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Rays-Blue Jays Preview

Jul 18, 2015 - 10:41 PM Given the way Sunday's starters in Toronto have fared against their respective opponents, scoring is likely to be at a premium.

Chris Archer looks to lead Tampa Bay to its fifth win in six games by beating the Blue Jays for a fourth time this season, while Marco Estrada faces the Rays for the first time since last month's perfect-game bid.

Archer (9-6, 2.74 ERA) has dominated Toronto in three starts, going 3-0 while allowing one earned run over 22 innings. He's struck out 25 in that span and yielded just seven hits.

The All-Star right-hander has been terrific at Rogers Centre throughout his career, going 2-0 with a 1.49 ERA in six starts.

Archer, however, has had plenty of time to think about what went wrong after allowing a career-worst nine earned runs and a career high-tying 12 hits in a 9-7 loss at Kansas City on July 8. He also gave up one run - a homer to Andrew McCutchen - in 1 1-3 innings in Tuesday's All-Star Game.

"No one outing is going to define me, whether it's good or bad," Archer told MLB's official website. "Constantly trying to get better. Constantly working towards my potential. Clearly not there yet."

Toronto's Jose Bautista (2 for 26), Russell Martin (1 for 10) and Edwin Encarnacion (4 for 28) are among those who can't be happy to see Archer again. Backup catcher Dioner Navarro could start in place of Martin since he's gone 6 for 18 with two home runs off Archer.

After totaling 22 runs in their previous three games, the Blue Jays (46-47) went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position in Saturday's 3-2 defeat. Bautista provided one of the few highlights with his 18th homer in Toronto's 11th loss in 16 games.

The club might not need a big effort at the plate with Estrada (6-5, 3.52) on the mound.

When he last faced the Rays on June 24, the right-hander retired the first 22 batters until Logan Forsythe hit a weak grounder to third base that resulted in an infield single. It was one of two hits Estrada allowed in 8 2-3 innings of the 1-0, 12-inning road win. He finished with a season-high 10 strikeouts while lowering his ERA to 0.54 in five career games - including four relief appearances - against Tampa Bay(47-46).

The Rays enter this matchup batting .197 and averaging 3.0 runs over their last six games, and Estrada has a 2.12 ERA in his last five after most recently yielding two runs over 6 2-3 innings in a 3-0 loss at Kansas City on July 10.

"He has basically done (a nice job) every time he has gone out there," manager John Gibbons said.

The Rays, whose 332 runs at the break were their fewest since 1998, rallied from a one-run deficit Saturday behind late solo home runs by Brandon Guyer and Curt Casali.

Toronto pitchers have allowed 99 home runs, among the most in the majors.

"We coughed it up late via the home run ball," Gibbons said. "It's tough. If we don't improve there, it's going to be a long year."

John Jaso went 2 for 4 with an RBI double, giving him a .400 average in nine games off the DL.

Tampa Bay seeks its ninth win in 13 meetings with Toronto this season.