Die Chilluminati » being the perfect game, lets be honest.

The day after Brandon Morrow walked eight batters in just two and 2/3rds innings and got the hook, Ricky Romero had a two-inning control meltdown of his own Sunday at Coca-Cola Field in Buffalo. Facing the Reds Triple A affiliate Louisville, Romero walked the bases loaded in the first inning and again in the second, but he escaped unscathed both times and actually lasted five innings. Romero didnt give up any more walks and didnt surrender a run during the stint. Earlier in the week, an upbeat Romero was on TSN Drive with Dave Naylor and co-host Dave Hodge and said he felt he was pitching better than he had been in a year and a half. He also said he would welcome a call-up right now if the Blue Jays needed or wanted him. As shaky as the Jays starting pitching has been this season, especially over this just completed homestand, Romero doesnt figure to get called up anytime soon. He simply has to be more consistent with his control. The largest pitcher I have ever seen in the Majors is C.C Sabathia. Though he has trimmed down now a bit, there were times over the past two or three years where he weighed between 285 and 300 pounds. Well in that same Buffalo-Louisville game on Sunday, the Bats used a closer by the name of Jose Diaz. A year ago, the 64 native of the Dominican Republic pitched at 347 pounds and of course was known by the nickname of Jumbo. This year having just turned 30, he realized it might be time to shave off a few pounds to try and prolong his career. He got down to 278, but the stat sheets now are listing him at 315. Jumbo racked up his sixth save Sunday against the Bisons. He throws with pretty good velocity, too. Cincinnati already has Aroldis Chapman as their closer, but who knows at some point, he may surface in the Majors. Historic Lineup Since the Blue Jays in the Pat Gillick era were one of the very first teams to extensively scout and sign talent out of the Dominican Republic, it only seems fitting that on Sunday afternoon at Rogers Centre, they became the first team in Major League history to field a starting lineup that included six players born in the Dominican. The starting 9 included Jose Reyes, Melky Cabrera, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Juan Francisco and Moises Sierra. An equally, if not more, historic moment occurred back on Sept 1 of 1971 when the Pittsburgh Pirates fielded an entire starting lineup of African American and Latin American players including Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell. The rest of the starting 9 included Al Oliver, who later played with the Expos and the Blue Jays, Rennie Stennett, Jackie Hernandez, Dave Cash, Manny Sanguillen, Gene Clines and starting pitcher Dock Ellis. Better April The Blue Jays started last season at 10-17 in April and they are already guaranteed a better first month this time around. John Gibbons and company are 12-13 with two games at Kansas City left in this month. But something to remember, there were only two playoff teams with losing Aprils in the American League a year ago. Tampa Bay went 12-14 but rebounded to finish 91-71 to earn a play in the knockout game with Texas to decide the second Wild Card spot. Cleveland earned the first Wild Card at 92-70 after opening April at 11-13. Conversely Texas had the best record in April at 17-8, but finished the season in that knock-out game at 91-71. All of that means if the Blue Jays are going to need 91 victories to have a shot at the playoffs this year, they will have to go 79-58 the rest of the year or 21 games over .500. Thats not impossible, but the starting rotation will have to be far better the rest of the way. Right now, the Blue Jays staff era is 4.45, 25th in the Majors, just slightly ahead of Baltimore at 4.49. I dont know if this is a plus but the only team in the AL East with a sub -4.00 era is Boston at 3.90 and the BoSox are fourth in the division just behind the Blue Jays. This and That Its really interesting to look at the early season gap in some pitching categories between the National League and the American. The Senior Circuit has eight of the top 10 staff ERAs. Only Oakland and K.C. break into that group. The National League has had 10 complete games to just four for the American, including two by Texas. There have been 34 shutouts in the National League to 23 in the American. St. Louis has six and Texas leads the American with six. I guess it just helps to illustrate why Ervin Santana chose Atlanta over the Blue Jays. After going 7-9 in their 1st 16 game segment against the East, the Jays have a 20-game stretch where they dont play their own division at all. Their next game against the East is May 20 at Fenway Park in Boston. In fact, they only have six games against the East for the entire month of May, getting Tampa Bay at home the week after that Boston series. The All-Star voting has begun for the Mid-summer Classic Tuesday July 15th at Target Field, the home of the Minnesota Twins. If voting closed today, the only Blue Jays on my ballot would be lefty Mark Buehrle and Melky Cabrera. Jose Bautista could make it as well, but more on his name and All-Star reputation at this point. I also did a rough count and if Buehrle keeps it up, his natural turn to pitch would fall on All-Star Tuesday so their might even be a chance he could start. But thats still a lot of innings pitched and a long way off. Air Jordan 4 Canada . He never mentioned anything about his hitting. The 33-year-old right-hander had success with both Sunday, pitching six solid innings and helping the offence-starved Mets with an RBI single as New York salvaged a doubleheader split with a 4-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Cheap Air Jordan 4 Canada . Canadas 5-1 loss to Finland in the semifinal ranks as the tournaments most-watched game with a record 2.7 million