At the top of the farm, the Las Vegas 51s showed they are getting more comfortable with their new roster members and took out the most successful team in the PCL on Wednesday night.  They stayed in the chase, improving their standing in the battle for a playoff spot in their division.

Well, there's no question about it now ... That kid headlining the Mariners' rotation, he's pretty good.

Felix Hernandez shut down the Tampa Bay Rays this afternon, 1-0. 27 up, 27 down, (Jesus Montero's third-inning RBI single brought the scoreboard operator's day to an early end.) Perfect!

Whatchagot to say 'bout that, now, Mr. McIlroy?

Box Score || Game Story

Sean Nolin had ten strikeouts for Dunedin. Marcus Walden and Danny Barnes had to pitch well to get Dunedin the win. Nolin outdueled Brandon Morrow who led New Hampshire to the win. Jake Marisnick had two doubles. Vancouver had only three hits but won in walk-off fashion. Scott Richmond and Daniel Norris were beaten up and their teams lost. The GCL Jays lost in extra innings even though DJ Davis, Dawel Lugo and Gabriel Cenas played well Lansing had an off day.

According to a press release from BlueJays.com, the Toronto Blue Jays have signed catcher Jeff Mathis to a two-year contract extension for $3 million dollars.

Jeff Mathis, scoring a run in Seattle July 31, will call Toronto home for the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

Two pitchers from the DSL Blue Jays teamed up for a seven-inning no-hitter in the first game of a doubleheader.  That highlighted a 4-2 Monday on the farm.

The affiliates went 5-1 on Sunday with the only loss coming from Saturday's game.  It rained in the desert on Saturday and the 51's game was suspended with Las Vegas down 5-1.  That game resumed on Sunday and the 51's lost.  But they won the regularly scheduled game and all the other affiliates who played won too.  Dunedin were rained out and the GCL Jays had their normal Sunday off.

There were some good pitching performances in the wins.  Yohan Pino and Jeremy Gabryszwski each pitched six shutout innings.  Roberto Osuna pitched well, despite giving up three runs.  Anthony DeSclafani and Sean O'Sullivan also did well.  Balbino Fuenmayor, Nico Taylor, Jacob Anderson, Luke Hughes, Jake Marisnick and Christian Lopes had good days at the plate.

On July 28, despite all their trials and tribulations, the Blue Jays had a 51-49 record. While there was a posse of contenders in their way, they were still 3.5 games out of a post-season berth.

Then came what can best be described as a Death Spiral.

Two wins in six tries (with two games canned) for the affiliates on Saturday. Not a ton of excitement to report but a sleeper prospect continued his dominance from the mound.

The big story on the farm was Brett Cecil and Mark Sobelewski’s performance for Las Vegas.  Cecil threw just 93 pitches in his 8 innings of work, but didn’t get the decision when Jerry Gil allowed 2 runs in the top of the ninth.  And the other story was Sobelewski’s 3 run blast that put the 51s in the lead in the 6th.  With all of the roster moves, including a first inning yank of McCoy from the field for a call up to Toronto, the 51s are settling down with the talent they have left and seem to be returning to their winning ways.

We can use a new thread - and besides, let's marvel at this lineup!

On a 3-2 day/night on the Farm, Third Baseman turned Catcher (but playing 3B) Seth Conner hit his second homer of the year and the only one anyone in the system hit on Thursday.

Las Vegas had the night off, and Lansing was rained out. Here's a look at the rest.

The two senior-most affiliates won, while Lansing and Bluefield lost in extras and Dunedin fell short in a shortened game. There were a couple of solid pitching performances and a pair of four-hit games: one from a Triple-A veteran and one from a high-round pick who hasn’t shown the promise as a professional he did as a youngster.

Three affiliates gave up runs in the ninth inning.  For Las Vegas and Bluefield it lost them the game, for Lansing it extended the game until the tenth where they lost.  Dunedin had their game go to twelve innings and they won.  New Hampshire also had a nice win.  Vancouver and the GCL Jays lost.  With so many losses there were few standout performances.  Jon Talley led Dunedin, Jorge Vega-Rosado keyed the Bluefield comeback that was in vain and Nick Baligod looked like he had driven in the winning run for Lansing before the melt-down.

Among the more notable players, Roberto Osuna pitched reasonably well.  Marcus Stroman's first pitch was "outahere".  Anthony DeSclafani pitched well for Lansing.

Even though two affiliates had the night off, two other clubs made up for it by having doubleheaders.  The highlight of a 4-4 Monday was the continued dominance of a Vancouver hurler, who continues to make Northwest League hitters more nervous than Josh Brolin.

Vancouver came out on the winning end of an impressive pitching performance by both teams and scored four runs in the 11th inning to win 4-0. Taylor Cole started that game and lowered his ERA to 0.26 in seven starts.