You Have To Be Impressed.

If you're a Blue Jays fan you have to be impressed with Marcus Stroman.  The rookie pitcher gave us another fun game to watch, giving up only three hits in a 93 pitch 8-0 win over the Chicago Cubs.  And this came after a first inning comebacker that knocked him off his feet.  It looked damn scary at first, as it ricocheted off his glove, but Stroman popped back up with a grin on face and went back to work.  It's his second time he's pitched a complete nine inning game this year, although his August 8th start against the Tigers was won in the tenth inning.  Hopefully this is just the beginning of lots of highlights to come.

One of the interesting things about Stroman is that he's short, only 5'8".  It's that lack of height that made some doubt he could pitch in the majors.  After all major league starting pitchers under 6 feet are rare as hen's teeth these days.  Position players of Stroman's height are almost as rare, one notable exception being the Red Sox Dustin Pedroia, who is an inch or two shorter than Stroman.  But Stroman is proving the doubters wrong.

To cap off the fun Jose Bautista hit his 200th home run as a Jay last night, becoming the fifth player in franchise history to do so, and the quickest  to reach the 200 mark.  It's a reasonable guess that he will pass both George Bell, who has 202 home runs, and Joe Carter, who has 203 home runs, before the season's end, if not before the end of this week, which will put him in third place after Vernon Wells, who has 223.  Catching the all time franchise leader, Carlos Delgado, will be a rather tougher nut to crack, as he has 336 home runs in a Jays'  uniform for the all time lead.