Saturday night on the farm, seven games, three losses and a triple play.  Sorry about the late submission, but your humble correspondent attended the Dunedin game, stayed up late to catch the late Las Vegas game, then fell asleep and woke up just a bit ago.

Kyle Drabek folowed up his no-hitter with six shutout innings as New Hampshire won easily.  JP Arencibia hit his 23rd home run as Vegas held on for a narrow win.  Egan Smith pitched six shutout innings as Lansing shut out Great Lakes.

Dunedin and Auburn both lost in extra innings.  The GCL Jays were well beaten although Jake Marisnick had three hits.

The Texas Rangers have ... an ace lefty? Heavens to Kenny Rogers! Welcome to Arlington, Cliff Lee!

Here's the story on ESPN.com. And a few thoughts from this Ranger neighbor ...

Let's kick off the weekend and clean up shop around here at the same time.

Travis Snider's rehab looks like it should be ending soon and David Cooper hit a couple of dingers and the affiliates went 4-3 on the day thanks to some good starting pitching.

Mike Green is back with the third and final episode of his travels in the North Eastern US.

We coasted into Auburn on the scenic two lane highway from Interstate 81 in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York .  “Likes sort likes”, the line from the great Dutch film Antonia’s Line, came into my head as we passed through an obviously Republican town with accusingly well-manicured lawns, mandatory American flags in front of the houses and denizens in perfect nautical summer wear. Auburn was not one of those places.

Mike Green is back with part two of his travelogue through the North Eastern US.  Today it's Cleveland.

Progressive Field stands a block away from Interstate 90 in Cleveland .  We rolled in to our chain hotel across the street from the stadium at about 10 p.m. on Sunday night, with plans to sight-see during the day and then catch the Jays facing the Indians at night.

The affiliates went 0-5 and were outscored 38-11.

If you read the headline into a microphone, remember to pop those "P's".  Program directors at radio stations just love that!  Anyways, as you may have gathered, the bats were working just fine for the visitors in Portlands Maine and Oregon Tuesday night in a 5-3 night for the affiliates.  The number two and three stars of the night had big nights at the plate but they were overshadowed by a great pitching performance and he earned star number one.  All this and a bag of chips (except for the bag of chips part) in today's edition of the MLU!

Our own Mike Green, a former member of the roster and minor league reporter, contributes this pinch-hit.  Parts 2 and 3 to follow.....

Seeing new places is the kind of mind-altering experience that the middle aged can tolerate with equanimity.  So it was that my companion and I headed out through Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and upstate New York on a baseball trip.  First stop, Lansing, Michigan, for Saturday night and Sunday afternoon games.

 

Now I'm no longer even pretending to keep to a monthly schedule. I feel liberated, I do.

Um, well, kind of. Two affiliates played in completely different Portlands, but got the same result: a win. A couple of rain-outs in Florida meant there were only four games last night.

Sorry for the delay.  Some technical difficulties (and work) kept this from posting this earlier.  By now you're well aware of Kyle Drabek's no-hitter.  So let's just get right to it.

The Jays reached the half way point of the season after Fridays game with a 41-40 record.  On one hand it is great to have a winning record at the half way point but unfortunately the recent trajectory has been down.  Also the fans have memories of last years fade still fresh in their minds.  Many forecastors had the Jays as a 70-75 win team, that looks like a good bet today.

The Jays had a bit of a stinker yesterday, Ricky Romero had a bad one and John McDonald showed why he is an infielder.

Jays farm clubs went 3-3 on Saturday.  Notable was the 6 RBI performance by Fisher Cats Left Fielder Eric Thames.