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Bautista, Blue Jays hope to stay hot vs. Rays

Aug 3, 2011 - 2:34 PM (Sports Network) - Blue Jays All-Star slugger Jose Bautista ended his homerless drought with his major league-leading 32nd blast of the season in last night's win over the Rays.

Bautista will try to lead his Toronto club to a third straight victory tonight in the continuation of a three-game series against Tampa Bay at Tropicana Field. His solo home run in the fourth inning of Tuesday's 3-1 win ended a 14- game power drought and catapulted the Jays to their 14th win in 20 tries.

"It always feels good to hit a home run, but more importantly, we won and we're on a hot streak," said Bautista. "Hopefully we can continue to do that. I think I'll find more pleasure in that than just hitting home runs."

Yunel Escobar homered for the first time since June 30 and Rajai Davis finished with two hits and an RBI for the Blue Jays. Ricky Romero pitched eight sparkling innings of one-run ball, struck out seven and issued four walks to improve to 9-9, while Jon Rauch nailed down his 10th save with a scoreless ninth inning.

The Jays will send Carlos Villanueva to the bump tonight and he's 6-2 with a 3.60 earned run average in 25 games (12 starts) this season. Villanueva survived a rough outing to win versus Baltimore in last Thursday's 8-5 victory, as he allowed four runs and six hits in five innings. Villanueva, who is holding the opposition to a .240 batting average, was 0-1 in his previous four starts -- all Toronto defeats.

Villanueva, a right-hander, has no record and a 6.75 ERA in two career relief appearances against the Rays.

Tampa Bay starter David Price was outdueled by Romero in Tuesday's series- opening loss and gave up three runs and five hits over 6 2/3 innings. He struck out six and walked two, falling a game under .500 at 9-10.

"I'll take that [start] every time he pitches, actually," said Rays skipper Joe Maddon. "That's outstanding, we'll take that all the time. When you get to a game like this and you lose, everybody will start nitpicking, but David did nothing wrong. David pitched well. David pitched really well."

Tampa Bay has scored one run in Price's last three starts.

Desmond Jennings provided the scoring for the Rays with a solo home run. The Rays had won three of four before losing for the fifth time in eight contests. They will also host Oakland and Kansas City on this current 10-game homestand.

Also trying to get back into the win column is James Shields. Tampa Bay's righty is 1-5 with a 5.35 earned run average in his last six starts and aims to get on track Wednesday versus Toronto, a team he defeated with a four-hit shutout back on April 24 from Rogers Centre. In the 2-0 win over the Jays, Shields struck out seven and walked two batters to push his career mark versus Toronto to 7-5 in 16 starts.

Shields was pounded for 10 runs and 12 hits in four innings of his most recent start, a 13-4 loss at Oakland last Wednesday. He is 9-9 with a 3.03 ERA in 22 starts this season.

"I've had six or seven days to reflect on what I did last game. I've been itching to get back out there. I'm ready to go," Shields said. "We're not used to having seven days off, there's no doubt. I definitely don't want seven days off. But that's what we have to deal with right now and we have to move forward."

Tampa Bay has won six of nine meetings with Toronto this season. All nine meetings this season have been decided by one or two runs.