To keep her bill collectors at bay
I guess all his money, well it isn't enough
Cause that girl's got expensive taste

Reader Charles Simon has contributed to our flourishing collection of book reviews with his take on a baseball classic. Thanks Charles!

I have to leave soon, so please forgive the early appearance of this game thread.

Since his masterful effort against the Red Sox, Ted Lilly has had two sub-par performances. Command of his curve ball has been lacking, leaving him to rely on changing speeds. I like his chances today, especially if the Angels continue to swing away.

Toronto's remaining schedule (after tonight): at Texas (3), Baltimore (7), Tampa Bay (6), Yankees (6)

Tampa Bay's remaining schedule: Kansas City (6), Boston (6), Toronto (6), Detroit (5)

The Rays are losing 7-1 to the Yankees. If they do not rally, the Jays will be 2 games behind them for 4th place before they take the field tonight.

Charleston and New Hampshire had the day off, Frances made Dunedin wait another day and the Doubledays made another early exit.

And never mind that noise you heard
It’s just the beast under your bed,
In your closet, in your head

Justin Miller hasn't thrown the ball well lately. The late and unpredictable movement of his fastball that was his trademark seems to have deserted him. His control hasn't improved to compensate, and that has meant lots of hard-hit baseballs. If we don't see the old Miller soon, a move to long relief might be in the cards.

Facing the Jays today is one of Coach's favourite pitchers (not!) - Kelvim Escobar. As most of us know, the K man has some of the best stuff in the league. It's his composure and command of his breaking stuff that has been questioned. The key for any team facing Escobar is to swing only at balls in the hitting zone and get his pitch count up.

Possibly the biggest difference between the National Football League and Major League Baseball is the number of games a team plays in a season. An MLB team has 162 games on its regular season schedule while an NFL team plays 16; less than 1/10th of 162. A weak NFL team can often make the playoffs with a weak schedule and a couple of lucky breaks. This leads to the question: Can a weak team like the Blue Jays make the playoffs under an NFL-style schedule?

Okay, as we've expanded our "Baseball Hall of Names" universe into the world of Pop Culture (witness the recent had the all-Grease and all-Sesame Street teams, it was bound to happen ... a Hall of Names entry for the fourth-greatest TV show of all time: The Simpsons

Actually, this entry comes to us as a special "Pinch-Hit" from Jim Turner of TorontoBaseballGuys.com, who knows how to take advantage of an off-day for the home team, as he writes, "What with no game today, I threw together a little something for the site." Take it away, Jim! (And you could've at least acknowledged me ... my name is "Doh!"erty, after all.)

That no one sees a reason for
At the heart of the travelling band
You have to understand
There's a driving need to hit the yellow line

I'm sure every Jays fan was thrilled by the contributions of the rookies on Sunday. From homeruns by Gross and Adams to Crozier's great defensive play to end the game, there was much to like.

New Hampshire ends the regular season with a bang and Syracuse with a whimper, while Charleston hangs on to win in a nervous ninth. Auburn drops a close one in the farm system’s post-season opener.

After a feisty three-game set in which they deserved more than the one victory they got, the Jays have a chance to inflict more harm on an AL West contender, as they hit the Big A for a three-game set. For their part, the Halos need to make hay against our heroes, as their two playoff targets -- the Red Sox and A's -- are playing a key zero-sum series in northern California.

This edition of the Scout features a recovering slugger, a veteran's untimely swan song, an outfielder who is no doubt hearing a bunch of "point and click" jokes, and a raw callup who can really rake. The Jays get another shot at Kelvim Escobar tomorrow night, which is reason enough to follow this series.

On to the Advance Scout!

Okay, so Ichiro is making a run at Gorgeous George Sisler's 85-year-old single-season record of 257 hits for the 1920 [Corrected - ed.] St. Louis Browns. And while Sisler played every single game for the Brownies ... there were only 154 of 'em.

And bring back all of those happy days
Put your troubles down
It's time to celebrate

On the second to last day of the season, we report good pitching by Mike Smith and Josh Banks, not so good pitching from the Charleston bullpen. We read Mikael Jova's escape from Cuba story and how Glenn Williams is unhappy to be still in Syracuse.