Carlos Tosca is asking Al All-Star manager Mike Scioscia to give AL win-leader Roy Halladay the night off next Tuesday in Comiskey.

Toronto faces the Red Sox Yankees the series before the break (Saurday on three days' rest) and the Red Sox in the first game of the series right after the break, and Halladay is scheduled to pitch in both series.

"It's unfortunate, but that's the way it is,'' [Toronto manager] Tosca said.

Well, no, not really. It's that way because you want it that way. Fine, the Blue jays are in a pennant race and don't want to miss a start from their best pitcher. But pennant contenders Seattle, Oakland (2), and Chicago also have starting pitchers going in the game. What if they all said no to their pitchers being used? Is C.C. Sabathia supposed to pitch a complete game?

The AL is already in the hole since Scioscia took six relievers, non of whom would he dare to use more than an inning unless he was down to his last pitcher. Starting pitchers seem to only go 2 innings. Scioscia has five remaining of those.

At max, they can pitch 16 innings. However, that's assuming that Scioscia uses every pitcher to his fullest (every starter for two innings and every reliever for one), and that has not been done lately in the All-Star game. I think that the threat of running out of pitchers around the 12 is again a real one this year.

The AL should grant the Blue Jays wish and drop Halladay from the active roster. Let him come out and wave to the fans during the intros-that's fine. Then they should grab Roger Clemens, Tim Hudson, Gil Meche, or Mike Mussina. It doesn't really matter who.

One thing is clear: Bud Selig's master plan to ensure that the game "means something" and therefore does not end in a tie is not working. At least it's not working north of the border.