The Jays have a chance to have a real impact on the AL East playoff chase, with six home games against the Red Sox and Yankees. First up: the champs.

A relatively brief Scout this week, as it's being created while visiting family for a wedding (not mine). As is usually the case with Boston coming to town this season, Toronto faces three up-and-down starters, an inconsistent bullpen, an occasionally erratic defence...and an absolutely dominant lineup. Can the Jays keep up their strong play against the Bosox, with less on the line (at least from the Jays' perspective)?

This week's Scout features some offseason planning, some nagging aches and pains and some more of the same from the one and only Boomer.

On to the Advance Scout!

Leading on Saturday doesn't guarantee victory. Four of the six Championship Bracket teams trailing on the final day rallied to win their first-round matchups.

Hopefully Photo of the Day will come through, because I can't think of any Jay that needs mojo more than this guy right now:

For the second day in a row Auburn laid a big "whuppin" on Oneonta, outscoring the Tigers 33-9 in the series while sweeping their best of three semi-final. Yesterday Jacob Butler had the big numbers, five hits, six RBI's.

This group of players shouldn't be hard for you to figure out:

1. Patrick Lennon (ex-Jay hit .265, 1991-99)
2. David McCarty (misspelled, true, but as close as we get)
3. Roric Harrison (RHRP, 1972-78)
4. Ray Starr (WWII All-Star RHSP, 1932-33, '41-'45)

That's right, it's MEET ...

This game report talks about why this loss particularly hurt, why Rick Short is becoming one of my favourite Nationals and includes a study that tells you nothing. So why wouldn’t you want to read it?

The Jays rallied from 3-1 down to take a 5-3 lead into the ninth. At which point they turned the game over to Miguel Batista. Oops. Batista is having a second-half from hell. Again.

Curiously, the game turned on two slow rollers hit by Travis Lee to Shea Hillenbrand. Shea, who made a couple of lovely scoop and flip plays on similar balls yesterday and today, misplayed both. He couldn't field the ninth inning roller cleanly, and the tying run crossed the plate - in the eleventh his throw home short-hopped Zaun, and the winning run crossed the plate.

Not that this game should have come down to that.

As we put together the next in our line of alphabet soup teams (and no, that's not "All-Campbells" -- sorry Jamie), we reach the letter "J" -- with which we are already blessed with a fair amount of pre-existing Hall of Names research, based on our previous All-Jones, All-Johnson and very recent All-Jackson squads.

But to limit ourselves to those three surnames on this team made up entirely of players whose last/family name begins with the letter "J" would deprive us of Hall of Famers like Addie Joss and Fergie Jenkins, not to mention a certain shortstop currently starring in a leading role just off Broadway.

Jenkins and Joss notwithstanding, of the other six "J"s inducted into Cooperstown so far, two are Jacksons (Reggie and Travis) and three are Johnsons (Walter, Judy and Ban, who wasn't a player). That leaves Hughie Jennings, a .311 career hitter who could also play short for this team, but who will probably find himself busy managing it instead. Nobody named "Jones" is in the Hall, surprisingly, but Chipper and Andruw will make a case in 15 or 20 years, while Randy Johnson will beat both of them there by a decade.

Now, please meet ...

A few thoughts about the Blue Jays on this somber anniversary.

The Doubledays have been great in the regular season and then struggled in the playoffs each of the last 2 years. They showed no mercy yesterday, scoring early and often in routing the Oneonta Tigers.

Bush-Kazmir Volume Two was another fine, fine pitcher's duel. Kazmir fanned 11 in seven innings, and Bush got burned by a fat change-up for a two-run homer. Going to the ninth, he seemed about to take his third CG loss of the year. But with one out, the LH batters nailed to the bench by Kazmir came marching out of the dugout. Catalanotto walked, Hinske singled, Zaun singled to tie the game. And then Russ Adams, hurt and abused by Kazmir all night long, lined an RBI single to give the Jays the lead.

Even better, Miguel Batista struck out Travis Lee to seal the deal. Sweet!

It is a dictum intoned by many a pundit - when your offense gets you some runs, you want your pitcher to go out there and shut the other team down in the next inning.

This Josh Towers failed to do in the first inning last night. Aside from that minor (as it turned out) lapse, he was just fine. Again.

Last weekend, Josh Towers and Seth McClung hooked up in a very fine pitcher's duel. McClung was excellent, Towers was better - but McClung got the win when Travis Lee took Miguel Batista deep.

Not this time, buddy. Towers turned in six solid innings, and McClung seemed to lose all heart after Joey Gathright misplayed Shea Hillenbrand's inning ending fly ball into a two-base error that plated the game's first two runs. Frank Catalanotto made a couple of fine plays in left field and rapped out a couple of key early hits, Corey Koskie hit an enormous home run, and Gabe Gross made a very nice running grab in the gap and went 3-4. Which raised his batting average from .222 to .265. A decent night's work.

These are the games that test a club's mettle: drab affairs in September against a team that, though eliminated, is playing confident baseball.

There are reasons to expect the Blue Jays to show some life, however. Aaron Hill should give the Jays' brass a chance to see just what their middle infield options look like for next year and beyond. Dave Bush -- and, possibly, Josh Towers -- are pitching for not-yet-assured slots in the 2006 rotation. And if Gus wants to have a shot at Rookie of the Year, he's going to need his last five starts to all be good ones.

This week's Scout features some minor league news, an acknowledged "good guy" and some unfortunate stereotyping of the sort discussed by Jordan in his last Game Report.

On to the Advance Scout!

It's Friday, so feel free to Caption At Will: