• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Rays-Blue Jays Preview

Sep 10, 2010 - 4:43 AM Tampa Bay (84-55) at Toronto (72-67), 7:07 p.m. EDT

The Tampa Bay Rays have been very successful when facing teams from their own division, but recent struggles against two AL East foes have caused them to lose ground in the division.

The Rays will try to bounce back after losing their last two series when they open a three-game set against the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night.

While Tampa Bay (84-55) has a comfortable 6 1/2-game lead over Boston in the wild-card race, it still is eying a division title. The Rays trail the first-place Yankees by 2 1/2 games with the clubs set to open a three-game series Monday at Tropicana Field.

Tampa Bay will try to build some momentum heading into that pivotal series after losing four of five. After losing a series at last-place Baltimore, the Rays dropped two of three in Boston, falling 11-5 in Wednesday's finale. They led 4-0 heading into the bottom of the second, but the Red Sox rallied behind five home runs.

"We got off to a pretty good start, but it kind of went dead for the rest of the game, but that\0092's baseball, that happens,\0094" B.J. Upton told the Rays\0092' official website.

The series losses dropped Tampa Bay to 35-24 against the AL East.

However, the Rays haven'\0092t been quite as successful against Toronto (72-68), going 8-7 versus the Blue Jays. They won two of three in the most recent series, Aug. 30-Sept. 1 at home.

James Shields (13-12, 4.92 ERA) will take the mound Friday for the Rays, trying a second time to match a career high in wins, set in 2008.

He gave up six runs and eight hits in 4 1-3 innings of an 8-4 loss to the Orioles on Saturday, snapping a personal three-game winning streak.

The right-hander had similar struggles against Toronto on Aug. 7, allowing eight runs and nine hits in four innings of a 17-11 loss. That dropped him to 1-3 with a 5.67 ERA in five career starts at Rogers Centre.

"Hopefully I\0092'll do better than my last outing,\0094" Shields said. "\0093I feel pretty confident right now. ... I\0092'm looking forward to pitching against Toronto. We\0092're in a nice little race right now.\0094"

The Blue Jays are coming off a four-game split at home against West-leading Texas, losing 4-2 Thursday night.

Toronto was limited to three total three runs and 11 hits in the final two contests after recording 15 runs and 20 hits in the first two. Jose Bautista hit his major league-leading 44th homer and Lyle Overbay also went deep Thursday, extending the Blue Jays' streak of 11 straight games with at least one homer.

Brett Cecil (12-7, 3.76) will try to beat the Rays for the fourth time this season when he takes the ball for the Blue Jays.

The left-hander is 3-1 with a 2.63 ERA against Tampa Bay this year. He beat them in his first three attempts in 2010 before allowing five runs - two earned - and five hits over seven innings of a 6-2 road loss Aug. 30.

Cecil, though, bounced back with a solid outing at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, yielding three runs over 6 1-3 innings of a 7-3 victory.

"The kid has pitched well all year,\0094" manager Cito Gaston told the Blue Jays'\0092 official website. \0093"He'\0092s made only a couple bad outings all year, right from spring training. He\0092's 8-2 against the East, that\0092's pretty good.\0094"

Carlos Pena won't mind facing Cecil. The Tampa Bay slugger is 4 for 13 lifetime against the southpaw with all four hits leaving the park.