A strong start by Henderson Alvarez and some listless D-Jays bats were some notable events on a 3-1 Sunday.

New Hampshire had a big come from behind win against league leading Altoona with Adam Loewen and Shawn Bowman leading the hitters.  Kyle Drabek had an odd start with lots of walks and strikeouts.  Dunedin won in extra innings while Lansing lost a rain shortened affair.  Las Vegas lost as Tacoma hit a grand slam off Brad Mills.

It's an abbreviated "I was at the Jays game last night" version of the minor league update.  Dunedin were the only winners Friday paced by a 15 hit attack.  Lansing also had 15 hits but came out on the losing end.  Las Vegas and New Hampshire scored just one run each.

Marc Rzepczynski made his best rehab start of the year last night, and two of the affiliates won last night. I won't tell you which ones though! Unless, you know, you read the article where we list the scores and describe what happened in the games.

Lansing defeated Cedar Rapids by a couple of runs and Dunedin’s ninth-inning comeback fell a run short. However, the real action on the evening came in Pennsylvania, where Zach Stewart faced off against Phillipe Aumont and 20 runs were scored in the game.

The teams that mustered more than four runs were winners Tuesday night.  One of them came close to nailing an impersonation of the big league club's come from ahead loss.

I would adapt a few more lines of the song to be baseball-themed, but that would be the lamest thing I've ever done.

Not much else to say.  One win in five tries including a blowout.  Luckily, the one win featured a nice start by a top prospect.

It doesn't look like Marc Rzepczynski will be starting for the Jays anytime soon.  After allowing nine runs in the PCL hell on Saturday, Zep's ERA is 18.56.  Lansing also lost and the only win was thanks to BJ LaMura who pitched six shutout innings for New Hampshire.  Chuck Huggins made his AA debut and pitched well in a losing cause. 

It was Ripley's "believe it or not" night for the affiliates Friday.  Consider:

Jarrett Hoffpauir hit for the cycle in Las Vegas's win over Tacoma.  It was his second cycle of the season.

Two Jays, Aaron Mathews in Vegas and Eric Thames for New Hampshire, hit inside the park home runs

New Hampshire were losing 6-1 in the eighth inning and won.

David Cooper, who has been struggling all season, hit a two run home run in the ninth to tie the game

Bubbie Buzachero, who had an ERA around 8 before last nights game, pitched five innings to get the win for the Fisher Cats

Chad Beck, whose pre-game ERA was over 6, made a spot start for Dunedin and pitched five shutout innings

Travis D'Arnaud hit a grand slam homerun.

Zach Stewart gave up five runs in the first two innings, then pitched three almost perfect innings

Oh man what a terrible headline. When you go 2-2 and there are few standout performances you have to take what you can get though.

There was timely hitting and good relief in Las Vegas, a strong display with the bats and by the starter in Double-A, uncommon struggles for Dunedin and more offensive prowess in Lansing. Two of Toronto’s best pitching prospects pitched last night, one well and the other not so well at all.

I am not a scout, I just play one on the internet.  I was in Lansing last weekend to see three Lugnut games.  I spoke with manager Sal Fasano, pitching coach Antonio Caceres, scouts and others hanging around the team to build a picture of the players, to go with what I observed.

My observations are below.  Remember it is tough to evaluate a hitter in a handful of at-bats, they might be hot or cold that weekend which would influence my comments.

Two doubleheaders were split down the middle by the affiliates as part of a 3-3 night on the farm.

Um, to hold all the hits the affiliates racked up on Monday night (49 in total)? I'm not really sure where I was going with that one. Anyway, despite those 49 hits, the farm only went 1-3 after losing a bunch of close (and high-scoring) games.