With all the injuries on the major league team the Jays have had to bring in new players to fill the gaps in the minors.  Three of them played Sunday, Andrew Good started for Syracuse, Mike Venafro pitched in relief.  Howie Clark played for New Hampshire.   Syracuse blew a lead but won in extra innings with a home run, New Hampshire and Lansing lost.

The affiliates only won one game but there were some encouraging pitching performances.  Ismael Ramirez only allowed one earned run in seven innings for Syracuse.  Russell Savickas made his AA debut and gave up two runs in six innings.  Kristian Bell made his first start of 2007 and pitched five shutout innings and Nate Starner had one bad inning but struck out eleven in six innings.  Curtis Thigpen played second base and made an error.

With nothing going right for the parent club, some Jays fans hoped maybe the minor leagues would bring some good news. If that’s the case, it’s not going to happen today, as two blowouts and one extra-inning loss means only one win on the farm. We’ll take a look at what happened, as some pitchers continued to struggle, some batters continued to hit and the low minors continued to make errors. However, nobody got hurt, and that's what's important. Seriously.

Jesse Litsch was the top performer yesterday as he threw 7 hitless innings.

The Friday Minor League summary is on Thursday this week. If you promise to ask no questions, I'll promise to tell no lies. It works out better that way. The farm affiliates went 2-2 yesterday.

It has been that kind of season.  When the good guys rally, they fall just short.  When the guys in the business suits, as Willie Nelson calls them, rally, they come out ahead.  The farm affiliates ended up 1-3 on the night.

A contender for the lame title of the year award!!  Dunedin managed to split a doubleheader on the road and that was the only win of the night for the affliates.

Three wins and no losses for the affiliates, all wins were come from behind efforts.  Syracuse had to tie the game in the ninth and win it in the twelfth.  New Hampshire went ahead in the seventh while Lansing scored seven runs in the fifth to turn around a 3-0 deficit.  Michael MacDonald and Orlando Trias each made their first starts since being promoted and each had some learning to do.

One win in four attempts for the affiliates.  New Hampshire behind outstanding pitching from Jesse Litsch won 3-1.  Aaron Mathews and Dustin Majewski led the offense for the Fisher Cats.  Elsewhere Ty Taubenheim feels like Roy Halladay, AJ Wideman pitched well for Dunedin while Travis Snider continued his education in Lansing.

The affiliates split the four games as Mike MacDonald earns a well-deserve promotion to Syracuse. None of the Jays organization’s starting pitchers pitched well last night, although Josh Banks remains undefeated. However, some of the bats came to play, including Sergio Santos who is trying to prove that his demotion to Double-A was a mistake and that he's overcome his struggles at Syracuse.

The farm affiliates went 3-1 on Thursday. After a brief review, it's on to the statistical summary of the 2007 performances of the organization's top pitching prospects.

If you've got the time, we've got the boxscores. The Jay farm affiliates had the distinct pleasure of facing the Miller prospects, Buffalo's Adam and Lakeland's Andrew, and were unable to score against either but still managed a split of those two games and went 1-3 overall.

The affiliates were 2-2 last night with both wins coming in A ball.

And yes, that is a lame title.

It was a good night for the big club and a good night on the farm as Syracuse, Dunedin, and Lansing were all winners last night.  The only thing missing was a New Hampshire victory - they had the night off.

Home runs played a big part in a minor league sweep Sunday.  Sergio Santos hit his sixth to help New Hampshire win a game in Portland.  For Dunedin Kyle Phillips hit two home runs to tie the game and Jacob Butler hit a go-ahead home run to help the D-Jays to victory.   Matt Liuzza, Brian Pettway and Josh Bell homered for the Lugnuts.  Ty Taubenheim's best start of the year kept the Chiefs in the game until Russ Adams helped win it in the tenth.  Jesse Litsch also pitched well while Travis Snider had four hits to pump his average to .392.