Halladay's complete game victory against Yankees draws record attendance

It feels good to hope.

This time last season, the World Series-bound Tampa Bay Rays were in second place with a 22-16 record. And tonight, after a dominating 5-1 victory over the vaunted New York Yankees, the under-the-radar Toronto Blue Jays stand alone atop the AL East by 1.5 games (pending the Red Sox game at Anaheim later tonight) at 23-12.

Per bluejays.mlb.com, the "Doc," Roy Halladay, threw his first complete game of the year to improve to 7-1 on the season. Facing former rotation mate A.J. Burnett, who signed a 5-year-$82.5 million contract with the Yankees this off-season, Halladay surrendered only 1 run on 5 hits while striking out a handful and lowering his ERA to 2.95. Yet again, Halladay's early-season efforts make make him a Cy Young front runner.

Per ESPN.com, the Jays ranked 27th out of 30 in home attendance this season with 20,014. However, Jeff Blair, a general sports columnist for @globeandmail, Canada's national newspaper, Tweeted from the game and confirmed a much-deserved spike in attendance:

1. 
   GloBlair Jays were estimating 25,000-30,000 ... looks like might be more. 12 May 2009 from TweetDeck
2. 
   GloBlair Update on attendance: Jays officials saying walkup "crazy." Could be 37,000-38,000 ... yeow! 12 May 2009 from TweetDeck
3. 
   GloBlair Blue Jays say they sold approximately 12,500 walkup tickets alone today. 13 May 2009 from TweetDeck

Others who were at the Rogers Centre, and liveblogging in Toronto, shared their thoughts on the resurgence of baseball North of the border:

1. 
   BlueJayHunter Liveblogging right now at the Score. Doc vs. AJ: http://bit.ly/17dPgw 12 May 2009 from web
2. 
   BlueJayHunter Sounds like Burnett and A-Rod are hated equally at the Rogers Centre. We don't discriminate in Toronto. 12 May 2009 from web
3. 
   MLBastian Honestly, this is the loudest this place has been in a long time. Bases loaded, no outs against Burnett right now with Rolen up. 13 May 2009 from TweetDeck
4. 
   MLBastian A fan just threw a foul ball back on the field because it came off A-Rod's bat. Nice. 13 May 2009 from TweetDeck
5. 
   TaoofStieb Is it just me, or could a packed loud Dome be a big advantage for the Jays. Let's have more of this please! 13 May 2009 from web
6. 
   TaoofStieb Roy Halladay is the single greatest carbon-based entity on the planet. 13 May 2009 from web

This was the scene postgame as the Jays celebrated on the mound with Halladay (per @e453753):

Halladay's complete game victory against Yankees draws record attendance