There was no happiness to be derived from sweeping the free-falling Braves last night. There was only a sense of completing a long overdue project by doing a somewhat superficial job on the easiest of subjects. However, AJ’s start was the story of the evening.

There was, I'm fairly sure, weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth...

Blue Jays are cunning birds. This is not widely known, or sufficiently appreciated.

(Author's Note: due to an utterly unforeseen and totally unexpected calamity caused by Mozilla Firefox, the following is reluctantly brought to you by... Internet Explorer? Yes, the dog ate my homework.)

Why do I hate the Tigers so much?

In light of the recent allegations against Jason Grimsley involving human growth hormone, I'd like to use this game report to discuss cheating in baseball. I had not planned to write about this topic today, but Buck Martinez's comments during the rain delay on the radio broadcast of yesterday's game brought a very serious baseball issue to my attention:

Androids.

Just can't get that third one, can they. Just can't get that Sweep Monkey off their backs. On the other hand....

49 games without a sweep doesn't sound that bad. There are 113 games left and surely the Jays will sweep someone. Last year, the Jays swept a series six times, nailing the Rays, Royals, Red Sox, Mariners, Angels and Tigers. I doubt they'll go down to zero this year.

Come on, even the 2003 Tigers swept the Orioles, White Sox (twice!) and Indians. (How would you like to be one of those teams?) The Jays are on pace to win twice as many games as those Tigers, and if you call me on that because it's too early, then it's also too early to worry about not sweeping anyone. Also, if you look at the last game of the Red Sox series (May 26, 2005) and the last game of the Mariners series (July 21)...well, that looks very much like two months to me. Nobody noticed that because it didn't happen at the beginning of the year.

But that's not the reason I'm here today. No, this Series Report is only tangentially related to the series we just watched.

Nobody’s been that glad to get out of Denver since Neal Cassady.

It was a tough week to have the out of town series report, especially when you have a seventeen-month-old baby who likes to get up at the crack of dawn and start the day at full speed. But it's all about you, dear reader, so I'm drinkin' extra coffee and pushin' on through.

When Seth McClung shut down the Jays on Friday, the usual complaints were heard. "The Devil Rays always give the Jays trouble." Or, you know, it could just be the fact that even if the Jays win 90 this year, that means they lose 72. (Though this is yet another series in which the Jays did not sweep nor get swept; that's another topic, however.)

Okay, I'll admit having thought that the Fighting Jays show less fight against the boys from St. Petersburg, but I quickly dismissed it. It's one of those things people say so often that they think it's true. But it's not. Or is it?

When you have more than one Molina brother, you know what you're going to get in terms of Jays-Angels coverage: Jobu. Somewhat relieved that he didn't have to write about a Roy Halladay no-hitter (or a Jeff Weaver no-no), here's Mr. Buscemi himself with another one of his articles:

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This report isn't my fault, I SWEAR!

That's where you put baked beans on your ice cream, right?

This is my first series report of the year -- it's odd to think the season has been going for a month and I haven't written anything; at least Photo of the Day is batting .714, wih an OBP of .777, four runs scored, three RBIs and one home run in the early going.

The Jays have 12 wins and 11 losses, which is more or less the same record they had when April 2005 came to a close. Too much is made of early-season struggles – a similar month from any of these players would be relatively unnoticed in June or July – and since the AL East still looks screwy to me (three games separating first from last?), there's not much to analyze there.

But what's up with the Blue Jays' rotation?

Due to some crossed wires, today's series report has been delayed.

In the meantime, here's a photographic summary of last night's game:

Was it bad luck to schedule the second installment of long-lasting pens with another Josh Towers' start? It sure looked that way early on, when Big Papi homered as the Sox scored 3 in the first. Towers gutted his way into the 6th inning, and the Jays' bats came to life, making a game out of what had the feel of a rout early on. This time, though, the Mighty Troy was unable to come through.