A line drived ripped off the ankle of your franchise pitcher is not what any fan wants to see. With Roy Halladay almost certain to miss at least some time after his injury in Texas last night, the Blue Jays need to find a starter who can, if not replace The Franchise, at least take his spot in the rotation. And it appears there might be such a pitcher down in Syracuse.

"And tonight's pitching matchup seems to favour the Jays to such a ridiculous degree that.... well, I actually have a bad feeling about it."

Me, four hours ago.

I humbly apologize. I never should have said that. I'm very, very sorry.

The Jays travel to the Metroplex sporting a 4-2 July record, and considering their tough opposition and the fact that they could well have won all six games, have to be feeling good about how they're playing. But before the All-Star Break and the sweet, sweet nectar of ten games against the D-Rays, M's and Royals, the Jays have another tough road series in Arlington, where they have simply not played well historically.

The Rangers are an interesting club that has posted a virtually identical record to the Jays, but not in the same way; Texas wins by blasting home runs -- tons of them -- off righthanded pitching. Each hitter in this potent lineup can be pitched to, but crushes mistakes. Sounds like an OK deal for Doc Halladay, but Josh Towers might be in tough.

Today's Scout features a lot of longballs, a Blue Jay draftee made good and a couple of Scott Boras sightings.

On to the Advance Scout!

Hanging around just above .500 in a not-too-strong division, very much still a part of the pennant race, this mix of exciting youngsters and savvy veterans is playing well at their new home but struggling on the road. Yes, there are a lot of similarities between the New Hampshire Fisher Cats and their parent Toronto Blue Jays. This month saw some red-hot hitters and some scuffling pitchers make an impact on the Fisher Cats' run for another Eastern League championship.

Was it what you had hoped for?
Was it what you'd expect?
It's all over but the shouting
in my head

This old porch is like a steaming greasy
plate of enchiladas
with lots of cheese and onions
and a guacamole salad

Here's the first of the requested Jays desktops:

After a tough loss on Tuesday night, the Jays came back for the series win. Swee-ee-t. Last night's game had the feel of a loss in the making early on. Falling behind 2-0 with Harden looking sharp on the mound is not a recipe for success, but the boys used patience and the big hit from Vernon along with fine bullpen work to head for Texas with a second straight W notched in their belts.

Three wins, one loss, one rainout and one ... well, we're really not sure what to call what happened to the Auburn Doubledays last night. If it was a novel, it'd be Crime and Punishment. If it was a movie, it'd be The Last Emperor. If it was a TV show, it would be the last nine seasons of The Simpsons. The word we're searching for here is "interminable." Read all about it....

Vernon Wells hit a big homer, and a nice team pitching effort gave the Jays the series win.

Thoughts?

Batter's Box welcomes another Pinch-Hit Game Report -- this time, from Box regular King Rat. If you'd like to volunteer to be a Pinch-Hit Game Reporter, e-mail us with your available dates and any writing samples you'd like to point us towards. Let 'er rip, Your Majesty!

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Last night's game was sort of a very pleasant demonstration of Sod's Law. A more expansive version of Murphy's Law, it holds that as soon as you commit yourself to a statement, events will immediately demonstrate just how wrong you are.

Augustine knew temptation
He loved women, wine and song
And all the special pleasures
Of doing something wrong
I said yeah

Updated with a contest: see the comments.

Since VBF guessed what the big surprise was going to be, I decided to move it up to today:

Click on the links below to download the image in desktop-size:

Mayor Couture's "team", the Bristol Sox (CWS), exploded against the Pulaski Blue Jays so much, they broke MiLB.com. As such, I'm not sure that Pulaski lost, but I'm pretty sure.

So make it a 4-3 night unless the P-Jays pulled it out. I don't know if they did, to be honest with you. I went to bed. If it was Triple-A, I might have stayed up to get the final score.

Ted the Tease was absolutely superb, folks. Frank Menechino and Russ Adams turned some big double plays and also contributed most of the offense. At least until Reed Johnson and Vernon Wells tacked on a couple of big, piling-on, put-it-out-of-reach, hits.

But still.... I think the best moment was when Rod Black said "if there's smoke where there's fire..."