Three teams are bunched within a game of first place in the Alomar division. My own Toronto Walrus, by virtue of a hard-fought 7-4 decision over the Springfield Isotopes, holds down top spot for another week; we're content to be playing .722 ball so far. AGF made up a lot of ground with a 9-1 thumping of Baird Brain, and the Horse Field Hammers continued their great start. Last year's cellar-dwellers defeated Garces_not_on_roids 7-5; Geoff has a lot more support for Barry Bonds in his lineup that the Giants do. Big move of the week was the Eastern Shore Birds, who swatted Red Mosquitos 10-1 to vault into a sixth-place tie.

And you’re kicking
And you’re shouting at me
And I’m relying on your common decency

The Jays take their suddenly hot bats to the Metrodome to face the Twins who currently have the best record in the AL. Ted Lilly goes up against Brad Radke in tonight's pitching matchup.

For the second straight series, the Jays hit the road for a series with a division leader. And if the Jays keep on hitting, they can once again bump their opponent out of first place by earning a series win on the road.

The 12-6 Twins have not been meaningfully slowed by their well-documented slew of injuries. Surprising contributions from Lew Ford and Henry Blanco -- yes, that Henry Blanco -- have offset the potential offence lost when the Twinkies' opening series landed Torii Hunter and Joe Mauer on the injured list. And though the Twins haven't gotten nearly the performances they had hoped for from their three starters on the docket this week, their excellent bullpen has held down leads and kept Minnesota in games that the club's bats have subsequently won in the late innings.

The key for the Jays will be to strike early and get to the starting staff; hopefully, the Jays saved some of their overflowing offence from yesterday. The Jays do not want to face a comeback attempt against the tough trio of Rincon, Romero and Nathan.

On to the Advance Scout!

I don't know about the rest of you, but the minor league updates have become the feature I look most forward to when I come to the Box first thing in the morning. It's fun to see which players have performed well the night before. Unfortunately, other than the 3 star stats, I have trouble keeping track of who is hitting and who isn't. So I collected some batting stats from the minor leagues. These are pretty much as raw as you can get: unadjusted by league difficulty, position difficulty, park effects, phases of the moon, etc. Plus there's the whole sample size thing. So don't take any of these seriously, it's just for fun:

The Jays send their ace to the mound seeking their first series win of the season. The Orioles counter with their own number one. Ponson has had three very good starts this year, only his April 15th outing against the Red Sox (7 ER in 4 innings) marrs his record. For his part HLH has been equally impressive since his opening day struggles, giving up just six runs in his last 22 inings of work.

The Jays made a couple of roster moves yesterday, sending struggling reliever Aquilino Lopez to AAA Syracuse and designating former fifth starter Josh Towers for assignment. To replace the two righties, the Jays called up a pair of righties: Michael Nakamura who the Jays picked up on waivers from the Twins on April 4th, and Justin Miller who went 9-5 with a 5.54ERA for the 2002 Jays.

The Jays outlasted the Orioles yesterday winning 5-4 in 12 innings. Toronto goes for the series win, 3 out of 4, and the season's first winning streak today with Doc on the mound.

Despite a rare losing day (1-3) for the Jays' minor league system, four Canadians (Pond, Logan, Perkins, and Galloway) had an opportunity to shine. Add to the mix Montrealer Max St Pierre, an opponent, and there was a nice Canadian thread weaving itself through yesterday's action.

Two blown leads in the upper minors, two shutouts in the lower minors, and two home runs by Guillermo Quiroz.

Erik Bedard will make his second major league start, this one against the team from his home province.

The Jays have still not had a winning streak this year, as they lost 11-3 to the Orioles on Friday Night.

Charleston were the only minor league team to win last night and they now have the best record in baseball. The Jays are considering a new method for calling up players from Syracuse. Chad Hermanson was called up after hitting .350 at Syracuse and went o-fer the major leagues. Howie Clark was hitting a buck eighty at Syracuse and had four hits last night.

And when I’m lost you’ll be my guide
I just turn around and you’re by my side

Josh Towers faces Eric Dubose (damn those lefties) tonight in Baltimore. If the Jays take two out of three this weekend, they'll have started the season 2-4 v Detroit, 2-4 v Boston and 2-4 v Baltimore. Only the first of those can be viewed as very disappointing.