Kansas City Royals @ Toronto Blue Jays (2)

The threat of rain has never been far away and it's been quite humid here this past couple of days and it's forecast to continue that way. It's been 24-27C/75-81F which has felt a lot hotter with the humidity. On the way home from the game last night, it was drizzling, but I didn't really get very wet as it was all drying off as fast as it was coming down.

Today was my second and final game in Toronto, as I'm doing a day trip tomorrow. This was a day game starting at 1pm, so after breakfast, I booked dinner for later and then set off on the subway. The trains are air-conditioned, whilst the stations are not, so it's nice when the train arrives and you can sit in the cool for a bit. Today's pitching match-up was Jeremy Guthrie for the Royals against the knuckleballer R. A. Dickey, who won the NL Cy Young award last year, when I saw him pitch for the Mets.

This game was strangely similar to yesterday's game! The game lasted just two and a half hours thanks to some good pitching by both starters. The difference was that the Royals got the early runs and the Jays made a successful late comeback, with a significant bit of help from Kansas City, it has to be said. After an error, the Royals relief pitchers issued back-to-back bases-loaded walks to give the Blue Jays a 4-2 lead after 8, which Janssen closed out in the 9th for his second save in two days, giving R.A.Dickey a win for his superb 8 inning effort.

The fast paced games are enjoyable - and it's unusual to see such fast games in AL match-ups. You can see why neither team is in contention, but I don't know how they can fix the problems easily, which as far as I can tell, are mainly from the neck up.

Over the two games I've attended, there have been some funny games and giveaways between innings. During Friday's game, somebody won a lawnmower for one game - I was imagining him getting home and explaining to his wife why most people who go to the ballgame come back with a flag, a T-shirt, a signed ball, but he'd come home with a lawnmower. The other highlight of Friday's entertainment was the coffee cup shuttle game (this is the 'hide <an object> in one of three identical <receptacles> shown on the stadium video screen, and then move said receptacles about in various manners, sometimes slowly sometimes quickly, jumping over each over, spinning around etc., and then require the contestant to identify which receptacle contains the MacGuffin.) The 1st place prize that one lucky contestant was playing for was a $150 gift voucher. However, in the middle of the game, ALL the coffee cups jumped off screen completely at the same time and then came back down again in a different pattern, much to the amusement of the crowd and bemusement of the contestant, who failed to guess the right coffee cup at the end - but was given the voucher anyway. As Saturday was a "Junior Jays Day", the game had a young child as the contestant, and a baseball hidden in a Blue Jays lunchbox (which were being given away as part of a promotion). The lunchboxes didn't move nearly as quickly or deviously, and importantly, did not disappear off screen, and the correct lunchbox was chosen and the Blue Jays Fun Pack of stuff was duly won.

After the game and before dinner, which I had booked for 5.30pm, which was really a bit early in hindsight, I went for a walk along the Lake Ontario waterfront. There are lots of canoeists and some expensive looking yachts and some very expensive looking yachts, all sharing the water between the mainland and the islands. I intend to visit the islands on Monday, when I'll have the whole day to do lake cruises and island visits and return to the mainland for my dinner booked for the 360 Restaurant up the CN Tower.