To be completely honest, the last few years, I had been slacking off at seeing Jays games—maybe one per season if I was lucky. This year, however, rising gas prices included, I've already seen two—a Sunday afternoon against the White Sox, and a Saturday game against the Cubs.

In both instances, I wanted to reintroduce a variance on the running diary that I developed (or at least I think I did) last season when I saw A.J. Burnett produce one of his gutsiest performances as a Blue Jay—the inning-by-inning breakdown, along with pre and postgame thoughts.

It turned out that last night was the perfect game to start it, too, as the Jays did something that they haven't done all season, and unlike the two previous games, the crowd was pretty solid.

Pregame Thoughts

-As we drove through Brantford, we stopped at a Subway. Instead of poking fun at Jared or the ridiculous monkey commercials, Trevor and I ended up discussing whether or not Nuke LaLoosh would have blown out his arm over his major-league career and would have needed to be converted to a closer.

Trevor says no, as his mindset for the job would have been terrible, and he's better suited as a long reliever. I say yes, because he's got a few of the assets a good closer needs—he can bring the heat, he's a little wild so he can make the game interesting, and he's a nut job—needless to say, even if he became a closer, I think his inability to comprehend the role (which, I'm hoping he wouldn't) helps him immensely.

-Does anyone remember Lance Painter?

-Vernon Wells' performance this week will determine whether I keep him or try and deal him in my fantasy league. He's had one solid game in the past month really, so I'm interested to see if he can turn it around and have a solid second-half.

-The fact that we make Jesse Carlsson carry the Dora the Explorer backpack pregame is disgraceful. The fact that Carlsson looks like he doesn't quite know what's going on is hilarious. The fact that I've already finished my cheese fries makes me nervous about tomorrow morning.

Top First

After Alyson Stoner threw out the first (or second) first pitch, we found out the she's just as tall as David Eckstein—and she's fourteen. Following that up was an Aubrey Huff solo home run.

I feel reassured—too bad it takes a career to be able to afford getting drunk at a ball game.

Bottom First

Another item to add to the Cool Things That Could Have Happened if We Had Kept Reed Johnson list: with the injury to Aaron Hill, our leadoff hitter (Inglett) and our No. 2 guy (Johnson—or whatever order they would have come up) would have both been wearing knee-highs.

This is almost as cool as the time the color commentator for a Red Sox game a few years ago pointed out that half of the Sox infield wore knee highs, and no, this is not irrelevant.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?