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Aug 25, 2009 - 4:13 AM By DAN PIERINGER STATS Writer

Tampa Bay (67-56) at Toronto (57-65), 7:07 p.m. EDT

The Tampa Bay Rays' climb in the AL wild-card standings stalled along with their offensive surge Sunday. Tampa Bay looked determined to resume both in its last game.

The Rays look to follow their best offensive showing in months with another strong day at the plate as they go for their eighth win in 10 games Tuesday night against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

Tampa Bay (68-56) suffered its first home shutout of the season Sunday, managing five hits in a 4-0 loss to Texas. The defeat kept the Rays from sweeping a three-game series against one of the two teams ahead of them in the wild-card race.

Tampa Bay responded with 15 hits in a 12-7 win over Toronto on Monday night. Ben Zobrist and Carlos Pena homered and finished as two of four players with at least two RBIs as the Rays recorded their highest run total since a 12-4 victory at Colorado on June 16.

Despite its struggles at the plate Sunday, Tampa Bay is averaging 5.6 runs and batting .296 while going 7-2 over its last nine games. It's three games behind Boston for the wild-card lead, and 1 1/2 behind Texas.

Zobrist is batting .406 with four homers, nine RBIs and nine runs during the 7-2 run. Pena is hitting .471 with four homers and 10 RBIs over his last six games, and Pat Burrell is batting .423 with two homers over his last seven.

The Blue Jays (57-66) have also had some offensive success lately, following an 8-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday by scoring six runs in the first three innings Monday.

However, Toronto also gave up a season high-tying run total and allowed 10 or more hits for the eighth time in nine games. It's 2-7 in that stretch.

The Blue Jays will try to rebound against Rays starter James Shields (7-10, 3.81 ERA) on Tuesday. Shields, who tied for the team lead with 14 wins in 2008, is 1-5 with a 4.44 ERA over his last 11 starts, and the Rays are 4-7 in those games.

The right-hander gave up four runs - one earned - in 5 2-3 innings and suffered an 8-7 home loss to Baltimore on Thursday.

Though he hasn't had much personal success lately, Shields is optimistic about the stretch run.

"The positive thing about my last couple of games, my changeup has been really good," he told the Rays' official Web site. "So if I just keep to the basics and don't try to do too much, I think we're going to win some ballgames."

Shields won his first four decisions against the Blue Jays, but he's 0-4 with a 4.06 ERA in six starts against them since July 28, 2008, going 0-2 in three games this year.

The Blue Jays will counter with Brett Cecil (5-2, 4.58), a rookie left-hander coming off his first loss since May 20. Cecil gave up six runs in 4 1-3 innings to fall 8-1 against Boston on Thursday.

Cecil got two outs in a scoreless relief appearance against the Rays on June 30, then held them to one run and four hits while striking out seven in seven innings to get a 5-1 win July 26.

Rays outfielder Carl Crawford left Monday's game after three innings with a sore back. Manager Joe Maddon expects him to be able to play Tuesday.