Interleague play has been a boon for Major League Baseball. Alisson Jersey . For the Blue Jays, not so much. This weekend, battling to get back over the .500 mark, John Gibbons and company kick off a stretch of seven straight games against the National League. They start with three at Pittsburgh against the struggling Pirates and then follow up that series with two at Philadelphia before returning home the next night to kick off a two-game set at Rogers Centre with the Phillies. After salvaging the final game of their three-game set at Kansas City on Thursday night with a 7-3 victory, the Jays sit at 13-15 but thanks largely to the injuries and flaws of the other teams in the AL East, they are still just two-and-a-half games back of the first place Yankees. Still, if the Blue Jays are going to keep it that close, theyve got to start beating the National League clubs with more regularity. Since interleague play came into being in 1997, the Blue Jays have compiled a record of 143-160. The first 16 years, the games were compressed into a small portion of the schedule when school was out in June and early July for the most part. Last season, with Houston moving to the American League, there were 15 teams in each league so there pretty well had to be at least one interleague game each and every day of the season. Last season, the first year under the new format, the Jays actually had a winning record against the National League clubs at 11-9. But overall, the Jays interleague record pales to those of the Yankees and Red Sox. The Yanks are 179-123 over the 17 years heading into this season. Boston is right behind them at 175-128. It isnt just the big boys who have success in interleague play, though. The Angels, who havent won a World Series since 2002, are 174-130 against the senior circuit over that span. The White Sox are 171-132 and even the Minnesota Twins are 165-137. If you average it out over 17 seasons, the Blue Jays have cost themselves about two games per season versus the Yanks and Red Sox in the East by struggling in interleague play. The American League has dominated this annual showdown between the two leagues, having the better record in 13 of the 17 seasons. Oddly enough, though, in the beginning the National League was up four winning seasons to three over the first seven interleague plays. The American League has dominated ever since. Nine American League teams are above .500 in the crossover play to just five National League clubs. The top National League club in interleague play is Atlanta at 148-131, followed by St. Louis at 135-120. Miami has done surprisingly well at 149-141. Luckily for the Blue Jays, the two teams they are playing against over the next seven days havent traditionally done well against the American League. Pittsburgh is the worst at 106-143 and the Phillies are 127-158. The Pirates have really had their troubles this season. After making the playoffs last season for the first time since 1992, the Bucs are 10-18 this time around. They lost one of their top pitchers in A.J Burnett in the offseason as a free agent to the Phillies, while lefty Wandy Rodriguez is recouping from a knee injury. But the Pirates real problem has been cashing in runners. They stranded 28 men in dropping a day/night doubleheader to Baltimore Thursday. On top of that, their number one catcher, Russell Martin of Montreal, is on the disabled list. The Pirates are in a virtual tie for last in the NL Central with the Cubs. The Phillies are only marginally better. They are 13-13, tied with Miami for last in the AL East. Yes the Phillies were stung by the retirement of Roy Halladay in the offseason but like the Pirates, their problem is run production. If you can believe it, their outfielders have only 15 extra base hits and the season is a month old. These are teams the Blue Jays must beat. Anything less than five out of seven will be a failure. One thing to remember about the Phillies is that they won a World Series in 2008; just six years ago. Yet this year, they lost 6,000 season ticket holders and their average attendance drop from a year ago, according to Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer, is 9,129 per game. This, for a team that has known recent success and has a pretty new and fan-friendly ballpark. The inclement weather of April likely plays a major part in the Phillies drop-off, but it just shows fans wont put up with mediocrity forever. I was more than a bit surprised that the team with the second biggest drop-off is Detroit at 5,493 per game. This, for a Tigers team that seems to win the AL Central nearly every year and has been to the World Series, albeit, hasnt won twice in the last eight seasons. You might have missed it but the Dodgers franchise reached a milestone on Wednesday, winning its 10,000th game. The only others to reach that magic figure are the Giants, the Cubs and the Braves. And of those four, the Cubs are the only teams to have played their entire existence in one city. The Dodgers Zack Greinke is putting up some obscure but impressive stats, nonetheless. Hes off to a 5-0 start this season and has made 18 straight starts where he has pitched five innings or more and given up two or fewer runs. That hasnt happened in 100 years -- since 1914. The last time Greinke started a season 6-0, he won the Cy Young Award in 2009 while in the American League. Adam Lind isnt close to returning to the active roster yet. Hes still rehabbing his back. But when he is healthy again, the Blue Jays could face an interesting dilemma if Juan Francisco keeps hitting the way he is. There