CLEVELAND, Ohio – Wonder what Adam Lind, recently sent back down to Triple A after an abbreviated big league stop with the Blue Jays, feels when he sees the Blue Jays go out and grab two veteran outfielders in Kevin Mench and Brad Wilkerson?
Or Shannon Stewart, who continues to struggle at the plate with a .229 batting average heading into tonight's contest against the Cleveland Indians, who will surely see his playing time diminish as a result.
Just go up and down the Blue Jays anemic hitting order. Somebody's bound to be nervous. And so they should be.
This team is under-performing horribly at the plate and drastic times call for drastic measures.
“We just think it's going to make our team stronger,” comes the party line from John Gibbons, the Blue Jays skipper.
It has come to this for the Jays – the addition of one player (Wilkerson), who was hitting just .232 before being released by the Seattle Mariners on April 30, and another (Mench), who wasn't even on a big league roster this season.
Both players are in the starting lineup tonight.
The lineups:
Blue Jays
1. Alex Rios, RF
2. Aaron Hill, 2B
3. Scott Rolen, 3B
4. Vernon Wells, CF
5. Kevin Mench, DH
6. Lyle Overbay, 1B
7. Rod Barajas, C
8. Brad Wilkerson, LF
9. Marco Scutaro, SS
Pitcher: Roy Halladay
Indians
1. Grady Sizemore, CF
2. Franklin Gutierrez, RF
3. David Dellucci, LF
4. Victor Martinez, C
5. Jhonny Peralta, SS
6. Travis Hafner, DH
7. Ryan Garko, 1B
8. Asdrubal Cabrera, 2B
9. Casey Blake, 3B
Pitcher: C.C. Sabathia
