I was in Lansing for the weekend.  Here are some non-action shots of gameday at the park. 

Um, to hold all the hits the affiliates racked up on Monday night (49 in total)? I'm not really sure where I was going with that one. Anyway, despite those 49 hits, the farm only went 1-3 after losing a bunch of close (and high-scoring) games.

I was away for the weekend, what can I say...

The series finale turned out to be a good one for the Blue Jays as they completed a three game sweep with a 5-2 victory over Texas last Sunday afternoon at the Rogers Centre.

Three wins outta four for the affiliates including a couple of big comebacks and one excellent start in Florida.

Former major league pitcher Jose Lima has died at the age of 37.  His wife says he died of a heart attack.

Two wins in five games for the affiliates.  New Hampshire stayed hot behind Randy Boone, with homers from Brian Jeroloman and Adam Calderone.  Dunedin had three hits from Adeiny Hechavarria, and a home run from Mike McDade, as they came from behind to win.  Las Vegas had twenty hits and lost, as Rey Gonzalez was bombed.  Brian Dopirak hit two home runs.  Lansing lost both ends of a doubleheader in two very similar games.

Yours truly was in Lansing for the doubleheader and lugnut fan, Chad Hillman, stopped by to say hello, as we exchanged notes about the players.  I talked with manager Sal Fasano, look for that on the site next week.

Henderson Alvarez cruised through seven shutout innings Friday night.  He gave up five hits but recorded 14 of his 16 non-strikeout outs via groundballs.  Mike McDade popped two home runs.  And in the "glimpse of the future" department, in the sixth inning Adeiny Hechavarria, Tyler Pastornicky and Travis D'Arnaud had consecutive hits to score two runs.  Jesse Litsch was pretty good for six innings in AAA on Friday but the bottom fell out fast in the seventh.  Las Vegas went on to lose.  Kyle Drabek had a not so good start and the hitters were shut down by Bowie.  Lansing were rained out.

Interleague play starts today.

With the draft coming up I thought it would be interesting to take a look at who the Jays have taken and how they did.

New Hampshire had 20 hits and lost while none of the other three afiliates did more than half that number while all emerging victorious.

As the Jays kick-off a short trip to Seattle, which will be their only trip to the Pacific Northwest this year, and hope for a mini-sweep, the farm teams completed a mini-sweep of their own, as an off-day and a postponement meant that there were only two games in the system last night and Toronto’s affiliates won both.

The good guys win a close one in Seattle, although for me it was one of those games that seem a lot easier than the box score suggests.  I never felt the jays were going to lose this one.  Cecil got the win going 6 1/3 solid Innings and Gregg got his twelfth save, albeit a rather nervous one as he let a couple of hitters reach base after getting the first two outs.

So here we are at the quarter pole with the Jays sitting a surprising seven games clear of sea level.

It was a .500 night on the farm.  The bad news saw a rehabbing Jays pitcher get rocked as well as an extra innings loss.  On the flip side, the only affiliate on the road picked up a win and a couple of Canadians carried the big lumber in a walk-off victory.