is no way the Jays can carry Edwin Encarnacion, Lind and Francisco on the same roster. Francisco has one edge over Lind in the versatility department in that he can also play 3rd base in a pinch. Linds not in any kind of jeopardy, but this situation will be interesting to watch. Danilo Jersey . Chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel also accused Pistorius of tailoring his testimony to fit the evidence at the scene. Pistorius denied the accusations. Nel alleged that the Olympic runner changed his aim with his 9 mm pistol to ensure that he hit Steenkamp as she fell back against a magazine rack in a toilet cubicle. Willian Jersey . For Bergevin, the best pick is the 30th — which traditionally goes to the Stanley Cup winner. "Thats our goal. http://www.soccerbrazilonline.com/Cassio-Copa-America-Jersey/ . It was a move of some time in the making. “He hasnt thrown well, clearly some guys are being used more than him right now and the only way to get out of this funk is to pitch,” said general manager Alex Anthopoulos. SOUTHPORT, England -- Mo Martin has a plan for every golf course she plays, and its working at Royal Birkdale. The 31-year-old American is among the shortest hitters in womens golf, so she figured out the widest part of the fairways and keeps hitting them. It has produced 10 birdies in two days, a pair of 3-under 69s, and a three-shot lead going into the weekend at the Ricoh Womens British Open. "Its always nice when your plan pans out," Martin said. "So its fun to be here." Michelle Wies plans did not include her searching for a flight home before the weekend. The U.S. Womens Open champion missed her first cut this year by not making enough birdies to account for too many times she had to scramble for par. She had rounds of 75-78. She still has that shiny trophy from her first major at home, though that was a small consolation. "It does still feel good," she said. "But Im disappointed in myself. I wanted to play well here." Martin was at 6-under 138, three shots ahead of Beatriz Recari (67) and So Yeon Ryu (70), who joined Martin as the only players to break par both days at Birkdale. Martin has never won on the LPGA Tour, and her plans figures to get a serious test over the final two days of a major, especially if the weather gets ugly. Here are five things to look for on the weekend of this LPGA major: MIGHTY MO: The UCLA grad passed her first big test Friday. She was among the last to tee off, when the wind usually is at its strongest. The 18-hole leader, Ayako Uehara, faded badly with a 44 on the back nine for a 79 to slip nine shots out of the lead. Martin produced a steady diet of fairways and greens. She was bogey-free on the front nine with two birdies. After back-to-back bogeys early on the front nine, she atoned with birdies on two par 5s for a 69. "Every hole, you have something to think about. Every single shot, you have something to think about," Martin said. "But theres fairway there, and theres green there, and thats what Im focusing on. ... My caddie and I just figured out where the widest parts of the fairway were, where I would have the best approaches into the greens." WIE AND ARNIE: Michelle Wie learned some history at Royal Birkdale on her waay to missing the cut. Casemiro Brazil Jersey. She was on the cut line when her tee shot on the 16th went right and landed in a blackberry bush. She thought for a second she might get free relief because of a metal plaque in the ground that might impede her swing. But it wasnt in the way by mere inches. She took a penalty drop and wound up making double bogey. Wie was too disgusted to read what the plaque said. It was for Arnold Palmer, who in the 1961 British Open slashed a 6-iron out of that bush and onto the green to make par. He won by one shot to win his first British Open. And that daring move added to the lore of his go-for-broke nature that makes him such an endearing figure in the game. Wie listened to the details of Palmers shot and smiled. "Yeah," she said. "Didnt happen for me." ACCEPTING MISTAKES: So Yeon Ryu, a former U.S. Womens Open champion, ran into trouble on the second hole and took double bogey. She expects a few bad breaks, and some high numbers. The key is to move on, and that she did. Ryu didnt drop a shot the rest of the way and chalked up another solid round that put her in the hunt. "Links golf is always hard to predict," Ryu said. "Even when I hit the great shots, still can finish at the worst place. And when I hit the bad shots, still can finish close to the pin. So its really important, whatever the result, we need to accept it and just keep working. Today, I made a double bogey on the second hole, but I knew it was just unlucky. I just accepted it and then think about next holes, and it helped a lot." BAD STARTS: Lexi Thompson had the roughest start of them all. The Kraft Nabisco winner hit her opening tee shot out of bounds to the right. She reloaded and hit the next one out of bounds. The third shot was in play, but the ride was still bumpy. She made a 10. Just like that, she went from even par to 6 over. Thompson battled back with birdies and finished with a 77 to make the cut by one shot. GREAT FINISHES: Vikki Laing of Scotland was inside the cut line by one shot when she came to the par-5 17th. After a good drive, she hit 5-wood from 240 yards into the hole for an albatross, the rarest shot in golf. That gave her a 68, and she was at 2-over 146. Cheap NFL Jerseys ChinaCheap NFL Womens JerseysCheap JerseysDiscount JerseysCheap Jerseys ChinaNFL Jerseys OutletCheap NFL Black Jerseys ' ' '