Flush from their confidence-boosting sweep of Tampa Bay, the Jays cruise into the Bronx to take on the struggling Yankees.

Of course, the Yankees remain a dangerous club with a ferocious lineup and two tough starting pitchers sandwiched around a Taiwanese rookie making his big-league debut. Can the Jays put the ball in play and pressure the Bombers' suspect defence?

This week's Scout features a scuffling Godzilla, a surging superstar and some trade talk in the bullpen. It's a critical sink-or-swim weekend for the 12-11 Jays.

On to the Advance Scout!

Sometimes I like to show my age.

The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast
The slow one now will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

Look who's on top in the NL West.

In honor of what I'm hoping will be a terrific matchup tonight between Roy Halladay and the man who makes my baby cry, today's photograph is of the Doctor giving some poor batter the glare:

Chiefs and D'Jays waxed, Dayton hands win to Lansing. Janssen's unlucky thirteenth.

That's more like it. Yesterday's game brought a win, and interesting developments in the bullpen. But, first off, let us praise Josh Towers, who hung in yesterday for the win after a tough first inning.

Back in 1993, the New York Yankees ended a very un-Bronx-like skein of four straight losing seasons to burst back onto the scene of baseball's winning franchises with an 88-74 mark, good for second place just seven games behind the eventual World Champion Blue Jays.

It had also been 12 years since a playoff appearance for the pinstriped crew, but that year the torch was passed from Toronto and after a cruising to a division-best 70-43 mark in the strike-shortened 1994 season, the Yanks have been in the playoffs each season since, capturing six pennants and four titles.

Corey Koskie had a much better night at the plate yesterday than he's had in a little while; in honor of that, and to hopefully let some of that Picture of the Day mojo keep him hot (and if you don't believe that it works, our most recent Photos of the Day have been Chacin, Brantley and Rios), here's Mister Wheat, the Kid from Anola, Corey Koskie:

A lunchtime treat for us, today, as the Jays and Rays face off before hopping onto planes and jetting out of town. No home team TV coverage, but you can tune in the Fan on the radio and let Jerry tell you all about it.

Josh Towers vs. Doug Waechter, first pitch at 12:37.

Sorry for the delay; NFH's game report just arrived at Batter's Box HQ via FedEx, in a torn manilla envelope:

Only one game was played last night. That game was on Internet radio. The fact that it was a Dunedin game makes the previous sentence a Fort Myers Miracle.

The second game of the series is tonight. Chacin faces Kazmir for the second time this season.

According to this press release the Blue Jays have given manager John Gibbons a two year contract extension.

Consequently, I’ve a tendency to be unhappy
You see the thoughts in my head
All the words that were said
All the blues and the reds get to me

When I visited the Fisher Cats in Binghamton recently I had a chance to talk with Canadian pitcher Vince Perkins, as well as some of the other pitchers.

From Bauxite Kevin Pataky, we have another great pinch-hit Photo of the Day. Says Kevin:

"We went to the Jays Welcome Home Luncheon on Friday. I got some good pictures of the guys in there too. My favorite is of Gus Chacin holding up his fist with his EL Championship ring on. When I commented on the ring's size, he took it off and flipped it to me. Upon review, the thing looks like a Super Bowl Ring. The top is all encrusted in diamonds wrapped around a Fisher Cat head. His Name and number were carved on the side. It was really well done."