Toronto

With the Blue Jays signing pitcher Ricky Romero yesterday to a five-year, $30.1 million contract, they locked up a very important part of their rotation.

Romero, who is still only 25, has been very strong for the Jays this season, only his second in the major leagues.

His inexperience at the big league level does create a bit of risk in this deal. But considering his willingness to compete and his improving emotional and physical control, he could well be the Jays' future ace locked up in a reasonable contract.

On Wednesday afternoon against the New York Yankees, starting catcher John Buck injured his thumb and was placed on the disabled list after the game. There's no definite timetable for his return, but he won't be back until Aug. 19 at the earliest. Injuries are never anything to get excited about, but sometimes the player movement that stems from one can cause some excitement.

Tonight, the Toronto Blue Jays will begin a three-game series at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia against the Phillies. However, this is no ordinary home series for the Phillies.

Instead, this series was supposed to be played in Toronto but had to be moved to Philly due to security reasons that arose from the G20 Summit being held in Toronto this weekend.

The Yankees were happy to leave Toronto after their first visit with the Blue Jays over the weekend.

This series provided a lot to think about in regards to what the Yankees are dealing with regarding strengths and issues.

Losing the first two games was making the Yankees look like has-beens. Thanks to Javier Vazquez’s impressive performance the Yankees avoided getting swept on Sunday.

Watching Saturday’s 14 innings proved that the Yankee pitching is pretty sturdy and continued to add more worries about the Yankee bats.

Aaron Hill has been back playing every day for the Blue Jays for slightly over a month now. He landed on the disabled list from April 8 to 23 when he injured his right hamstring. Since returning the results have not been encouraging, especially coming off a career year in 2009. When a player has a career year in his thirties, that's one thing, but when a player has one at age 27 like Hill did, you'd hope he could replicate it for a few more seasons.

Brett Cecil has been making the most of his second stint, in as many seasons, in the Blue Jays rotation. He goes into tonight's start against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim fresh off a solid outing on May 19th against the Seattle Mariners. In that start he went 6 1/3 innings allowing two runs, earned, on seven hits. He walked just one batter for the third time in his six starts and struckout four. There was little margin for error in that start either as the Jays would hold on to win, 3-2.

Bottom of the ninth and two outs. There was a runner on first and a ghost runner on third, and Moose, the neighborhood meathead and opposing team's best hitter, was at the plate.

Filthy, drenched in sweat, and a tightly wound bundle of nerves, I stood on the mound (which was actually just a chalk line drawn on the ground)—the loneliest kid on earth.

As this season warms up, the Blue Jays are slowly succumbing to the heat. That, temperature puns aside, was pretty much how this season was supposed to play out.

Low attendance numbers suggest that everyone and their pessimistic mothers knew that the Jays wouldn't compete (you bunch of know-it-alls).

Roy Halladay is weaving together his masterpieces in the City of Brotherly Love, and  Cito Gaston agreed to run the team only as an acknowledged placeholder. People are taking their cues from the attitude this team gives off.

The Toronto Blue Jays began their 2010 season on a high note, starting 5-1 before coming back to the Rogers Centre for their home opener against the White Sox.