Almost a full slate of games today as all the affiliates but the Gulf Coast League squad were in action. Short season, not quite Northwest League, but definitely not GCL, Bluefield played their first game of the season topping the visiting Greeneville squad. Gus Pierre—all two walks of him—has broken the High-A voodoo and played tonight for Dunedin. He didn’t help much as Dunedin was shutout by Daytona. A.J. Jimenez continues to treat Double-A like Brennan treats Dale in Step Brothers before they realize they’re BFF (Note: this means that Jimenez continues to swing the bat well). New Hampshire lost. Anthony Gose sat today, not surprising considering the shenanigans of last night and the dressing down by Marty Brown. Buffalo lost a tight one this afternoon and have struggled mightily recently. Way down south Ronniel Demorizi, a bonus baby from a few years back went deep twice. He’s got some nice numbers down there and should graduate from the island at the end of the year. The DSL Jays won. Who am I forgetting? Oh, Vancouver won.

Ricky Romero had his third respectable start in a row for Buffalo, in a game where Mauro Gomez hit another home run.  Jose Reyes continued to get back into game-shape with Dunedin before he returns to Toronto in the near future.

Come on swing it, 1 - 2 - 3 - now we come to the pay off.

"Not the box factory again, Seymour."

A 3-2 night for the affiliates featured two overtime victories and a six-run rally in the ninth. Dunedin needs a victory today to clinch their first-half division title. The bad news was a shutout loss and an overtime loss.

Bases are loaded and Casey's at bat, playin' it play by play.

Here are some photos from the Vancouver Canadians home opener against Spokane Monday night.

The Vancouver Canadians gather along the third base line for the lineup introduction.

The affiliates took three out of four Monday night. I got to witness the lone loss in person!

He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again, you might say he found a key for every door.

Today was a new day for New Hampshire, they forgot about giving up 16 runs yesterday and their bats put together 22 runs.  Marcus Stroman had another fantastic start, and Mauro Gomez hit another home run.

The people of the town are strange, and they're proud of where they came.

Thad Weber pitched seven no-hit innings and Buffalo went on to one hit Pawtucket. It was bad news everywhere else. Sean Nolin was hit by a batted ball in the first inning and the relievers were hit all over the park. Lansing had only two hits and lost. Saturday was the FSL all-star game. Many D Jays took part. Vancouver ouhit Tri-City 10-4 but lost.

So R.A., what you have to do...

Hits were scarce on Friday. The Bisons were one hit in game one of a doubleheader. They were two hit in the nightcap until the sixth inning, but then they broke out with seven runs. They finished with eight hits and a second loss. New Hampshire had five hits and lost. Lansing had five hits too but one of them was a three run home run by Emilio Guerrero. Vancouver had four hits, scored nine runs, and won. Ricky Romero pitched well, six shutout innings. Roberto Osuna also pitched well. For some reason Claudio Vargas was called on to close out game 2 of the Bisons doubleheader and he certainly did nothing of the kind.

Then the door was open and the wind appeared, the candles blew then disappeared.