Man, what a great day for baseball.  A comfortable 24 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) with a slight breeze and hardly a cloud in the sky.  Couple brews, a hot dog and the Jays–perfect combination.  Only problem was that the Jays didn’t show up to play today, despite the bobblehead giveaway that put over 35-thousand butts in the seats for this contest against the AL-West-leading Texas Rangers.  Toronto gave up 11 runs on 19 hits while only generating three base-runners of their own (on the less-than-sombre side, two of them came in to score).  I think this picture says it all…

No, that’s not an ink blot test, but rather the Rangers’ scorecard from today’s game.

Of course, it’s hard to hit when you’re missing the likes of Lawrie, Arrencibia and Bautista from the lineup.  Yunel Escobar, he of the 7 home runs and 38 RBI, was batting fourth, while the bench was so thin that backup catcher Jeff Mathis, sporting a .219 average on the season, served as the DH today.  Defensively, I got to see almost all of the Jays trade-deadline acquisitions in action as Toronto used four relievers after Henderson Alvarez game up eight runs in 4.1 innings.  Suffice to say that if it wasn’t such a beautiful day, I wouldn’t have stuck around.  On my way home, I met someone who left during the fourth inning…

Of course, I kinda knew what I was getting into when I bought the ticket.  The Rangers have won 14 more games than Toronto this season, and look like they could make it to another World Series.  I was not really expecting a close, competitive contest from a buncha AAA farmhands, but hey, more than two hits for the home team would’ve been nice.  But on the plus side, my fantasy baseball team now has a new mascot.  Unfortunately, I had to change the team name to “Romero’s Worst Year!” due to the way he’s been pitching of late.  Oh well, there’s always next season, right?