Jesse Litsch

The Blue Jays have announced Friday that starting pitcher Jesse Litsch will miss the remainder of the season with labral tear in his right hip. Litsch will undergo the surgery next month and be lost to the team for four to six months.

The 25-year-old Litsch was 1-5 with a 5.79 ERA in nine starts. The last two years have been pretty injury filled seasons for Litsch who also underwent Tommy John Surgery and was trying to return from that injury.

A.J. Burnett sure wasn't happy to play his old team tonight. The Blue Jays bats ran rampant over the fireballer, knocking him out in the fifth inning after notching seven runs against him. The Blue Jays hit six doubles in the sixth, two of them by Travis Snider.  After the seven-run inning by the Jays that put them up 8-2, New York would come back to score runs in the bottom of the fifth, sixth and ninth. The Bluebirds would hang on though to win the heavy-hitting contest, 8-6.

Correction: The Prodigal Son does not return.  You can thank the G20 Summit and the infinite wisdom of Rogers Media (owners of the Toronto Blue Jays) for that.

So, instead of a bittersweet moment that would have, could have, had some legitimate intrigue and injected greater interest into a jaded fan base, we get a downtown core that looks like 1942 Berlin.

This is an issue that's been beat to death already, so I won't add to the cacophony of discontent in this piece.  In the end, it would only be white noise anyways.

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As a former bat boy for the Tampa Bay Rays, baseball has been a lifelong goal for Jesse Litsch.

Originally drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 37th round of the 2003 Amateur Draft, you can say that Litsch fell into the Toronto Blue Jays' lap.

Not signing with the Rockies was probably the best thing for this former South Florida Community College Panther.

Before I turned out the necessary Roy Halladay article (by necessary I mean that writing anything else before dealing with that would have been near sacrilege), I was working on another angle.

I was writing about a player who needs more things written about him before we forget.

His name is Jesse Litsch.

I was watching during his first start against the Baltimore Orioles. The big story was his father sitting in the stands; and he won the game for the Jays in convincing fashion, pitching the most innings ever by a Blue Jays first-time starter.

I guess the off day, and coming home after a nine game losing streak was exactly what the Jays needed. A sweep would have been nice, but considering the circumstances, taking two of three from the Boston Red Sox and pulling within a game of them is pretty good.

There is another much needed off-day today, so our series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim starts tomorrow at the Rogers Center. Here are the pitching match-up previews.

Roy Halladay (8-1, 2.63 ERA) vs. Joe Saunders (6-3, 3.26 ERA)

Advantage: Jays

Even the most optimistic Blue Jay fan couldn't have predicted just how well the boys in blue would start off this season.

After the first month they had a record of 17-9 and stood atop of the American League East, a sport hard to come by in a division that includes the Red Sox and the Yankees. That record has now improved to 20-11 after splitting a pair of games against the Angels of Anaheim.

Is this the year the Blue Jays can finally win enough games to enter post-season play? The way the first few games have gone, it sure seems like it's possible.

Last season, pitching was their strong point, and the batters let the team down. However, this year it's almost reversed, as the rotation's success relies on young arms, and no matter what trouble they get into, the bats get them out of it.