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Athletics-Blue Jays Preview

May 1, 2010 - 4:23 AM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

Oakland (12-11) at Toronto (11-12), 1:07 p.m. EDT

Alex Gonzalez and Vernon Wells are big reasons why the Toronto Blue Jays are entering May at .500.

The duo will now try to help the Blue Jays continue their dominance of the struggling Oakland Athletics on Saturday.

Toronto (12-12) capped the opening month of the season by winning the first two of this four-game series, powered by two homers and four RBIs from Gonzalez and a two-run shot from Wells in Friday's 10-2 win over Oakland (12-12).

Gonzalez's production has been a surprise. A career .248 hitter, he has seven homers to set a team record for the most by a shortstop in April.

"Right now I feel great at the plate," said Gonzalez, who owns a .353 average with six homers and 14 of his team-high 19 RBIs in Toronto victories. "I'm swinging at good pitches, getting good swings and I hope to keep doing well."

Wells is also looking to continue his hot hitting in May. The center fielder is among the major league leaders with eight home runs and his .337 average is tops on the Blue Jays.

Toronto leads the majors with 35 homers and 101 extra-base hits.

"It will be difficult to keep this pace up," said Wells, who hit his 200th homer Friday. "We're going to have to start scoring some runs in different ways."

The Blue Jays will give the ball to Dana Eveland (2-0, 4.57), who will get his first start against the A's in an effort to rebound from his worst performance of the season.

The left-hander, who spent the last two years with Oakland, was tagged for seven runs and eight hits in three innings while not getting a decision in a 13-12 loss to Boston on Monday. He had been 2-0 with a 1.93 ERA in his three prior outings.

Eveland will face an Oakland lineup that is hitting .222 while getting outscored 41-16 during a six-game road losing streak.

The Blue Jays have dominated the A's, winning 14 of 17, including eight of nine at Rogers Centre.

The A's are having major difficulty with runners in scoring position, batting .167 with one homer. They're 3 for 19 in this series.

They haven't endured a road losing streak of this length since dropping eight in a row July 23-Aug. 7, 2008.

Gio Gonzalez (2-1, 3.68) will try to snap the skid by building on his best outing of the year.

The left-hander yielded five hits in a season-high seven innings of Sunday's 11-0 win over Cleveland. The stellar effort came five days after he turned in his shortest outing of the season, exiting with one out in the fifth after allowing five runs with five walks in a 7-3 loss to the Yankees.

"He had really good life on his fastball," manager Bob Geren said on the team's official website Sunday. "He's got one of the best breaking balls in the league, and he was able to use his changeup effectively to offset those two pitches."

Gonzalez lost his only start against Toronto, allowing four runs in six innings of a 5-1 defeat at Rogers Centre on Aug. 6, 2008.