CALL REUTERS: JAYS ACTUALLY WIN

Well, that was a load off: A.J. Burnett pitched reasonably well, the Blue Jays put up a four-run fourth inning and beat Chicago 7-3 to snap that seven-game losing streak, the clubs longest in lord-knows-when.

So how about that 90-win gauntlet that was thrown down here about a week ago? To get to 90 wins, the Jays would have to play .627 ball the rest of the way (32 wins, 19 losses), and that seems a little high. Cool Standings has them pegged for an 83-79 final record, which basically means they're going to limp home playing .500 ball these last eight weeks of the season.

Sounds about right, to be honest, unless Burnett and Roy Halladay win 17 or 18 of the remaining 21 or 22 starts they have between them.

Another Jays hypothesis: If this team is ever going to win the AL East again, the only way it happens is if they pull a Detroit and just flatten everybody in the first four months of the season, get a 10-game lead over the Evil Empires. Just a thought.

Outlook for the Baltimore series: The Jays should sweep the crappy Baltimore Orioles, just to make a statement: Theodore Lilly throws this afternoon against Russ Ortiz (0-7 with a 9.23 ERA, so he's due). Tuesday's it's Shaun Marcum vs. Daniel Cabrera in what seems like a pitching matchup from a Syracuse-Ottawa game (famous last words: Cabrera shut out the Jays earlier this year) and Wednesday it's Doc against the immortal Bruce Chen. Since very little ever goes exactly as it should with this team, they probably win the first two and then find a way to lose on the night Halladay starts.

OTHER BUSINESS

• Judging by this article, if Sacha Baron Cohen gets his Borat movie into the theatres without being sued or shot, then he is truly is a comic genius.
• Everything I Needed to Know About Journalism, I Learned from Jayson Blair. Read it. And if you're in journalism, or trying to get into it, weep. (Thanks to Greg for the link.)
• Strange how the NFL, the league that wraps itself in the American flag and is the pro sport most aligned with the establishment, might abandon New Orleans. The NBA, which family values types love to slag as a collection of loose-jointed pot smokers, is getting more international every year, but it expressly wants to stay in New Orleans: David Stern is insisting that the Hornets will be back permanently by the 2007-08 season. Actually, considering how New Orleans was and has been abandoned by the powers-that-be, it's not surprising at all.
• That said, Oklahoma City and Omaha are big enough to support the NBA or NHL. Just don't take Seattle's hoops team.
• Hometown Breakdown note: Nate Doornekamp, a grad of Ernestown Secondary School in Odessa, Ont., shared the team scoring lead with 16 points in Canada's final game of the summer, an 87-72 loss to Slovenia on Sunday.