The first place Tampa Bay Rays and the closer to last place than third place Toronto Blue Jays continue their pivotal yet meaningless series at the Rogers Centre tonight. The Jays come in on a hot streak, having defeated two of the worst teams in the American League in 6 of their last 9 games. Jays fans remain confident that their team can continue to climb the standings, in spite of the sheer quantity (not to mention the quality) of teams above them.
Jays GM JP Riccardi has been quoted in recent days saying the team will not trade AJ Burnett, and was unlikely to make any moves at all. He even trotted out Swirsk the Monkey to repeat his "we like our team line" until every last journalist had tuned him out. Despite having functional veterans such as David Eckstein, Gregg Zaun wasting away on the bench and non-functional veterans like Kevin Mench playing odd days, the GM insists that this is his team. One he's confident will continue to sell tickets well into September.
