Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Henderson Alvarez throws against the Chicago White Sox in the first inning of their American League MLB baseball game in Toronto August 14, 2012.FRED THORNHILL/Reuters
Winning.
That was the comment that actor Charlie Sheen famously uttered when he was going through that messy separation from the hit television sitcom Two and a Half Men a while back.
Maybe that's why the Toronto Blue Jays invited Sheen to throw out the first pitch for Tuesday's game against the Chicago White Sox at Rogers Centre, hoping some of that karma would rub off on them as they try to salvage a suddenly trying 2012 season.
Unfortunately for Toronto, Sheen's presence was strictly window dressing as the White Sox (63-52) came back to record a 3-2 victory that snapped a two-game win streak for the Blue Jays (55-61).
The Blue Jays led 2-0 through four innings before the White Sox struck for three in the fifth to take the lead.
Toronto starter Henderson Alvarez (7-10) had only himself to blame for the unearned winning run, his wild pickoff attempt to try to get Dewayne Wise at first sailing well over the head of David Cooper.
This allowed Alejandro De Aza to saunter home from third base with the go-ahead run.
Sheen was on hand to do a little glad-handing for Joe Carter, the former Blue Jays star who is staging his charity golf tournament on Wednesday in Maple, Ont. Sheen will be teeing it up along with a number of other celebrities.
Sheen took a little batting practice and then threw the ball around before the baseball game and seemed to be enjoying himself.
When doesn't he?
Didn't look half-bad, either, perhaps a hangover from the role he played in the 1989 hit movie Major League, when he portrayed a closer for the Cleveland Indians.
Apart from entertaining the likes of Sheen and Carter, the Blue Jays also conducted some baseball business, announcing earlier in the day that they had signed backup catcher Jeff Mathis to a two-year, $3-million (U.S.) contract extension, plus a club option for the 2015 season.
Shortly after that, the American League signed 34-year-old catcher Yorvit Torrealba to a minor-league contract.
Torrealba, a 12-year major-league veteran, will report to Toronto's Double-A affiliate in New Hampshire on Thursday and play four games for the Fisher Cats before joining the Blue Jays next week in Detroit for their series against the Tigers.
Torrealba was placed on waivers last week by the Texas Rangers and then gained his unconditional release.
At the time he was hitting .236 with three home runs and 12 RBIs in 49 games.
The signing is simply a matter of giving Toronto a solid veteran backup to Mathis, who has been handling most of the catching duties since starter J.P. Arencibia went down with a broken right hand on July 26.
"It's an established big-league player that's had some success," Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos said about Torrealba. "Obviously Jeff's been handling the bulk of the role right now. Him and Torrealba will split the job."
When Arencibia got hurt, the natural progression would have been for the Blue Jays to promote Travis d'Arnaud, their 23-year-old top minor-league prospect, from Triple-A in Las Vegas.
However, d'Arnaudis hurt, having torn a left knee ligament on June 25, sidelining him for the season.
With d'Arnaud, who was hitting .333 with 16 home runs at Triple-A when he was injured, seemingly ready to make the jump to the big leagues next season, the Blue Jays would appear to have a bit of a logjam at catcher.
Anthopoulos doesn't see it that way, suggesting that d'Arnaud could even find some potential at-bats next year as the designated hitter should he make the team.
"Who knows what the off-season's going to bring?" Anthopoulos said. "It's amazing how quickly things can change." I'd rather have too many players than too few, and there's always way to work those things out."