viewers, the largest ever for a World Juniors game played outside of North America, and winning Saturday as the most-watched program on Canadian television. http://www.cheapairjordan4canada.com/ .J. -- Fabian Johnson scored his first international goal and Clint Dempsey doubled the lead after a defensive lapse as the United States beat Turkey 2-1 Sunday in the second of three World Cup warm-up matches for the Americans before they head to Brazil. Cheap Air Jordan 4 Online . The traditional pre-Masters event was halted early due to inclement weather. Harrington, who tied for first in 2003 and won in 2004, became the first three-time champion of the event. Air Jordan 4 Canada Outlet .Y. -- Defenceman Ryan Murphy had a goal and an assist and Drew MacIntyre made 24 saves to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Islanders 4-2 in an exhibition game Wednesday night.CALGARY -- On the night Calgary honoured former great Joe Nieuwendyk, an inspired new generation of exciting young centres led the Flames to a thrilling come-from-behind victory. Joe Colborne scored twice and Sean Monahan had the other in a furious third period comeback that saw Calgary overcome a 3-1 deficit with less than nine minutes to go to edge the New York Islanders 4-3 on Friday. Colborne was not yet born when Nieuwendyk scored 51 goals as a rookie in 1987-88. Nonetheless, the touching ceremony made an impact on the Calgary-born 2008 first round pick acquired from Toronto at the start of the year. "You forget how good he was," said Colborne, whos first career two-goal game gives him seven goals on the season. "You hear his points and stuff and you almost forget until they walk you through his career, and that was really cool for me. "I might have felt it a little more than some of the other guys because he was one of my favourites growing up." Colborne got the Flames comeback started at 11:29 when he knocked in a rebound off the end boards after Mark Giordanos point shot missed the net. After Monahan went forehand to backhand on a pretty play in-close to tie it at 14:22, Colborne completed the comeback, deflecting in Giordanos slapshot at 15:41. "Joe Nieuwendyk started the game and Joe Colborne decided that he would finish the game," said Flames coach Bob Hartley. The win gives Calgary seven in its last eight games at the Scotiabank Saddledome. "Obviously its always fun after a win but after a game like that when youre down and you come back, it feels that much better," said Monahan, who leads the team with 19 goals. "After those couple goals by us, it felt like they stepped back a little bit. At that point when you have momentum like that, it almost feels like that next goals coming and thats what happened." Finnish rookie Markus Granlund, with his second goal in as many games, also scored for Calgary (25-31-7). The Flames, who had eight rookies in their line-up for the first time since Dec. 10, 1996, play in Vancouver on Saturday. Kyle Okposo, Colin McDonald and Brock Nelson scored for New York (24-33-9). The Islanders are 1-1-1 with one game to go on a four-game road trip. The Islanders also play in Vancouver next but not until Monday. Hartley said it was some words from veteran players at the second intermission that got his team going again. "We had a good little talk in the locker room and the boys got back and they were on their toes again," he said. &qquot;When we work, when we drive the net, were a pretty solid team.ddddddddddddI dont care how many kids we have in the line-up. Its all about passion. "We never quit. Im pretty proud of my boys." The third period unfolded just like it did Thursday night in Edmonton when the Islanders blew a two-goal lead in a 3-2 loss. "We just stopped playing," said Okposo, who leads the team with 26 goals. "We gave up a goal and we stopped moving our feet and stopped going after them. We dominated the game for 50 minutes. Theres no reason we should lose that game." Tied 1-1, the Islanders took their first lead early in the second period on an uncharacteristic giveaway by Giordano, which led to a two-on-one goal finished off by Okposo. New York took a 3-1 lead to the third period. "We were playing well until 10 minutes left and they get one, they find a bounce off the end boards and score and we just pucker up," said Islanders defenceman Thomas Hickey. It is the 12th time the Islanders have lost a game in which they held a two-goal lead. "You look at it and were in the playoffs if we dont do that. But you cant even make that excuse. The good teams find a way to win those and were not doing that right now," said Hickey. After winning his first NHL game on Wednesday, Ortio had 23 saves in his third NHL start to improve to 2-1-0. Nilsson made 19 saves for New York and fell to 2-4-2. The Flames are 9-4-0 in their last 13 games. "Tonight was far from being the perfect game, lets be honest. It was an exciting game but Im not happy," said Hartley. "But that third period, just like the fans, Im thrilled. This building was electric in the third period. It was such a great atmosphere on the bench. "To feel the fans, it seemed like the entire crowd was sitting on the bench with us." Granlund opened the scoring at 2:01 with the second NHL goal of his career and second in as many games, this time shorthanded. Notes: Several of Nieuwendyks teammates from the Flames Stanley Cup winning team in 1989 were part of the ceremony for the Flames Forever a Flame recognition... Calgary D Tyler Wotherspoon played his first NHL game. He replaced Dennis Wideman (upper body), who was hurt in Wednesdays win over Ottawa. Wotherspoon is the fourth Flame to make his NHL debut in the past nine days... Between the two teams, there were 15 rookies dressed... Also out of the line-up for Calgary was Jiri Hudler (upper body)... Calgary had eight of its own draft picks in the line-up for the first time since Mar. 3, 2009. ' ' '