No lead is safe! This was one of those losses I can live with, after a bad start there were a lot of positives for the fighting Jays. Great performance from the bullpen, good comeback by the offence who had chances to take a lead - there were runners at the corners when Hinske came up with two outs in the seventh.

Thanks to an idea from Bauxite Anders in yesterday's The Youngs and the Rest List Hall of Names feature, here's quick stab at a rarity -- a followup sidebar, for which we have rejected the names "Junior League" and "Junior Circuit" though the promising '70s pop culture reference available in a team called the "Junior Samples" sure was tempting.

Anyway, here we go ...

Or as Spencer Fordin puts it:

Towers tries to rise above Texas
Toronto (8-4) at Texas (5-7), 2:05 p.m. ET

It went bang - I said rap up.
Well I'm aware that the guy must do his work
But the piledriver man drove me berserk.

The farm affiliates got three good starting performances from control pitchers, and a few rallies, and emerged with a 2-2 record on the day.

Sunday's ballgame between the Rangers and Blue Jays pits Team Canada against a very young squad -- in several ways. First, Texas does play quite a few chronologically-deprived players; but more to the point, they have an All-Star quality shortstop in former Jay farmhand Michael Young, and Sunday's starting pitcher is the former Princeton hoopster Chris Young, a 6'10" 25-year-old righty.

Baseball management types are always talking about a "youth movement" and playing "the young guys" but here the Rangers seem to actually be doing it. If only they hadn't let go of versatile veteran utilityman Eric Young, lost to the Padres, in the recent offseason.

Actually, 35 men named "Young" -- including a certain Cyclone you may have heard about -- have donned major league duds, and we could probably struggle along and build a whole Hall of Names team out of that list, but in the spirit of our youth -- er, at least Young -- movement, we'll think outside the box here inside Da Box and get creative ...

Yeah, I know, everyone seems to be calling him Morpheus (in Oakland, they called him "The Fly") - but Liam is an even bigger Tragically Hip fan than myself and Gus the Polar Bear was his idea, and I'm sticking with it. It's blood, you know.

It was almost a clean sweep for the Jays’ farm teams last night, and had the Fisher Cats managed a little more extra-inning offence, so might it have been. But there were plenty of good stories emerging from last night’s action, including strong comeback performances from one prospect in Dunedin and two star-crossed big-name trade acquisitions in Syracuse.

Not a compelling game. When the other pitcher is completely on his game, it's seldom a lot of fun. If the other pitcher is someone like Johan Santana or Pedro Martinez, it can at least be extremely impressive. But Ryan Drese is nothing like that. It's a little boring watching him beat you.

This is fun. Ted Lilly takes the hill to face the Rangers' Ryan Drese at 8:05 p.m.

Here is some Texas trivia. In the Rangers' first three seasons in the Metroplex, 1972-4, they opened the seasons respectively with Ted Williams, Whitey Herzog and Billy Martin as managers.

Our week of daily photographs comes to an end, but I'll be putting up a new picture every day at lunchtime again next week, starting on Monday.

In honor of Roy Halladay's magnificent performance yesterday, here's Doc on April 9th at the Rogers Centre:

Taking a cue for the organization’s ace, the Toronto farm featured impressive starting pitching at every level in winning 3 of 4 contests.

Another Exhibit for Murphy's Law. My Game Reports focus on the Jay bullpen, and Roy Halladay throws a complete game gem. But, hey, I'll take the win over a good story any day.

Part Three: Reading, Writing & Sabermetrics

See also:

1. Part One: Paper Blue Jay
2. Part Two: Inside the Clubhouse

And now, some parting shots from Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Tom Verducci, who flew down Blue Jay Way in Spring Training.

Off to Texas after a series win over the A's, the Jays and Roy Halladay face the Rangers and Pedro Astacio. This game is on TSN at 8:05pm, which is good, because I don't get TSN and I really need to study.