Happy Recap: Blue Jays 5 Yankees 0

In baseball when one pitcher pitches all 9 innings (and the game is not tied) or 8 innings (if his team is losing on the road) it is called a complete game. I say this because what was once commonplace (Bob Gibson threw 28 complete games in 1968) is increasinly rare in baseball today.

But there is one pitcher who still pitches like it is the 1960s, and I was lucky enough to see him pitch.

Roy Halladay mowed through the Yankees to pitch a 2-hit complete game shutout as the Blue Jays won 5-0. It was Halladay's 7th complete game of the season, more than any other team in baseball about roughly 10% of the total of all pitchers this season.



Halladay is now 12-5 with a 2.88 ERA in 27 career starts against the Yankees. This was his second career shutout against them.

Joba Chamberlain pitched for the Yankees and was better than his line indicated. He allowed 3 runs for the second straight start, the most he's ever allowed in a game for his young career. But he struck out 9 and walked zero and his strikes to balls ratio was an impressive 78 to 29. He got a little unlucky on a bunt hit in the third, but allowed a couple other hits which led to two runs and he allowed a home to Rod Barajas in the 6th, but other than that I was very impressed with Joba.



There was a guy seated across the aisle from me in a Brazil soccer jersey (Kaka, Mrs. Poop's favorite international soccer star) and waving a Brazilian flag. He was most enthusiastic after Barajas's homer. But Barajas is from California. Maybe he is of Brazilian descent, but everywhere I looked it said Barajas was born in California.

The Blue Jays tacked on two more runs in the 8th on a homer by Matt Stairs. Stairs is now second all-time in games played by a player born in Canada. Before I even asked Master Bates knew that first in that category is Larry Walker. But he now leads Stairs by only 373 games, meaning 2 more years after this one and Stairs could pass him.

Blue Jays fans gave A-Rod a pretty hard time, booing him relentlessly and holding up pictures of Madonna.



Our seats were in the second row of the second deck in fair territory in right field. Nice seats to watch the game from since the whole field is in front of you, except the right field corner. Since Shea Stadium has very few seats in fair territory it was nice to get a different perspective. We saw a nice catch in right field as Joe Inglett took off from right in front of us and made a diving catch to rob Melky Cabrera of a hit.

There was another great defensive play made by the Blue Jays. On a groundball up the middle by Wilson Betemit second baseman Marco Scutaro ranged far to his right to grab the ball but realized he wouldn't be able to throw to first in time. So he flipped with his glove hand to the shortstop John McDonald who caught the flip and fired to first for the out. It's the first play in the video highlights here.

Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome) has the teams in the opposite dugouts compared to most stadiums. The Blue Jays sit in the 3rd base dugout, the visiting team uses the first base side.

The Blue Jays do Flashback Fridays every week, wearing those great old school light blue jerseys with the old bird logo. I actually brought my Cecil Fielder 1987 Blue Jays jersey, but elected to wear my Roy Halladay jersey t-shirt instead, since he was pitching.



The Blue Jays have one of those stadium hosts who goes in the crowd and screams during the game and between innings. I hated him.

I ate a delicious bag of popcorn, a decent hot dog (Shea's are better) but in the 8th inning a guy came around with Freezees. The generic name for them is freeze pops, it's basically flavored sugar water in a sealed pouch that you freeze and eat and it's really delicious. The ones they sold all the ballpark were much bigger than what you normally see at the store, probably a foot long, and cost only $2 (approximately $1.94 American), pretty good for a ballpark snack. I had an orange one.

Even though I've been to the ersatz Dome a couple times, my last visit hadn't been for several years, so I'm glad I went and I enjoyed this masterpiece by Halladay.

Time of game: 2 hours 21 minutes