When Halladay is on…

Not much to say about last night’s game, so let’s cover it bullet-point style.

• Joba made some good pitches, but he made a lot more poor pitches. The Pena error in the first hurt, but it’s not like Joba was cruising to that point. Aaron Hill’s double, just out of Eric Hinske’s reach, was well hit, and Adam Lind doubled on a very hittable fastball. There’s no way to sugar coat the six hits he allowed and two he walked. It’s massively disappointing.
• I think PeteAbe says it well: “The idea was to see improvement and it wasn’t there. Don’t focus on the runs or the misplays in the field, focus on the quality of Toronto’s swings and that Joba had only four pitches that produced a swinging strike. Two were by past-his-prime Kevin Millar.”
• I wonder if the offense was at all affected by the grueling first inning. Yes, Roy Halladay is excellent, but this is a team that had scored 57 runs over its past seven games. Perhaps, the saying goes, it was a market correction. Halladay did have an uncharacteristically poor August.
• Nice piece of hitting by Ramiro Pena on a misplaced Roy Halladay curveball in the sixth. Figures that it was the Yanks only hit of the night.
• I bolted after the fourth inning and went to see Extract. Funny flick, definitely up to Mike Judge’s standard. I’d say I enjoyed Ben Affleck’s character, but then it would be memorialized for all eternity on the Internets.
• Anyway, came back and fired up the game archive. Jumped to the sixth to see Ramiro’s double, and then went to the bottom of the seventh to watch Mike Dunn’s debut. I wish I hadn’t. All I could think of was Harry Doyle. “Low, and he walks the bases loaded on 12 straight pitches. How can these guys lay off pitches that close?”
• Not only can we look forward to having Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher in the lineup today, but there’s a pitcher who might go more than four innings. Andy Pettitte against Brett Cecil tomorrow at one. I do like day games after tough losses.
• Oh, and of course, magic number is down to good old O’Neill. Paul Byrd got hammered. Nice.