Interleague play concludes with what will likely be the Jays' last "rivalry" series with the ex-Expos in the District of Columbia.

Can the Jays keep up their solid play from the Baltimore series against another first-place club? Washington has an excellent bullpen, and scoring runs early in the game will be critical for the Blue Jay bats.

This week's (somewhat abbreviated) Scout features a red-hot home squad, a slap-hitting utilityman with whom a highly respected manager is seriously enamoured and the return of the words "Esteban Loaiza." There, I said it. I even spelled it out.

On to the Advance Scout!

Look - no one's going to illuminate you
All the odds are stacked against you
You're just cavin' in, right there in front of me
It's a picture I don't ever want to see

Bauxites: Tampa, Boo!, Terry Who?

Well, the two most recent Batter's Box Interactive Magazine polls have gone off the beaten path a bit, with the first demonstrating the Box's disapproval of all things Devil Ray and the second surprisingly raising the specter of cartoon question mark balloons over most people's heads at the mention of singer/songwriter Terry Cashman.

We've spoken about the minor league pitching prospects. How about the top 10 hitting prospects?

Here are my choices:


1.  Quiroz
2.  Roberts
3.  Hattig
4.  Lind
5.  Thigpen
6.  Cannon
7.  Griffin
8.  Negron
9.  Pettway
10. Patterson

What do you think?

Bauxites have spoken. I tallied the votes using a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale and here are the results:

1. Dustin McGowan
2. David Purcey
3. Brandon League- tie
3. Francisco Rosario-tie
5. Zach Jackson
6. Ricky Romero
7. Shaun Marcum
8. Josh Banks
9. Casey Janssen
10. Chi-Hung Cheng

The hitters poll will be coming later this morning.

David Bush defeated a Snead-less Richmond; New Hampshire gets some revenge on Erie; Lansing start the second half with a win; Auburn records their first win, and Pulaski are still looking for win #1.

That was a sweet win. Doc was good, but not at his overpowering best. And the Jays were not particularly lucky. How many times exactly did they line a ball hard and directly at a defender with runners on base?

Sweet win: Jays 6 O's 2. The Jays did a bunch of things right. So, what did you think?

It's mid-season and time for prospect polls. Let's start with the pitchers. Here is my list:

1.  Marcum
2.  League
3.  Jackson
4.  Purcey
5.  Banks
6.  Cheng
7.  Rosario
8.  McGowan
9.  Davis Romero
10. Janssen

Ricky Romero's off my list until he pitches. If I were to put him on, he'd be #6. What are your lists? Feel free to flame away at me, while you're at it!

Today's photograph is Roy Halladay between innings in the Jays dugout, gearing up to come back out:

Last week, I went to at least some of two games: Monday, Halladay's great game vs Suppan, and Wednesday, Aaargh, I mean Lilly, vs Suppan. Of course, the Jays won both of those games. My co-worker Rob went to Tuesday's game with friends, and the Jays promptly lost.

This week is turning out to be the Bizzaro version of last week; the games I'm showing up to (Tuesday's) were lost, and the games Rob has gone to (last night's) are won. I think I'm going to today's Halladay-Ponson match-up, and I think I'll invite Rob; if all goes as expected, it'll be 0-0 in the 14th before God realizes what's going on and obliterates the Earth with a comet.

I'm telling you, kid, the public will lap it up! This moving-picture sensation has it all! There's the fallen phenom, returning from the operating table to pitch a masterpiece! There's the powerful kid with an artillery name tailor-made for Broadway! There's a bad-blood rematch that goes badly for the heroes! There's one team throwing a huge lead away, and another overcoming a huge deficit! Thrills, heroics, failures, triumphs, and a whole lotta longball! It'll be the movie-house hit of the year! Write it down, kid -- this show's gonna make us all stars!

"In baseball, my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about the numbers. If you dwell on statistics you get shortsighted, if you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end." -- Tom Seaver

There has of course been much talk and discussion and argument on this site -- as on virtually any baseball site -- about the value of various numbers in The Great Game. And the yeoman's work Magpie is doing on compiling the "Lobby of Numbers" for each major league franchise is captivating in its own right.

It's simply true that certain numbers almost inevitably call up the images of certain athletes, baseball or otherwise -- 3 is Ruth, 12 is Namath, 33 is Jabbar on the west coast and Bird on the east coast, 99 is Gretzky. So we know the names within the numbers, so to speak -- but in the spirit of our never-ending quest for the perfect Baseball Hall of Names team, we come to wonder ... are there numbers within the names?

With apologies to the occasional Sixto Lezcano, Cy Twombley, Jack Fournier and Gene Tenace, the answer sadly, appears to be "no." That is, unless ...

With Roy Halladay going tomorrow, the Jays might take 3 out of 4 from the division leader.

Don't look now, but Toronto is five back of the wildcard team, Boston.

She said - "Listen John I love you,
but there's this bloke I fancy
I dont want to two time you,
so it's the end for you and me"