Preview Yankees v Jays series in New York

Tuesday June 3, 2008. Preview of three game series in New York.

Tonight Halladay v Chamberlain.

Chamberlain’s first starting game in majors and will be on pitch count.
This should, and I say should favour Jays bats who have to their credit been very patient in the last month. I think this has been deliberate strategy and the results showed for themselves in May with that great record.
Starting with Eckstein the leadoff who regularly sets such a great example with two strikes, fouling off so many pitches. We need him tonight to have an 8-10 pitch first at bat. Similarly Overbay also has stood out as excellent patient at bat and with great on base percentage as a result. Scutaro and Rolen are other good examples.
It could very easily be a short four inning outing if Jays bats can hold off the wild swinging. With Rios struggling so badly, if Gibbons does not push him down the order tonight he must lay off the bad pitches. He has been very successful when getting on base stealing bases and making up a little for his poor average and lack of power.

Yankees would have flown in late last night after that loss against the Twins, a game they had plenty of opportunities to win for Pettite. Certainly losing two in Minnesota makes their job much harder in this series. Their road trip ended 3-4. They really need to sweep the Jays to make any impact at all on their positions. Rays and Boston are fighting each other in the next three days and a saw off would be great for both Jays and Yankees. Boston is now without Ortiz however.

Joba Chamberlain has started before but not at major league level. He started at the University of Nebraska and also had fifteen starts in the minors. If the Jays can see him off in four or five innings it will be to their advantage as they will also not have to see him as setup for Rivera. But of course the best solution is to beat him up so badly Rivera will not be needed anyway in the ninth.

We know that BJ Ryan is busting to get out there again and with the day off yesterday should be ok to pitch if needed. Jays catch another break of course with their best Halladay pitching tonight and you know that he will be determined to show his best in Yankee Stadium.
Jays are still on their road trip and with a 3-3 record must be somewhat happy as the west coast has historically been a tough trip for them. They also saw two tough teams in Oakland and the Angels and yet could have had a 5-1 record with any luck.

Although Jays bats have scored 57 runs in the last eleven games they have quietened down in the last two. The last two games were as a result rough for the Jays losing in extra innings 3-2 on Saturday and then on Sunday Ryan blowing the one run lead in the ninth. But no one can blame the pitching staff they have been the reason why Jays are still in the thick of this and bottom line is that the bats have to come through and consistently.

Needless to say this is a huge series for Jays. If they could sweep Yankees in New York it would bring them home a 6-3 tough road trip and provide some momentum for Baltimore series later this week. Not least it would also sink the Yankees further behind Toronto.