overbay and Reed Johnson playing out there everyday," Stairs said. "But it's nice to have a veteran who's been around, and I've been in that situation for the last three years with Kansas City and guys getting injured."

Roy Halladay struggled in his start against the Twins, but still picked up the win.

"Sometimes, during the game, it's frustrating and it's tough, but those are always the more satisfying games after the fact. It's a grind, you kept yourself in it," Halladay said. "To me that's satisfying to be able to get a win with all that stuff going on. It's a good feeling. Sometimes, those tougher ones are more gratifying."

The Jays will try to make the win streak 5 today. They will try to keep the momentum going, as they are one of the hottest teams in the MLB

Jays Shutout Dodgers, Break Losing Streak

The Jays were very optimistic coming into the season. But a long string of injuries have delayed those many players seasons. But when 1 door closes, 1 opens. The Jays young players have stepped it up this season, and Shawn Marcum is one of those young guys.

He was pitching yesterday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He nneded to pitch good, as the Jays have had offensive troubles of late. On Saturday, though, it didn't matter. The lone run that Toronto's missing offense provided for Marcum -- Matt Stairs' sixth-inning home run -- was all the young pitcher needed to work with in a 1-0 win over Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium. The right-hander spun another gem for the Jays, and walked away with a hard-fought victory after outdueling Dodgers starter Derek Lowe.

Despite the win. John Gibbons talked about his teams lack of offence. "I'm frustrated, we're all frustrated," said Toronto manager John Gibbons, referring to the low offensive output of late. "But we can hit. In reality, when they pitch good against you, just like we did against them, that shuts down offenses. That's just a fact."

Matt Stairs also talked about the lack of run support for the pitchers. "Our pitching has been doing an outstanding job the last month," Stairs said. "We've been going through some rough times, and our offense hasn't really been stepping up to the plate -- no pun intended. I think we've been getting that one big hit, though. We've been getting clutch hits."

He also talked about the difficulty of hitting off Derek Lowe, the pitcher for Los Angeles. "Whenever Derek takes the mound, you hope to God he makes a mistake. He's been like that his whole career," Stairs said. "I was very fortunate he threw me a first-pitch slider for a ball and came back with a sinker that stayed up in the zone a little bit."

The rubber match of this series goes today at 4:10pm.