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Cecil aims to extend recent surge in Blue Jays-Rays finale

Aug 4, 2011 - 2:42 PM (Sports Network) - Brett Cecil tries to win his fourth straight decision this afternoon when the Toronto Blue Jays go for a series win in the rubber match of their three-game set with the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field.

After pitching the first shutout of his career two starts ago, Cecil followed that up with another terrific effort on Friday against Texas, as he allowed a run and seven hits over seven innings to improve to 4-4, while lowering his ERA to 4.34.

Cecil has faced the Rays eight times (seven starts) and is 4-2 with a 4.69 ERA.

Tampa, meanwhile, will counter with righty Wade Davis, who is 8-7 on the year with a 4.62 ERA. Davis defeated the Oakland Athletics last Thursday, despite allowing five first-inning runs. He settled down after and did not allow another run and at one point retired 17 batters in a row.

"In that situation, even in the first inning, I felt like I made some good pitches and they fouled some good pitches off," Davis said. "It's just one of those things where I have to get quicker contact and quicker outs.

"It was frustrating. There's been those days where I'm going out with that kind of stuff and cruised, but they made it a little tougher."

Davis lost to the Jays the last time he faced them and is 2-2 with a 2.80 ERA in five starts against them.

Tampa evened this series at a game apiece on Wednesday, as James Shields allowed just one run over 7 1/3 innings to guide the Rays to a 9-1 win. Robinson Chirinos was 2-for-2 with his first major league home run and four RBI, and Ben Zobrist and Casey Kotchman each hit solo homers for Tampa Bay, which has won four of six.

Shields (10-9) became the Rays' second 10-game winner after giving up just three hits and three walks while fanning six.

"I loved the execution we had out there tonight," said Rays manager Joe Maddon. "All the little things we haven't been doing lately, we did tonight. It was a really good win for us."

J.P. Arencibia hit a solo homer for Toronto, which has just two losses in its last seven tries.

Carlos Villanueva (6-3) was pegged with the loss after he was shelled for eight runs on nine hits in just 2 2/3 innings.

Tampa Bay has won seven of 10 meetings with Toronto this season. Before last night's rout, all nine of the previous meetings this season had been decided by one or two runs.