June 26 -- OH, CANADA

BY SCOTT LAUBER

TORONTO -- When I worked at my previous paper, in what often seems like a past life, I covered the American Hockey League. So, I made numerous road trips to Canada, mostly to Hamilton and Ottawa. But in 2004, during the NHL lockout, I came to Toronto to cover two games between the AHL affiliates of the Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators, and I saw firsthand what so many people had told me in advance of my visit: Toronto is a very cool town.

It's home to the CN Tower, the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, which stands directly beside the retractable-roofed ballpark formerly known as SkyDome (now Rogers Centre). (Imagine a ballpark built alongside the Empire State Building, and you get the picture.) Former Phillies GM Pat Gillick is an icon here after building a pair of World Series champions, and for that, he's a member of the "Level of Excellence," a ring-of-fame-style feature at Rogers Centre. Toronto also boasts one of my favorite steakhouses, which happens to bear the name of the greatest hockey player of all-time. Speaking of which, Toronto is the mecca of hockey. The Hockey Hall of Fame is here. So is Maple Leaf Gardens at the corner of Carlton and Church, one of the hockey's old-time shrines and now, sadly, little more than a warehouse for a food supplier. The people here are friendly. The city is clean. It's only too bad the Phillies don't come here every year.

That brings us to the series at hand, a three-game set between the Phillies and Blue Jays, which is hardly the biggest sporting event in Canada this weekend. The NHL Draft starts today in Montreal, and everywhere you look, there's wall-to-wall coverage, not only of what the Maple Leafs will do on draft day, but also what may happen all across the NHL. But we're here to talk baseball, so here goes.

PHILLIES (37-33) at BLUE JAYS (40-35)
Tonight, 7:07: LHP Cole Hamels (4-3, 4.24) vs. LHP Ricky Romero (4-3, 3.59)
Tomorrow, 1:07: LHP J.A. Happ (4-0, 3.47) vs. LHP Brad Mills (0-0, 9.82)
Sunday, 7:07: LHP Jamie Moyer (5-6, 5.97) vs. LHP Brian Tallet (5-4, 4.36)
Hot: Phillies CF Shane Victorino is batting .362 (42-for-116) with 10 RBIs in his last 29 games; Phillies 2B Chase Utley was 4-for-12 (.300) with one home run and four RBIs in the three-game series against the Rays; Blue Jays 3B Scott Rolen has a 14-game hitting streak, during which he's batting .433 (26-for-60); Blue Jays CF Vernon Wells has an eight-game hitting streak, during which he's batting .357 (15-for-42).
Not: Phillies 3B Pedro Feliz snapped an 0-for-18 slump in the first inning Thursday night; Phillies C Carlos Ruiz is in a 4-for-39 (.103) slump; Blue Jays RF Alex Rios is hitless in his last 11 at-bats; Blue Jays LHP Brad Mills has allowed four runs in 3-2/3 innings.