The Toronto Blue Jays are making noise in the American League East and are doing so with a patchwork starting pitching staff and a less then stellar middle infield. Last night they took apart prize free agent Josh Beckett who has had his way with the rest of the American League, but is struggling mightily with Toronto. The right-hander, who entered this season without a single regular-season start against his new division rivals, grabbed wins against Toronto, New York, Baltimore and Tampa Bay in his first start against each club. Yet against the Blue Jays, the only team to see Beckett more than once this year, the 26-year-old is demonstrating steadily diminishing returns. Beckett beat the Jays on April 11 (seven innings, one run), claimed a no-decision on April 21 (7 1/3 innings, five runs), another no-decision on May 3 (five innings, four runs) and a blowout defeat on Tuesday (4 2/3 innings, seven runs). Beckett got destroyed by the Jays in his fourth and most recent outing against them. Beckett allowed a career-worst four homers and matched a career-worst by permitting 10 hits. Beckett now has a 1-2 record and 6.38 ERA against the Blue Jays, and a 6-0 record and 3.43 ERA against all other clubs. The concern for the Red Sox is how all the other teams will respond when they get a second peek at Beckett as the season moves into the second quarter. As for Toronto they are getting a MVP year out of center fielder Vernon Wells who hit three bombs last night to bring his total to 43 RBI's and 12 homeruns, while Troy Glaus now sits at 17 dingers and 43. The Jays middle infield began the year with Russ Adams and Aaron Hill, but Adams has a throwing issue and was sent down and Hill only has 1 homerun and 12 RBI's. Why are the Jays near the top of the Al East? Roy Halladay is 6-1 with a ERA of 2.88 and an incredible WHIP of 1.03. B.J. Ryan collected his 12th save in 13 opportunities Tuesday tossing a scoreless 1 1/3 innings. Five of his 12 saves have come in appearances of longer than one inning. 29 is the umber of days the Jays have spent at the top of the AL in team batting average through Friday. The Jays were hitting a combined .301 for the year, easily the highest team average in the majors.
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