It looked like the Vancouver Canadians were going to end a seven-game losing streak but a meltdown in the late innings gave Salem-Keizer a fourth straight win at the Nat Sunday afternoon.

Starter Jon Wandling throws back to first base to check on a runner in the first inning. He plunked the leadoff hitter but wound up retiring the eight of the next nine hitters he faced.

The Vancouver Canadians had another tough night at The Nat against the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes as they lost for the seventh straight time on a soggy Saturday night.

Andrew Guillotte was hit by a pitch in the first inning but did not advance any further as he watches an inning-ending ground out.

The mid-season point is upon us and the Jays are not where we wanted them to be. The Jays have a losing record, are 4.5 games back of the Yankees and 4 games back in the wild-card. The Jays have played 91 games, they have 71 left. The Jays will need to go 45-26 to finish with 90 wins. Fangraphs projection system believes that 82 wins will get a team into the wildcard game. That seems to be overly optimistic or pessimistic, depending on your point of view. Baseball reference has the same numbers. Both systems give the Jays a 26%-28% chance to make the playoffs. A 40-31 finish will give the Jays 85 wins a decent shot. If the Jays can live up to their pythagorean record from the first half they can do that. But they need shutdown relief pitching and fewer errors.

The Sunday slate featured two wins and four losses, including two extra inning losses. New Hampshire tallied one win behind good pitching by Austin Bibens-Dirkx. Dunedin also won behind Jeff Hoffman who had his best professional start. Daniel Norris had a bad day as the Bisons were dominated. Vancouver also suffered a resounding loss. Lansing and Bluefield took the extra innings losses. Ryan McBroom was 6-6 in a losing cause and the Bluefield loss wasted a good start from Juliandry Higuera.

See the glory of the Blue Jays road trip and unofficial first half of the season come to a close for a weekend set in Kansas City before the All-Star break.

A return home did not result in a return to the win column for the Vancouver Canadians against the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes Thursday night.


The bewildered look on the face of Lane Thomas says it all as the C's dropped their fifth in a row. Thomas had two hits in a losing effort.

Full slate of affiliate baseball. No prospects traded, yet.

Justin Shafer pitched seven shutout innings as Lansing won with a rare 1-0 score. New Hampshire and Dunedin stayed hot with Dalton Pompey, Anthony Alford, Rowdy Tellez, Christian Lopes and Mitch Nay recording multi-hit games. The GCL Jays split a pair of extra inning games. The Jays fifth round pick, Jose Espada pitched well again.

Buffalo took a lead to the ninth but Gregory Infante blew it. Bluefield lost, Nick Wells had a rough start. Vancouver also lost but the Dominicans did what the parent club did not.

The affiliates won just three of eight games that included a couple of one-run losses and three two-run losses Tuesday. However, there were some promising developments on the pitching front as three rehabbing pitchers made their way back to the mound in Dunedin.

The affiliates won five out of nine Monday. The highlights were a walk-off win, a come-from-behind victory and a slugfest in the Dominican. The low points were a doubleheader sweep and a come-from-ahead loss.

The Jays continue their road swing by breezing through the Windy City for a four-game visit.

Sean Reid-Foley made his Dunedin debut and even 16 innings couldn't deliver a winner. Anthony Alford and Rowdy Tellez led the offense. New Hampshire won behind Murphy Smith and Ryan Schimpf. Buffalo split a doubleheader, Joel Pineiro pitched in game one and Miguel Castro conceded a three run home run in game two. The Bisons won that second game. Lansing lost with three ninth inning runs breaking a tie. Vancouver's hitters took the night off. Matt Morgan had a bad day as Bluefield lost wasting seven good innings from 18 year old Dalton Rodriguez.

The Toronto Blue Jays will be spending the 4th of July weekend in the Motor City for the Rajai Davis-Anthony Gose/Devon Travis-Ezequiel Carrera tag team grudge match.

As Matt Boyd laid an enormous turd on the Rogers Centre mound last night, Bauxite scottt was moved to express a cri du coeur:

Worst start in Jays history?

Eventful day in minor league baseball for the Blue Jays. We had a trade, a major signing, and some encouraging performances down on the farm. Your affiliates went 4-3.