The Toronto Blue Jays open up a four game series in Oakland. This is the beginning of a 10-game road trip that will swing through Anaheim and Tampa Bay.

R.A. Dickey gets the call for tonight's game at O.co Coliseum.

This edition of the POTD focuses on Wednesday's game between Vancouver and Salem-Keizer, an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, at Nat Bailey Stadium Wednesday night.

Canadians third baseman Ryan Metzler gets under a pop fly from Volcanoes leadoff hitter Tyler Hollick in the first inning. Franklin Barreto backs up the play from short.

The affiliates were 5-3 today, with wins coming for Buffalo in a double header, New Hampshire, Lansing, and the DSL Jays. 

I spoke with Doug Davis, the Jays minor league field coordinator, over the weekend. Davis was in Vancouver visiting with the Canadians. As with my interview with Dane Johnson last week I had to take notes during the call and replicate them here as my recorder has gone missing.

A pretty good day on the farm and an especially good one for the lone Canadian affiliate. It all added up to five wins in eight tries.


Canadian Andrew Case got to pitch for Vancouver on Canada Day at Nat Bailey Stadium.

It's a one'o'clock start, people! Stat holiday!

Only two wins out of seven for the affiliates on Canada Day Eve. Vancouver and the boys in the Gulf Coast celebrated it the right way thanks to a couple of brothers. Three one-run losses and two blowouts were on the negative side of the ledger. Dunedin had the night off.

On Sunday the affiliates were 2-3 with wins coming from New Hampshire and Vancouver.  Matt Boyd and Daniel Norris had strong starts again, while Dalton Pompey continued to struggle in his 3rd AA game.

Four wins and three losses. Eric Kratz had four hits and six RBI. AJ Jimenez also had four hits. Despite all those hits the Bisons had to go extra innings to win. Jairo Labourt pitched six hitless innings for Vancouver who won 1-0. New Hampshire and Lansing also won.

It's the weekend so I am trying a new format for the MLU, see below. If you want the play by play click on the box score link.

Casey Lawrence retired the first twenty hitters in the second game of a doubleheader. He was one out away from perfection. New Hampshire swept the doubleheader. Buffalo won as PJ Walters made a very good start. Lansing won in extra innings. Bluefield rode a grand slam from Richard Urena to victory.

Dunedin lost in the bottom of the ninth. Vancouver tried a comeback but fell short. The GCL Jays rode the roller coaster but came up short.

Some late inning heroics and a few laughers as your affiliates went 5-3.

The White Sox and fearsome Cuban slugger Jose Abreu visit Toronto.

The affiliates were 3-6 on Wednesday, with New Hampshire's game being postponed, Buffalo played a continued game from Tuesday, and 7 inning shortened game. 

Dane Johnson is the Blue Jays minor league pitching coordinator. Dane has joined us many times on Da Box over the years. Today I caught up with Dane as he was on the road and we discussed some of the pitchers in the system. I have lost my voice recorder so I just took notes of our conversation, reproduced below. Any errors are mine. I asked mainly about the lower levels of the system as we tend to know a lot more about the pitchers in AAA and AA.

A 5-2 mark for the affiliates Tuesday with one game suspended due to rain. One win was a walk-off.