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Marcum, Blue Jays hope to stay in wild card race, face Royals

Aug 10, 2007 - 2:14 PM Toronto (57-56) at Kansas City (50-63), 8:10 pm EDT

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) - With a sizable deficit in the American League wild card race, the Toronto Blue Jays turn to Shaun Marcum to put a dent in the standings.

Marcum and the Blue Jays hope for a string of victories when they face the struggling Kansas City Royals on Friday.

Toronto salvaged the third game of a testy series against the New York Yankees on Wednesday with a 15-4 rout over its division rival.

After a day off on Thursday, the Blue Jays are now 6 1/2 games behind the Seattle Mariners in the wild card standings. They are also looking up to the Yankees, Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins in front of them and need to be successful in this four-game set against the Royals to stay in the playoff race.

Marcum (8-4, 3.63 ERA) takes the hill looking to win his fourth straight start. The righthander, who is 4-1 in eight road starts, allowed three runs and eight hits in six innings in a 9-5 victory over the Texas Rangers on Saturday.

Marcum is 1-0 in his only start against Kansas City, but has also made three relief appearances vs. the Royals.

Gil Meche (7-9, 3.96) takes the mound for Kansas City trying to avoid losing his fourth straight start.

The righthander allowed six runs and six hits and also walked five in four innings in an 8-5 loss against the New York Yankees on Sunday. Meche is 4-3 with a 5.29 ERA in nine starts and one relief appearance against the Blue Jays.

The Royals, who have the third worst record in the American League, have alternated wins and loss in their last four games.