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Angels-Blue Jays Preview

Jun 3, 2009 - 4:29 AM By ANTHONY GIORNALISTA STATS Senior Writer

Los Angeles (25-24) at Toronto (29-24), 7:07 p.m. EDT

The Toronto Blue Jays have seen many strong pitching performances at home this season. Unfortunately, the next such outing could very well come from opposing hurler Jered Weaver.

Having bounced back from a winless road trip with solid play at Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays face one of the majors' hottest pitchers in the middle game of their series with the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night.

Toronto (30-24) has won three of four following an 0-9 trip, getting a career-high 14 strikeouts from Roy Halladay in a 6-4 complete-game win on Tuesday.

The Blue Jays have won seven of eight and 19 of 26 at home, where they have posted a 3.54 ERA and a .232 opponents' batting average.

Halladay, who leads the majors with nine wins, has been a big part of the Jays' success in Toronto. Weaver (4-2, 2.36 ERA) will be trying to follow up with a sharp performance of his own.

Weaver has given up just one run in four of his last five starts, including his last effort. He yielded four hits while striking out eight in eight innings as the Angels (25-25) beat the Chicago White Sox 3-1 last Wednesday.

The right-hander, though, is 0-2 with a 4.50 ERA on the road this season.

This will be Weaver's first appearance at Toronto. He's 4-1 with a 3.38 ERA in five starts against the Blue Jays.

Los Angeles' pitching staff could certainly use a boost, having given up a combined 23 runs in the last four games. The Angels have a 6.43 ERA in their last seven games, losing five.

The Blue Jays were able to take advantage of those struggles in the opener, going 4 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

Alex Rios hit his seventh homer for Toronto after connecting in his previous game. The right fielder is batting .343 (23 for 67) in 18 home games against the Angels.

Marco Scutaro, though, went hitless in four at-bats, ending a streak of seven consecutive multi-hit games for the Blue Jays. He has one hit in his last 12 at-bats against Los Angeles.

Scutaro will likely be back at shortstop behind Casey Janssen (1-1, 4.15), who will make his third start of the season.

Janssen is coming off his first win in more than two years, allowing three runs and 11 hits in seven innings on a 6-3 win over Boston on Friday. The right-hander missed last season due to shoulder surgery.

"It's been a while," Janssen said. "It's good to be back. Hopefully I can calm down a little bit now."

Janssen, a native of Orange, Calif., is 2-0 with a 0.47 ERA in two starts and three relief appearances versus Los Angeles.

He'll be facing an Angels team that had seven singles in the series opener.

Third baseman Chone Figgins had one of them, and has hit safely in 18 of his last 19 games. He's batting .367 (29 for 79) during that stretch and .295 for the season.