The Jays face a potentially dominating lefthander (Johan Santana) tonight. Toronto started 2003 with 7 wins and 13 losses, playing only three opponents during that opening stretch: the Red Sox, Yankees and Twins. The Blue Jays would be one game ahead of that pace with a victory tonight and could move into a tie with the Yankees if the Bombers lose to Oakland.

Despite their offensive struggles, the Fighting Jays have outscored the Yankees by 10 runs and are two runs better in run differential after 19 games played.

`The Duchess will be furious,' thought the White Rabbit. He was carrying a silver tray on which rested a bowl of sugar cubes, a plate of biscuits and a white china teapot inset with gold leaf. As he ran, the contents of the tray slid back and forth, mixing themselves up terribly.

The Rabbit said to himself, `Three tea bags, a biscuit in hot water for five minutes, one lump of milk and some sugar. Yes, I'm quite certain that's what the Duchess asked for.'

The Duchess, of course, was furious. `I swear, if that rabbit doesn't return soon I shall have no choice but to feed him his own awful tea. Yes, that will teach him well. "I'll be back in five minutes," he said. "Shan't be but a moment." He's been gone three weeks if he's been gone a day.'

The Duchess' fury only grew as the White Rabbit obsequiously bowed his way into her prescence. `Your tea, Duchess,' he said, as he carefully laid the tray at her feet.

`I'm glad to see you've brought my biscuits, tea and sugar,' said the Duchess in reply, 'but I would like to ask you: where is my Crystal Ball?'

I thought everyone might enjoy taking a look at Illinois House Resolution 715, which was passed on Thursday.

Three teams are bunched within a game of first place in the Alomar division. My own Toronto Walrus, by virtue of a hard-fought 7-4 decision over the Springfield Isotopes, holds down top spot for another week; we're content to be playing .722 ball so far. AGF made up a lot of ground with a 9-1 thumping of Baird Brain, and the Horse Field Hammers continued their great start. Last year's cellar-dwellers defeated Garces_not_on_roids 7-5; Geoff has a lot more support for Barry Bonds in his lineup that the Giants do. Big move of the week was the Eastern Shore Birds, who swatted Red Mosquitos 10-1 to vault into a sixth-place tie.

And you’re kicking
And you’re shouting at me
And I’m relying on your common decency

The Jays take their suddenly hot bats to the Metrodome to face the Twins who currently have the best record in the AL. Ted Lilly goes up against Brad Radke in tonight's pitching matchup.

I don't know about the rest of you, but the minor league updates have become the feature I look most forward to when I come to the Box first thing in the morning. It's fun to see which players have performed well the night before. Unfortunately, other than the 3 star stats, I have trouble keeping track of who is hitting and who isn't. So I collected some batting stats from the minor leagues. These are pretty much as raw as you can get: unadjusted by league difficulty, position difficulty, park effects, phases of the moon, etc. Plus there's the whole sample size thing. So don't take any of these seriously, it's just for fun:

The Jays send their ace to the mound seeking their first series win of the season. The Orioles counter with their own number one. Ponson has had three very good starts this year, only his April 15th outing against the Red Sox (7 ER in 4 innings) marrs his record. For his part HLH has been equally impressive since his opening day struggles, giving up just six runs in his last 22 inings of work.

The Jays made a couple of roster moves yesterday, sending struggling reliever Aquilino Lopez to AAA Syracuse and designating former fifth starter Josh Towers for assignment. To replace the two righties, the Jays called up a pair of righties: Michael Nakamura who the Jays picked up on waivers from the Twins on April 4th, and Justin Miller who went 9-5 with a 5.54ERA for the 2002 Jays.

The Jays outlasted the Orioles yesterday winning 5-4 in 12 innings. Toronto goes for the series win, 3 out of 4, and the season's first winning streak today with Doc on the mound.

Erik Bedard will make his second major league start, this one against the team from his home province.

The Jays have still not had a winning streak this year, as they lost 11-3 to the Orioles on Friday Night.

And when I’m lost you’ll be my guide
I just turn around and you’re by my side

Josh Towers faces Eric Dubose (damn those lefties) tonight in Baltimore. If the Jays take two out of three this weekend, they'll have started the season 2-4 v Detroit, 2-4 v Boston and 2-4 v Baltimore. Only the first of those can be viewed as very disappointing.

I'm stealing ideas from the Will Carroll Weblog, but I thought this would be fun.