Jays v Angels. Series Preview

Friday May 30, 2008. Jays v Angels Series Preview.

Jays fly into Angels territory high on confidence and justifiably after great display of bat power. The endless doubles last night was great to watch and showed arguably for the first time this season what this team is capable of. However this team was without Wells and Rios’s bats. And therein lies the conundrum that must be driving JP crazy.
The team has been built around both of these players and yet neither is producing. One through injury and the other in his slump. Rolen and Overbay are two of the other pieces and whereas Overbay has a sparkling on base percentage much of this has been through his patience at bats and not his doubles production that we came to appreciate last season. Presumably one day this will return or is his patient approach denying him the aggressiveness that produced all those doubles ???
Rolen has defiinitely been a positive factor in the lineup and Toronto has not missed Glaus at 3B.
Jays have to guard against over confidence in this series and also resist looking ahead to important series in New York next week before the inter-league continues. The Angels are no pushover and Jays will need everything working pitching, defence and the bats to win.
Tonight Dustin McGowan (3-4, 3.90 ERA) against Jered Weaver (4-5, 4.16 ERA). Weaver has 2-0 record and 0.89 ERA in his last three starts.
Big question is which McGowan will turn up ? He has been madly inconsistent and pushes that pitch count so high so quickly with all the walks. He is 0-3 lifetime against the Angels, including a loss in last week's series in Toronto, five hits, two unearned runs in 6-1/3 innings.

What they are saying:
Barajas: "It's nice to go out there and score some runs. It doesn't matter who's pitching; there aren't very many times we go out there and put a team away early."
Hill: On the Eckstein hit "He got me pretty good. I haven't been hit that hard in a long time."
Litsch: "I just went out there and threw strikes again today"
Sciosca on his Angels bats: "These guys know they are better offensive players, so there's frustration there. As long as there is confidence there, it's gonna play itself out. A couple of hits here and there. These guys will do just fine."
Weaver on his pitching: “I made a slight adjustment. I felt I wasn't going through the target. I was falling backward which was disrupting my command a little bit. I have been concentrating on driving straight through the mitt."
Last word: John Gibbons on win No. 300 since he became manager in August 2004. "I wasn't even aware of that. It's not something I've ever thought about. You start out in this job and you don't really know how long it's going to last."