Scott Carson

Stats man Scott Carson is now in his 18th season as "third man in the booth" during Blue Jays telecasts.

The struggles continue for Aaron Hill.

Toronto's offence continued to be all or nothing with a forgettable series in Philadelphia.

First of all, after watching all the nonsense going on in the normally peaceful city of Toronto on the weekend, it's just as well that we all checked out and spent the time in Philadelphia. Normally, I would give strong comment on the cowardly destruction but this is not the time or forum for that.

But the Blue Jays performance “at home” on the road was equally forgettable. It all started on Friday night against their former ace Roy Halladay, now entrenched as a larger than life figure in the hearts and minds of the rabid Philadelphia sports fans. All you had to witness when walking into work at Citizens Bank Ballpark was the seemingly hundreds of Phillies fans wearing jerseys and t-shirts bearing Doc's name and No. 34 to see how beloved he has quickly become. I guess that's what happens when a pitcher of Halladay's reputation and standing arrives to much fanfare, traded for three top prospects and then signed to a three-year, $60-million extension. Then, to top the whole thing off, he pitches just the 20th perfect game in major league history in just his 11th start after trading in his Blue Jays' blue for Phillies' red.

One would have thought that the Jays would have been hyped to face their former teammate. That never materialized, despite the fact that Halladay didn't exactly bring his 'A' game. The look on Cito Gaston's face late in the 9-0 loss spoke volumes as his team failed to put up a fight. Sure they bounced back on Saturday to blast (what else is new?) three home runs to even the series, but they embarrassed themselves again on Sunday, kicking the ball around to the tune of four errors. That didn't help the fact that Brett Cecil couldn't keep the ball down against the defending National League champions. Once again, manager Gaston looked pretty chapped as his charges slept-walked through an 11-2 loss to end out the Interleague portion of the 2010 schedule at 7-11.

Over and above the Blue Jays’ disappointing play this weekend was watching their top two hitters from a year ago -- Adam Lind and Aaron Hill -- continue their extended slumps. If it were only a couple of weeks or even a month, one would think they could break out of it. But this is now 76 games in, five short of the statistical mid-point of the season and both are hitting .203 and .192 respectively. A year ago, those numbers were .310 and .304. No wonder the Blue Jays’ current .239 team average is 28th in the majors and last in the American League.

But it's really not fair to lay the Blue Jays’ offensive woes this season at the feet of just two hitters. In fact, when comparing the entire team against the A.L. average (.262), then the Blue Jays have eight hitters currently below the league mid-point.

It really doesn't matter that the team leads the world in home runs; it's just not good enough, especially against the upper echelon teams.

Coming unglued in St. Pete

Maybe it's the powder blue jerseys, the fact that they went 7-11 in Interleague play or that since we last saw them, following a 10-4 win over the Blue Jays on June 9th to raise their record to 39-20, the Tampa Bay Rays -- thought by many to be the best team in baseball -- have gone in the tank. By losing 11 of their last 16 games, the Rays saw their two-game lead in the A.L. East in the second week of this month turn into a three-game deficit and a fall to third place in the division. Then on Sunday, things came to a boil when Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton had to be separated by teammates and coaches after Upton loafed going after a ball in the gap. Based upon the way that manager Joe Maddon has no time for lollygaggers, which led to Delmon Young being traded out of town after the 2007 season, I think that the clock has started ticking on “Bossman Junior's” career on Florida's soon-to-be oily left coast.

Injury bug bites deep in Beantown

Don't expect members of Red Sox Nation to be making vacation plans in San Francisco anytime soon. In the span of three days, their playoff chances may have taken a mortal blow, regardless of how many home runs a rejuvenated David Ortiz hits. First on Friday, 2008 A.L. MVP Dustin Pedroia, and a key component of the Red Sox offence, fouls a ball off his left foot, leaves the game to have x-rays reveal it’s broken. Pedroia will likely miss six weeks, getting him back into the line-up around the second week in August. On Saturday, 10-game winner Clay Buchholz picks up his first major league hit and then hyper-extends his left knee running the bases. It's not known how many starts he will miss. Then on Sunday, in their final Interleague contest of 2010, catcher Victor Martinez breaks the tip of his throwing thumb on a foul ball that went down off his foot. He will be re-examined on Monday after the team returns home. The depth of the Red Sox organization, long believed to be one of the deepest over that past few seasons, will really be tested now.

Enough with the apologies

Do the umps have something against the Detroit Tigers? First it's Jim Joyce with the ultimate faux pas, blowing a 27th out call to cost Armando Galarraga a perfect game. Then on Saturday, Gary Cederstrom calls a game-ending third strike on Johnny Damon with a trio of Braves pitchers unable to throw strikes and it quells a Tigers’ ninth inning uprising. Both times, the umps admitted, post haste, that they blew the calls. Factor in the horrible missed calls being made by referees in the World Cup and it's time for all sports to adopt instant replay to get it right. The technology is there; time to start using it, traditionalists be damned.