  Toronto Blue Jays' Eric Hinske, right, is congratulated on his two-run home run by teammate Vernon Wells in the third inning at Fenway Park in Boston, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) |
BOSTON -- That sound coming from Fenway Park last night was the Blue Jays clearing their throats.
One of those polite, Canadian-like, "We're still here" statements.
The Jays are three games into their four-game series with the Red Sox, but turn on a radio, flip on the TV or open a newspaper in Beantown and all you hear about is the impending arrival of the New York Yankees and the series that will decide the American League East.
The Jays merely are filling the days until the Yankees can get here, or so it seems.
But Toronto has taken two of the first three games of this series, and if the Sox aren't careful, they could find themselves backed into a sweep-or-go-home situation.
The Jays reasserted themselves last night in front of a U.S. national audience on ESPN hammering away at Red Sox starter Bronson Arroyo for seven runs into the fourth inning en route to a 7-2 win.
In the process, they bumped the Sox a game behind the Yankees, who won in Baltimore. The Sox still are tied for the wild-card lead by virtue of a Cleveland Indians loss last night.
The rest of the town may be overlooking the Jays, but the Red Sox themselves are not.
"They're beating us, and it's no fluke," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.
"They are playing better than us. If I had a better answer, they wouldn't be. They have been a problem for us all year. We have one more shot and all we can control now is trying to beat them (today). They've played better than us."
Jays manager John Gibbons said he's not surprised by the hype over the coming series.
"I think that's natural," he said. "It's such a big weekend. They couldn't have written it any better to come down to the final weekend with those two teams going at it but we went to Yankee Stadium trying to disrupt things and we're here now trying to do the same thing. We've got a couple of wins. It would be nice to get one more."
Outfielder Frank Catalanotto, who had four hits in the second game of Tuesday's double-header, began last night with a triple to centre in the first and followed that with a third inning homer and a two-run double in the fourth.
Needing just a single for the third cycle in Jays history, Catalanotto grounded out to second in the sixth against reliever Lenny DiNardo.
