The Swingin' (and, often, Takin') A's come into town on one of their trademark charges up the standings. What once appeared to be a good opportunity for the Jays to pick up ground after a tough road trip now appears to be a substantial challenge. Indeed, none of the pitching matchups seem to favour the Jays, who are hoping to build on their solid recent play.

That said, this Oakland club has built their recent resume on an awful lot of home dates, and against some suspect competition. The moment of truth is nigh for the Beaneiacs, who tonight embark on a tough trip to Toronto and Chicago, and return from the All-Star Break with eleven crucial meetings with the Angels and Rangers.

This week's Scout features some rapidly developing young talent, a tough-as-nails Canadian and an outfielder who may, in fact, be staying put.

On to the Advance Scout!

First, the Jays jumped in front 2-0. Josh Towers instantly gave up the lead. Trailing 3-2, the Jays scored once to tie the game. So Pete Walker comes in and gives up a couple of runs. Now trailing 5-3, the Jays score in the 6th and 7th to tie it up again. So Vinnie Chulk gives up a couple more, to put the home side down 7-5. But a run in the 8th and another in the 9th tied it again. Finally, in the 11th inning, Oakland scored 3 off Miguel Batista, and this time the Jays had no more comebacks.

A new headline-writing contest -- with a twist on the last one, introduced by Mike D.

Same "back page New York tabloid" rules -- if even the New York Post wouldn't run it, don't enter it here. But the twist: this is a headline that could or might appear after next week's All-Star Game. Some samples to get you started ...

Find me and follow me
Through corridors, refectories and files
You must follow
Leave this academic factory
You will find me in the matinee

I was feeling silly this morning, so I stuck together a couple of All-Star collages to decorate my computer desktop, and I figured I'd share them. The first one is of Shea Hillenbrand:

At noontime on Saturday a small crowd of baseball enthusiasts gathered in the theatre of the SkyDome for a book talk by Alan Schwarz. The crowd was diverse, ranging from SABR members to a man with his two young children to a Blue Jays employee who is also attending the 34th Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) convention. Schwarz’s book talk was sponsored by the Learning Annex and centered on his acclaimed book The Numbers Game. Schwarz also writes a weekly column for www.espn.com, a biweekly article for The New York Times and is a senior writer for Baseball America. The Numbers Game was his first book and received much acclaim, as it was named the best baseball book in 2004 and nominated for the 2004 Dave Moore Award, handed out by SABR to the “most important book on baseball” published in that year. It has recently been released in paperback.

The boys representing the Canadian club ruined Independence Day in four American cities, as the full season clubs registered wins. And, this being the first Tuesday of the month, it’s time for a Three-Star update.

Your intrepid Syracuse correspondent is on vacation so I am preparing the month end review four days in advance, as Mike Myers would say: "Talk amongst yourselves. June was a good month for the Chiefs, discuss."

Now the rooms are all empty down at Frankie's joint
And the highway she's deserted down to Breaker's Point
There's a lot of people leaving town now
Leaving their friends, their homes
At night they walk that dark and dusty highway all alone

It's become a tradition every time the Blue Jays defeat the Red Sox, except this one features a special appearance by Scott Schoeneweis in a starring role.

The timing will never be better. Last night, the Dodgers lost outfielder J.D. Drew for 6 to 8 weeks after a Brad Halsey pitch broke Drew's left wrist. The injury is just the latest to plague the Dodgers, who still don't know when they're getting Milton Bradley back from a finger injury.

Though it's a Monday off for those of us south of the border (or north, if you live in Windsor or certain places in the Yukon), there is no rest for this Canadian, as we had our day of holi on Friday.

A 3-3 record for the affiliates last night and yesterday afternoon. Why isn't it "last afternoon"?

The surprise team of the season is threatening to run away and hide.

I know, it's not really fair -- Rob went and put together that awfully nice effort of an All-Canada Day team by using the names of the delegates at the Québec Conference of 1864, and thusly found himself stuck with source names like Chapais, Tache and Haviland -- not exactly the kinds of names you find littered throughout major league baseball history.

So it's not really a fair fight against a July 4th U.S. Independence Day squad where we find signers of the Declaration of Independence named Morris, Johnson, Clark, Lee and Williams. One suspects the American July holiday team may be a bit deeper than those "Canada Day Trippers" Rob came up with.

But before we skip to the inevitable shellacking, let's find out for sure ...

Roy Halladay and Shea Hillenbrand will represent the Blue Jays at the All Star game next week.