Blue Jays beat Yankees in opener

What a night!

The Toronto Blue Jays welcomed the New York Yankees to the Rogers Centre on Tuesday night for a three-game series, and won 5-1.

Roy Halladay won his seventh game, beating ex-Jay A.J. Burnett, who had yet another mediocre outing for the Yankees.

Halladay (7-1) pitched a complete-game five-hitter with no walks and five strikeouts, improving to 16-5 with a 2.77 ERA in 33 career games against New York.

Scott Rolen paced the offense, collecting three hits and three RBIs.

Burnett, who pitched for the Jays from 2006-2008, was booed by the Rogers Centre crowd of 43,737, along with Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez.

Burnett had gone 18-10 with a 4.07 ERA and an AL-leading 231 K's last season, before opting out of the final two years of his contract to sign with the Yanks, who inked him to a five-year, $82.5-million contract.

Burnett was tagged for all five runs in 7 2/3 innings. He walked four and fanned three.

Meanwhile, Halladay was truly dominant, retiring 17 straight batters at one point.

The game was scoreless for the first three innings before the Jays struck against Burnett. Alex Rios doubled to lead off the fourth, before Vernon Wells and Adam Lind walked.

Bases loaded, none out.

Rolen's double to left scored Rios and Wells, giving the Jays a 2-0 lead. Rod Barajas added a sac fly to give Halladay a three-run cushion.

Aaron Hill homered off Burnett to lead off the eighth, and Rolen added an RBI single later in the inning.

This was the first real "test" for the Blue Jays this season, as they were facing the beasts from the AL East for the first time. Toronto went 3-0 against the Baltimore Orioles earlier this month, but hadn't played the trio of New York, Boston, and Tampa Bay--the three favourites in the division--yet.

Well, for now, the Jays have the upper hand. Toronto is the best team in the majors right now, owning a 23-12 record, one game up on Boston (21-12) in the division.

The Los Angeles Dodgers (22-12), who had been the top team in baseball, lost again on Tuesday, when ex-Dodger Chan Ho Park won his first game for the Phillies, 5-3 in Philadelphia.

L.A. has gone 1-4 since slugger Manny Ramirez was suspended for 50 games by MLB for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs last Thursday.

In the meantime, the Jays keep winning, and have a three-game streak going. Will it continue?

* * * * *

Speaking of Yankees-Jays, what about Roger Clemens?

Clemens went on ESPN Radio on Tuesday morning to refute the new book out written by four New York writers about his alleged steroid use.

Of course, Clemens continues to deny he has ever taken any steroids, and again stated that ex-teammate Andy Pettitte "misremembers" when the lefty claimed The Rocket told him he'd used HGH before.

Why is everyone in the public mocking Clemens for using the word "misremembers"?

It is actually a real word, something that apparently many people don't realize.