JAYS-RED SOX: GREGGGGGGGG, ZAUN'S GONE

Wednesday -- Jays 10, Red Sox 3: Salvatore Frank Fasano -- it just seems cooler to use his full name -- and Jason Phillips should help the Jays get through the end of the month while Gregg Zaun is on the DL with his his injured hand, if not much else.

Zaun landing on the disabled list is a total downer, of course,. One would like to be all Peter Pan about it and believe Phillips will carry on in the proud legacy of good-hitting, glasses-wearing catchers started by 1970s-80s vintage players such as Darrell Porter and Brian Downing, but it probably isn't happening. He hit well in 2003 when he was an above league-average hitter in 450-plus plate appearances with the Mets, but that was a while ago. Prove the geeks wrong, Jason.

It was pretty straightforward win for the Jays. Roy Halladay (now 3-0) actually remembered you don't have to get every batter to hit a grounder to second base, striking out 10 across eight innings. Meantime, Vernon Wells hit the ball all over the tiny ballpark while the Red Sox threw it all over the place (four errors), causing the largest Fenway crowd since World War II turn the same colour of the Monster. (A lot of the Fenway flock have greenish complexions after a game, but usually that's from drinking too much of that piss-warm Yank "beer," quote-unquote.)

Would you believe that the Jays will be the 17th different team, minor- or major-league, that Salvatore Frank Fasano has played for dating back to 2001? Hope he paid attention in geography class.

By the way, major accolades to The Tao of Stieb for being name-checked in a Mike Freeman column at CBS Sportsline, even if he might have done so in order to take a cheap run at Deadspin.

Tuesday -- Jays 7, Red Sox 3: It's tough being Frank Thomas -- he finally busts out with a go-ahead home run and he's still one dinger on the year behind teammate Aaron Hill, who's six inches shorter and 80 pounds lighter.

Anyway, it seems best not to analyze a Tomo Ohka win to death. The Jays were due and so was Boston, who'd won five straight, the inverse of Toronto's five-game skid. Trends don't last -- a good reason for feeling confident was that the Jays couldn't keep going this terribly and that Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who came in with a 1.35 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and .167 opponents' batting average, was bound to regress to his mean performance. The knuckler can only dodge, duck, dip, dive and.. dodge only so well for so long.

By the way, do official scorers carry a "F-8" stamp for Alex Rios? They should. It would cut down on their chances of developing carpal tunnel.

(UPDATE: No B.J. Ryan till at least July. We saw. Focus on who's here.)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.