The Blue Jays were out of the park early and often (they did all their scoring on three home runs), while Cole Hamels was out of sorts and the Phillies were out of the game. From his first pitch, Cole Hamels looked out of sync and never did appear to be relaxed or in rhythm. The power-happy Jays were happy to take advantage. Jays' starter Shaun Marcum, on the other hand, had Phillies' batters looking silly with his change-up. Marcum, now his team's ace, is 7-1 when pitching after a Jays' loss. Ryan Howard scored the only Phillies' run, on a mammoth solo shot to deep center. It came on the heels of the knee-jerk fans behind me whining about his contract. "Since he got his money, he hasn't done a thing." They also got agitated when Jimmy Rollins did not blaze his way to first on a routine ground-out. The guy next to me had the same reaction to that that I did, which made us both laugh. He was there with his girlfriend and another couple. The girlfriend had earlier asked me about my scorebook because she had been wanting to do the same. It turned out they frequently came to games, usually on standing-room-only tickets. I liked that. It gives you a chance to hang out all over the park.
It was awfully hot and humid yesterday, even where we were, on the shadier third base side. The section over had a nest of loud and happy Jays' fans. It was cute to see that so many had made the trip. Toronto is, after all, the only Canadian team left. It's sort of how I felt about yesterday's US loss to Ghana. Ghana is carrying the flag for the continent.
