GM hopes Jays take wing despite injuries

TORONTO -- It's not that Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi has a New Englander's pessimism. If anything, the opposite is true. The Worcester native is maintaining a stiff upper lip in the face of what has become a familiar cycle for Toronto fans: injuries to star performers.

The Blue Jays learned this week that ace closer B.J. Ryan will be out at least six weeks with a strained elbow. Red Sox killer Reed Johnson, the outfielder and pesky leadoff man, underwent back surgery and will be out until around the All-Star break, Ricciardi said. Third baseman Troy Glaus went on the DL yesterday (retroactive to April 13) with a bruised left heel and won't be back till the end of the month. Top setup man Brandon League has been on the DL with shoulder tightness since the start of the season.

"That's baseball," Ricciardi said. "What can you do?

"This is the third year this has happened to us. Two years ago, we were in second place when [Roy ] Halladay was hit by a line drive and broke his leg. He was on his way to winning the Cy Young Award. Last year was [A.J.] Burnett [out until June 22 with elbow problems].

"But last year was a great example for us. Guys stepped up and we finished second. These are good guys, a resilient bunch with a good frame of mind.

"You hate to lose Ryan, he's such a vital guy. But you'd really hate to lose Halladay, man. That would be a bigger blow, without that horse."

If Daisuke Matsuzaka looked comfortable indoors at the start of last night's game, there was good reason. In Japan, he made the majority of his starts in domed stadiums. His team, the Seibu Lions, played its 68-game home schedule in the Seibu Dome, and three of Seibu's five opponents in the Japanese Pacific League also play in domes. Since 2005, there has been interleague play between the Pacific League and Central League, with 36 games coming in home-and-home series against the other league. Two of the six Central League teams have domes . . . For Sox scouts Craig Shipley and Jon Deeble, it was a challenge to navigate the Japanese subway system to see Matsuzaka pitch in the Seibu Dome. Try to follow these directions, as they appear in the Japan Pro Baseball Fan Handbook and Media Guide: Take the Seibu Railways Ikebukuro Line to Nishi Tokorozawa or the Seibu Shinjuku Line to Tokorozawa, then switch to the Ikebukuro Line. At Nishi Tokorozawa, change to the Seibu Yamaguchi Line and ride two stops to the end of the line, Seibu Kyujo-mae, and you're a one-minute walk from the dome. There's an amusement park nearby, and there were times, Shipley said, that he ended up on a kiddies' train to the amusement park.

Gabe Kapler, who was willing to go to the low minors to learn how to manage, was caught by one of the game's technicalities, and it cost Jon Lester the third of his four scheduled rehabilitation appearances. Kapler's team, the Greenville Drive in the Single A South Atlantic League, played a game Saturday night that was suspended in the top of the second inning. When play resumed the next day, Kapler inserted Lester into the game in the fourth inning. But after Lester warmed up, umpires informed Kapler that Lester was not on the lineup card -- which Kapler evidently had not updated from the day before -- so Lester was not allowed to pitch. He threw a 75-pitch simulated game instead, and will make one more start for Greenville, Sox manager Terry Francona said, before a decision is made on his next step. "He took it real hard," Francona said of Kapler. "He texted me in between games. He really felt bad. I think it was more of a misunderstanding than him whiffing on something." . . . Francona was not impressed by the new visitors' clubhouse in Toronto, which isn't much bigger than the old one and is actually narrower than the former space. "It looks like a trailer," Francona said. As for the visiting manager's office? "How can you leave a bathroom out?" Francona wondered. The former clubhouse has been converted into a weight room, which Francona acknowledged was beautiful. He also alluded to the cramped quarters on the visitors' side in Fenway Park, saying, "I haven't been in our visiting clubhouse for a number of years. We probably don't have room to be bitching."

Julian Tavarez threw a simulated game yesterday "just to take the edge off" tomorrow's start, Francona said. Tavarez, who hasn't pitched since he went four innings at Texas April 7, will oppose Halladay, the Jays ace . . . Kevin Youkilis sent a text message to his friend, Mike Gambino, the assistant baseball coach at Virginia Tech, to make sure Gambino and his players were OK in the aftermath of the campus shootings that claimed 33 lives. Youkilis played with Gambino, the former captain of the Boston College baseball team (and first-rate waiter at the Stockyard restaurant), at Single A Lowell. "He said a lot of his kids were in class in the area [of the shooting], but that everyone was OK," said Youkilis . . . No team is having worse weather issues than Double A Portland; the Sea Dogs were rained out of a doubleheader last night, which means six out of their nine scheduled home games and 8 of 13 overall this season have been postponed. The Portland record for postponements is nine, set in 2005 . . . Pawtucket also was rained out last night, its second home postponement this season . . . Eight people with Sox ties ran in the Boston Marathon. Fastest time turned in was the 3:39:43 by Ben Sprague, a Fenway Park tour guide.

Gordon Edes's e-mail address is edes@globe.com