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Blue Jays-Rays Preview

Jun 10, 2010 - 4:16 AM By MIKE LIPKA STATS Writer

Toronto (33-26) at Tampa Bay (38-20), 7:10 p.m. EDT

The Toronto Blue Jays have been a surprise contender in the AL East this season, but the Tampa Bay Rays appear to be playing on a different level.

The best team in the majors can win a fifth straight over Toronto by completing an emphatic three-game sweep on Thursday night, but they'll have to snap Blue Jays left-hander Brett Cecil's impressive four-start winning streak.

Toronto (33-27) has been buoyed this year by a league-high 97 home runs and strong starting pitching, but neither of those things have been present at Tropicana Field this week.

The Rays (39-20) have outscored the Blue Jays 19-1 in the first two games of this series, and they racked up 15 hits in Wednesday's 10-1 win to improve to 6-2 against Toronto this year.

The Blue Jays went 4-14 against Tampa Bay last year, and they're 4-19 in St. Petersburg since the start of 2008.

Even some of Tampa Bay's struggling hitters have been heating up. Carlos Pena has raised his batting average to .184 with four homers in his last three games, while Ben Zobrist hit his fifth homer Wednesday - all in his last 19 games.

"They're a good team. I don't know what else you can say about them," Blue Jays right-hander Shaun Marcum said. "They find ways to put the barrel on the ball. One through nine they're a good lineup."

If his recent performances are any indication, Cecil (6-2, 3.43 ERA) may be up to the challenge. The second-year left-hander has allowed a total of five runs in 29 2-3 innings over his last four starts, winning all of them while holding opponents to a .170 average.

Cecil may feel especially confident after dominating the New York Yankees on Friday, giving up five hits and one run in eight innings of a 6-1 win.

"This year I'm not intimidated by anybody," he said.

That includes the Rays. Cecil won in St. Petersburg in his 2010 debut on April 23, allowing four runs in 6 2-3 innings but striking out eight in a 6-5 victory.

He'll hope for similar run support Thursday, but the Blue Jays have been held to three or fewer runs in six of their last seven games against Tampa Bay, and they've managed six hits in this series.

Toronto has gone consecutive games without a home run for the first time since April 27-28, and the club hasn't been held homerless in three straight all season.

"Right now we're struggling with the bats. We're struggling with the pitching," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said.

The Blue Jays may have a chance to get back on track, however, if Tampa Bay's Wade Davis performs as he did in his most recent start.

Davis (5-5, 5.03) will try to bounce back after allowing a season-high eight runs in 3 1-3 innings in a 9-6 loss at Texas on Friday, the second time in his last three starts that he has failed to make it out of the fourth.

"Wade had a tough night," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "Fastball command issues got him. Overall he was just missing his spots."

The right-hander, who's never faced Toronto, has given up eight home runs in his last five starts.