Jays - Rangers: Hey! Here's Another Weak Team for the Jays to Beat Up On!

(By way of introduction, allow us to say that we at the Tao of Stieb couldn't be happier that Neate has allowed us to housesit at his blog for a few weeks. We promise to keep the place clean. And we'll wait the requisite six hours before we start inviting friends over for a kegger.)

Sunday - Jays 4, Rangers 1: Another fine pitching performance by Dustin McGowan, and the Jays find themselves five out of the Wild Card. We're cautious not to break out the party hats just yet, especially with the Yankees coming to town, starting this afternoon.

Also of note, Matt Stairs goes three for three in his 1,500th game, becoming only the third Canadian to reach that milestone (after Terry Puhl and Larry Walker). It has been a remarkable career for the pride of Tay Creek, N.B., who looked to be out of options in the Majors until he escaped the Expos system for a season in Japan in 1994.

Saturday - Jays 9, Rangers 5: Maybe sitting through those games in Tampa stirred something in Frank Thomas, who with two homers and four RsBI today, has so far driven in six runs in this series. Johnny Mac added three RsBI his own self, and is making the case that the Jays should retain him, at least as a super-utility guy.

We're complete ecstatic about this win, but we'd still like to see some production on the road for the rest of the season.

Is this sadly weird, or weirdly sad? Howie Clark got the DFA routine on Friday to make room for Hector Luna. Luna's never struck us as much more than a National League bench guy, but he is versatile, and may be worth the flyer. Still, we're hoping that Clark slips through waivers and sticks in the Jays' system.

Friday - Jays 6, Rangers 4: We zipped through the game on the PVR after getting back from the Syracuse-Lynx game, but it didn't seem to us that Halladay had his best stuff. However, we're not going to look a gift horse like this in the mouth, especially with Frank Thomas and Vernon Wells driving in runs. And, for all of our angst in the past week, the win brings the Jays back to .500...although time's a-wasting.

Of course, as it happens, the first weekend that we take over the Blue Jays beat at OOLF, we're going to spend more time focussed on Lynx Stadium, because a) the Chiefs are in town, and b) we really can't stomach another let down of a series like the last two.

We've been at Lynx Stadium taking in the best of the next-gen Jays, as Syracuse is in town. We don't want to steal Carl's thunder, but suffice to say that we're enjoying seeing both Robinson Diaz and Sergio Santos, who look like the real deal.

Finally, please feel free to come visit us where we live, and catch up with all the monkeyshines that the Tao can offer.