Toronto

Will the Jays reverse course? Tampa are 8-2 over their last ten games. Will home cooking work for the Jays? Can Dickey do it? The answers to these, and many other questions, will be revealed over the next 3 hours. The Jays face some fresh meat, Jake Odorizzi is making his first major league start.

As much as people enjoy R.A Dickey as a guy, and as much as it's fun to watch the knuckleballer pitch, it cannot be denied that he is not off to a good start. Through nine starts Dickey is sitting on a 4.83 ERA, a far cry from his 2.73 mark last year. It's not even as if he has solid peripherals and has been the victim of poor luck. His BABIP is at .270, which is pretty much normal for him over the last three years and his FIP is 4.81 suggesting that Dickey deserves to be giving up the amount of runs that he has. The only bit of bad luck you notice when scanning over R.A's stats is his HR/FB rate which sits at 14.8%, which is probably a little bit inflated. The point is that no matter which may you slice it Dickey has fallen short of expectations so far. When a star player struggles, the fans and the media tend to conjure up a myriad of explanations as to why. These explanations range from perfectly rational, to wildly speculative, to utterly false. When you are dealing with an enigmatic 38 year old pitcher that throws a knuckleball the likes of which the world has never seen, one can image that there are quite a few explanations floating out there. Some say that Dickey problems are a result of nagging injuries. It's hard to dispute that but it's also hard to comment on because I can't say that I have any idea how Dickey feels and to what degree neck and back soreness is hampering his pitching. It's a feasible explanation but it's not a complete one. Others seem to think that it's the adjustment to the AL East that is a problem for Dickey. There is probably some truth in this explanation also. The AL East has some of the smallest ballparks and best hitters in baseball. R.A Dickey's ugly 1.5 HR/9 mark could be a function of pitching in the most difficult circumstances in the major leagues. Once again, this isn't the whole story, and probably isn't the most important part either. Lastly, some people seem to think that R.A Dickey's 2012 was a one-time fluke and that he has no chance of being that pitcher again. To this claim there are two rebuttals. Firstly, Dickey was an excellent pitcher in 2010 and 2011 and the Blue Jays got production somewhere between his 2012 levels and his 2010-11 self then the fans ought to be happy. Secondly, the main difference between Dickey in 2012 compared to the previous two years is that he discovered how to miss bats and get K's. The following chart shows Dickey's K%, Swinging Strike% and Contact % since 2010: Year Strikeout % Swinging Strike % Contact% 2010 14.6% 8.4% 82% 2011 15.3% 7.8% 83.4% 2012 24.8% 12.2% 75.4% 2013 20.9% 10.2% 76.7% The 2013 Dickey looks most like the 2012 version when it comes to missing bats and, although he hasn't been quite as good as he was last year, it seems the adjustments he made that helped him strikeout batters have lasted. It is therefore unfair to describe Dickey's 2012 as a fluke and declare him unable to repeat those results. The narrative that has not been very prevalent in discussion of R.A Dickey's struggles is his inability to throw strikes this year. It is my view that this is the most important reason we are not seeing R.A Dickey of 2012 this season. Whenever Dickey has problems with control the mysterious knuckleball itself is said to be to blame. Commentators will say things like, "the knuckleball is dancing unpredictably tonight" or "the knuckleball is moving just a little too much" instead of attributing any blame to Dickey himself. The reality is that Dickey has had well above-average control since 2010 compared to conventional pitchers. This is part of what makes him extraordinary, and more importantly, what makes him effective. This year has been a complete outlier in that regard whether you are looking at BB% or BB/9: Year BB/9 BB% 2010 2.17 5.9% 2011 2.33 6

May 13, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Joffrey Lupul (19) keeps the puck away from Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara (33) during the first period in game seven of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports The Toronto Maple Leafs had an excellent chance of getting at least one player in the semi-finals of the EA Sports NHL 14 Cover Vote, but it was not to be. Joffrey Lupul and James van Riemsdyk were both in the final eight of the contest, but neither moved on to the next round. Lupul was defeated by Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings and van Riemsdyk was beaten by Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils. The Leafs were the only team to have two players that made it all the way to the last eight. However, getting by the popular Datsyuk and Brodeur was too much to overcome. The semi-finals now has Datsyuk taking on Brodeur in the one matchup, and John Tavares of the New York Islanders going up against everybody’s favourite goalie Sergei Bobrovsky of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the other. You can have your say on who makes it to the finals by voting up until May 26th at covervote.nhl.com. One lucky voter will win a trip to a 2013 Stanley Cup Final game.

A man died after a bicycle stunt went wrong early MondayEmergency crews were called to Underpass Park, near Eastern Ave. and Adelaide St. E, about 3 a.m., where the victim had suffered a head injury after falling off his bike.He was pronounced dead on scene, police said.

PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO—Mexican media are reporting that a Canadian and an American have gone missing from the resort city of Puerto Vallarta.The online newspaper Noticias PV says Diego Hernandez, a Canadian martial arts instructor, and his friend Craig Silva vanished on May 8.The paper says Puerto Vallarta’s director of public safety, Silvestre Chavez, didn’t learn of the men’s disappearance until five days later and has launched an investigation.A Facebook group that aims to collect tips about the men’s whereabouts says their families fear it was a kidnapping.It says the pair was last seen in Silva’s truck, a black 2003 Chevy Trailblazer, which has since been recovered by Mexican authorities.Word of the case has been spreading through social media, with many sharing photos of the men on Twitter.

Toronto recalled outfielder Anthony Gose from Triple-A, which surprised Blue Jays fans and media members because he was hitting just .227 with a .667 OPS in 40 games at Triple-A after struggling in his first taste of the majors last season. And you know who else is surprised by the call-up? Anthony Gose. Gose, on… View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Toronto Blue Jays News

Meteorologists at AccuWeather.com say the majority of Canadians can look forward to a more “typical” summer this year, when hot spells will be interspersed with cooler periods

The best repertory and art-house screenings, special presentations, lectures, and limited engagements in Toronto. At rep cinemas this week: A lament for rep theatres, a coming-of-age story set in Toronto, and a genre-crossing thriller. The Rep Directed by Morgan White Big Picture Cinema (1035 Gerrard Street East) Showtimes Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue) Showtimes “You never see someone walking out saying, ‘That sucked,’” Kevin Smith observes of repertory movie theatres early in Morgan White’s The Rep, an illuminating history of independent theatres that soon turns into a lament for them. Seeing a film one already knows and loves with a rapt audience or viewing a rare print among fellow esoteric types can reduce even the most hardened cinephile to tears, but The Rep hinges on the premise that such euphoric moments are not long for this world, given the sorry state of the industry since the switch to digital projection and home video. Embedding himself with the programming and managerial team of the recently departed Toronto Underground Cinema, whose very brief rise and subsequent struggle the film chronicles, White considers the strange mix of heart, business acumen, and foolhardiness it takes to run such theatres in an age where repertory programming is endangered on multiple fronts. He does a good job of delineating the personality clashes of the Underground Cinema’s staff, three very different people bound by an all-consuming job that never quite pays off, for all its perks. But White’s greatest coup is his ability to fit his insights into Toronto’s repertory scene within the larger North American context, all without losing sight of how rep programming affects its passionate (if eccentric) audiences, who are as hungry as ever for good films, even as their numbers decline. Picture Day Directed by Kate Melville TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King Street West) Showtimes Before she landed a premiere slot at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2012, Toronto filmmaker Kate Melville cut her teeth on work as diverse as the CBC’s adaptation of Timothy Findley’s play Elizabeth Rex and several episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation. Odd as it might seem on paper, Melville’s experience with both the high and low ends of the cinematic spectrum pays off nicely in Picture Day. Starring up-and-comer Tatiana Maslany as Claire—a victory-lapping high school senior who befriends her former babysitting charge, moody ninth grader Henry (Degrassi’s Spencer Van Wyck)—the film turns out to be rather more than its familiar tale of coming-of-age growing pains would suggest, thanks to Melville’s ease with young actors and knack for guiding them through tricky, dramatically charged dialogue. Promising as it is, Picture Day often betrays its humble origins, both as a play that Melville first conceived while she was a teen and as a first feature. It relies too heavily on its wall-to-wall indie soundtrack and clever situations to advance the emotional lives of its characters. Despite that occasional awkwardness, though, this is a tender and surprisingly nuanced portrait of youth. The film is brave enough to let these kids explore their unseemly sides and behave in ugly ways that teen movies usually sanitize. The film is also a star-maker, sure to expose the luminous and very funny Maslany to wider audiences than the handful who noticed her in more standard fare like The Vow. Side Effects Directed by Steven Soderbergh Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue) Showtimes If Steven Soderbergh’s insistence that Side Effects will be his last theatrical release turns out to be true, he’ll have mustered an impressive filmography by the time he takes his early retirement. His movies make an oddly diverse group, from the heady science fiction of his Solaris remake to the micro-budgeted Bubble, through to his recent spate of experimental star vehicles (for MMA fighter Gina Carano in Haywire, and former adult film star Sasha Grey in The Girlfriend

I'm getting married in a few weeks, so we're now finalizing the music for the big event. There's been some fun debate with regards to what song will play before the ceremony and after the ceremony and while we sign the marriage certificate and all of that, but picking the last song of the night was easy. The last song will be Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World". This one was a no-brainer for me. Its place in the soundtrack of my life was solidified 24 summers ago when it was played on the Polar Express every night during the CNE after closing. It became the thought provoking anthem of my summer of '89. It's the perfect cap to a magical evening. I'm just glad Monica agrees.

Police say 35-year-old Quincy Ramirez was shot and killed just before 8 p.m. Sunday during a party in the backyard of a west-end low-rise apartment building