Before I get to this article I have a correction to make from my last posted article titled “In Exciting Fashion Jays Sweep World Champion Phillies”.

I wrote that Brian Tallet would be pitching against the Nationals John Lannan on Friday night.

I was incorrect, as Jordan Zimmerman started the game for the Nationals.

Sorry about that one.

So this past weekend did not go so well for the Blue Jays, who were coming off of a sweep of the World Series champion Phillies. Toronto lost two out of three to the worst team in baseball, in the form of the Washington Nationals.

Two extra inning losses (2-1 on Friday in 11 innings, 5-3 on Saturday in 12 innings) followed up on Sunday with a 9-4 win was not a great showing for the Jays, and could have drastically affected our chances at staying with the Yankees and Red Sox in the American League East race.

Luckily, it did not as we sit five games back of Boston and only a game back of New York, who currently hold the American League wild card spot.

But the Jays did spoil a chance at holding that wild card spot to themselves.

Chances like these only present themselves so very often, and the Jays will need to take advantage of these chances in the future, if they want to be a contender for the playoffs.

Some positive notes from this past weekend include:

1. The Jays starting pitching.

Brian Tallet (5IP, 5H, 1ER, 3BB, 0K) on Friday, Brett Cecil (7IP, 8H, 3ER, 1BB, 4K) on Saturday & Ricky Romero on Sunday (7IP, 8H, 2ER, 3BB, 6K) were outstanding.

2. Vernon Wells finally broke out of his homerless drought on Saturday by knocking the first pitch he saw, in the top of the sixth inning, over the left centre field wall, off of Nationals starter Ross Detwiler. It was Wells’ first home run in his last 160 at bats.

3. Scott Rolen is fairing well in the number four spot in the batting order. He hit .357 out of the four hole in the series.

4. Lyle Overbay’s five runs batted in yesterday.

5. Not a single bone headed base running play from Alex Rios.

With the positive must come the negative and the negative included:

Jesse Carlson has lost his consistancy out of the bullpen, will it return?

1. The bullpen.

Our bullpen did not fair well this past weekend costing us two of the three games in extra innings.

Scott Downs is missed in our closer role, and Jeremy Accardo (just called up from Triple A Las Vegas) left Sunday’s game with what looked to be an injury.

Now keep in mind that Nick Johnson (.636AVG in the series) and Willie Harris (game saving diving catch, and winning home run on Saturday night) took over for the Nationals in this series, but in my opinion the bullpen wasn’t doing their jobs.

BJ Ryan and Jesse Carlson were useless, and Jason Frasor has not pitched as effectively as before he took over the closer role.

If the Jays are going to stay in the American League East race someone is going to have to step up and fill the void, or perhaps general manager J.P Ricciardi can make a roster move, and find us an extra dependable reliever come the July 31st trade deadline.

Russ Adams gets the callup over David Dellucci, why?

Also, this past weekend the Jays called up Russ Adams, the former first round pick who was supposed to be our shortstop of the future quite a number of years back.

Adams is currently learning the ways of playing outfield and is a left handed bat.

The Jays had to clear a spot on the Major League roster for Adams by sending down “Mighty” Joe Inglett, who has officially become the “Man with Too Many Options” in Toronto.

This move doesn’t make much sense to this writer, as we recently signed veteran David Dellucci to a minor league deal. Dellucci has played the outfield his entire career and hits left handed. Dellucci also has a good track record against Major League pitching and Adams does not. I’m not quite sure why this roster move was made, but the fans will have to wait and see if it pays off.

The Jays have the day off today, which means our bullpen can finally get some rest.

The Jays start a nine game home stand Tuesday with a three game set against the Cincinnati Reds (34-34, 4th in the NL Central).

Let’s see if we can take it to the Reds and keep up with the Red Sox and Yankees in the American League East race.

Let’s go Blue Jays!