The Jays top two relievers coughed up the lead last night, not Janssen and Accardo but Daryl Harang and Seth Overbey, both of whom lost their zero ERA's.  Syracuse had a nice "come back from the dead" win as Russ Adams had four hits and Lansing had an easy win as Yuber Rodriguez stayed red-hot.

It was a bleak Friday on the farm. Every affiliate lost and collectively they were outscored 39-17. There were few noteworthy performances and it was a night best forgotten, especially for a couple of Toronto starters.

It's a pitchers week. The farm affiliates split four games on Thursday

The Lugnuts provided the power display on the farm, as the affiliates went 1-2 on the evening.

AJ Wideman had the best performance of the night as the affiliates went 1-3.

A superb pitching performance in Manchester, a huge comeback in the Sunshine State, and an extra innings thriller in Illinois gave the affiliates a 3-1 record last night.  It could've been a perfect night but a 9th inning rally in Central New York fell a run short.  A doubleheader in two different towns may have played a role.

Ty Taubenheim, David Purcey and Ryan Houston each were hit hard on Sunday.  Kyle Ginley pitched well but only for four innings.  Lansing were the sole victors Sunday even though they only had three hits in the game, Matt Lane had the key hit to drive in two runs, and that's all they needed.

Three wins, one loss and a suspended game Saturday as New Hampshire split a double-header, Syracuse and Lansing won and Dunedin were leading when the power went out.  The Chiefs won in the bottom of the ninth on a Howie Clark single, Travis Snider hit a home run and had four RBI's, and Victor Zambrano took a walk on the wild side.

Nathan Starner threw five hitless innings as four Lansing pitchers combined for a one hitter.  Syracuse rode the hot hitting of Curtis Thigpen, Rey Olmedo and Howie Clark to victory while Dunedin threw their game away.  New Hampshire were all wet and will play one and a half today.

The sweeps are over as Syracuse and New Hampshire win.  Another pitcher gets injured, Ismael Ramirez pulled a groin muscle.  Curtis Thigpen had four hits, David Smith had three.  Mike Green is away today so the regular prospect watch will wait until next week.

Another whitewash of the affiliates. Syracuse batted around in the first inning but didn't have a baserunner after the fourth inning. New Hampshire received five straight walks in the ninth inning but it was too little too late. Michael MacDonald and Brandon Magee had ground ball to fly ball ratio's of 16-1 and 17-3 respectively. Syracuse and Dunedin could not get timely hitting that would have turned their losses into wins.

A 2 out of 3 night for the affliates, as Tomo Ohka was not the only Japanese import in the system to help his team emerge victorious.  

On a personal note, I think this week's headline is a nice bounce back effort from last week's debacle, which I apologize for.  I was pressing last week but now I'm back on the beam and I'm ready to carry on the momentum for the rest of the season and finish up strong.

With all the injuries on the major league team the Jays have had to bring in new players to fill the gaps in the minors.  Three of them played Sunday, Andrew Good started for Syracuse, Mike Venafro pitched in relief.  Howie Clark played for New Hampshire.   Syracuse blew a lead but won in extra innings with a home run, New Hampshire and Lansing lost.

The affiliates only won one game but there were some encouraging pitching performances.  Ismael Ramirez only allowed one earned run in seven innings for Syracuse.  Russell Savickas made his AA debut and gave up two runs in six innings.  Kristian Bell made his first start of 2007 and pitched five shutout innings and Nate Starner had one bad inning but struck out eleven in six innings.  Curtis Thigpen played second base and made an error.

With nothing going right for the parent club, some Jays fans hoped maybe the minor leagues would bring some good news. If that’s the case, it’s not going to happen today, as two blowouts and one extra-inning loss means only one win on the farm. We’ll take a look at what happened, as some pitchers continued to struggle, some batters continued to hit and the low minors continued to make errors. However, nobody got hurt, and that's what's important. Seriously.