Portland played New Hampshire a few weeks ago so they thought they knew how to run on Darin Mastroianni's arm.  After Mastroianni threw a runner out at the plate the third base coach/manager might have reconsidered.  After the second out at the plate they might have stopped running.  The third assist for Mastroianni was at third base so that one could be blamed on the runner.  But the fourth Mastroianni assist, at home, should have caused the Portland manager to reconsider his opinion.

The GCL Jays beat up the two Indian reality show winners.  Scott Richmond pitched well in his final rehab start.  Overall the affiliates went 4-2 with the top two teams losing.

TAM (54-44)        000 001    422 001  10  17  1
TOR (47-51)        222 201    000 000   9  16  0
Price, Cormier (4), Thayer (6), Balfour (7),  Choate (8), Wheeler (8), Howell (6-2) (10), Nelson (12)
Tallet, League (7), Accardo (8), Downs (9), Frasor (10), Camp (0-5) (11)

And what did I think of today's game?

It was a three-win night for the affiliates, which is an excellent result given their past performances this season on the same night of the week. The wins came as the result of some nice pitching performances. Dunedin also received some offense with four players going yard for five homers in total.

The six minor league contests yesterday included four shutouts, a bullpen and fielding meltdown and an outburst at the plate for a struggling affiliate. Two Toronto affiliates threw shutouts while two others were held off the scoresheet, as the Fisher Cats were on the wrong end of a one hitter. Dunedin held Sarasota off the scoreboard through 7 innings but ended up losing 5-3 in part due to three errors. Meanwhile, Auburn had their biggest scoring day of the year with 13 runs in a blowout win over Williamsport. Three strong pitching performances meant all the stars of the evening went to starting pitchers and none were awarded to hitters.

ChiSox ace Mark Buehrle threw just the 17th regular-season perfect game in MLB history today. He's also just the 24th pitcher in MLB history to toss multiple no-hitters, as this is his second.

Thanks to Bauxite Forkball for the heads up.

Randy Ruiz hit a three run walk-off home run to lead Vegas to victory.  Auburn won a doubleheader 6-5, that was the score in both games.  Henderson Alvarez retired the first 13 hitters he faced as Lansing won.  Carlos Perez led the GCL Jays to a win.  Dunedin scored eight on their way to a win, only New Hampshire spoiled the organizational sweep.

The highlights - a rain-out and a scheduled day off.

Just another fun day in the baseball world Monday night and the Jays had nothing to do with it as they enjoyed the day off.

Lansing put on a clinic, playing one of the best games of the Jays' minor league season, a couple top prospects had good games, and a rehabber had a not so good game.

The Red Sox, even with "Rescue Me" star Daniel Sunjata in the house, were not able to extinguish the red-hot flames emanating from the right arm of Roy Halladay.  With trade rumors continuing to circulate, Doc may have filled out his final prescription in a Jays overcoat by going the distance in a 3-1 victory Sunday afternoon at the Rog Mahal.

Three wins up top and two losses in the low levels made for a fairly decent day overall for the affiliates.

Congratulations to Marc Rzepczynski on earning his first major league win as the Blue Jays downed the BoSox 6-2 Saturday afternoon at Rogers Centre.  Hopefully, the young lefty will go on to win more games than the last guy who wore #34.

After a rough night on Friday the affiliates fought back with five wins. I witnessed the Fisher Cats win 5-2 over Connecticut.

Notes from New Hampshire

* There were over ten scouts at the game, including the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Giants, Angels, Reds and Brewers.
* Most scouts who saw Marcum's start on Thursday were impressed although his fastball was at 85-87.  Pitchers coming back from TJ surgery take a while to get their velocity back
* Scouts were impressed with Casey Janssen, they said he was throwing well at 92 mph and was pitching down around the knees.  Janssen is scheduled to pitch again Sunday.
* Kyle Ginley has had elbow surgery to re-route a nerve
* Zach Dials had gone to Dunedin with shoulder fatigue and was kept there until his arm regained full strength
* The scouts had two questions for me, (1) will Halladay be traded?, and  (2) Will JP be fired?

Robert of Dudek returned to action the other day, and in the course of the ensuing discussion he noted:

91 mph is a below average MLB fastball now (for a righthander). Richmond is a serviceable starter, but it is very unlikely to become an ace.

Now he's probably right about that second sentence, but later for that. It's the notion of an average major league fastball that has caught my attention. Oh look! It's a  Bright and Shiny Object - and away I go. I'm gonna need a Data Table....

Interesting listening on the radio here in Texas recently ... I was tuning in to one of Dallas/Fort Worth's three all-sports radio options, and the discussion turned, as it almost always does, to the Cowboys. (The four sports seasons here are football, playoffs, draft and training camp.)

Then the question came up -- no, it wasn't really a question, it was more of a pronouncement -- that  the typical North Texas sports fan, if given a choice between a Rangers World Series championship and a Cowboys Super Bowl appearance (not even a guaranteed win), would almost unanimously and virtually without hesitation take the latter. Throw in a Mavericks title and a Stars cup to the Rangers' fictional rings, and the Cowboys would still come out on top said some of the most conservative and consistent sports journalists in Texas.

That got me thinking about Toronto ...