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Buehrle eyes win No. 11 against St. Louis

Jun 7, 2014 - 2:33 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Mark Buehrle goes after his major league-leading 11th win of the season on Saturday when the Toronto Blue Jays continue a three-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals at Rogers Centre.

Buehrle's amazing start to the season continued on Sunday against Kansas City, as he scattered six hits over eight scoreless innings to improve to 10-1, while lowering his ERA to 2.10.

"I need defense behind me, it's key," said Buehrle, who is enjoying the best start of his 15-year career. "I don't strike out many guys (he fanned three on Sunday) so the ball is put in play. I don't know if it's one of those things, working fast keeps them on their toes and keeps them ready to field stuff, I don't know if that's the key to it, but I just like to get the ball and throw it. And I know guys like to play behind you whenever there is a quick game."

Buehrle, a Missouri native, beat the Cardinals the only other time he faced them.

St. Louis, meanwhile, will counter with righty Shelby Miller, who has lost his last three starts. Miller's latest setback came on Monday against Kansas City, as he surrendered four runs and seven hits in seven innings a day after Buehrle had shut the Royals down. Miller had given up a career-high seven runs in his previous outing.

"I thought Shelby was very, very good for six innings," St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. "After the sixth, it just snowballed in a hurry. Up until that point, it was one of the best we've seen him throw this season."

He fell to 6-5 with the loss and raised his ERA to 4.06.

Toronto drew first blood in this series on Friday, as Jose Bautista and Brett Lawrie both homered, Marcus Stroman spun six-plus strong innings, and the Blue Jays secured their sixth straight win with a 3-1 victory.

Bautista belted a solo shot in the third, while Lawrie launched a tiebreaking blast in the fifth to make a winner out of Stroman (3-0), who struck out seven and allowed just one run on seven hits with two walks to pick up the win in his second big league start.

Jose Reyes finished 3-for-3 with an RBI for Toronto, which has won 15 of its last 17 games.

Lance Lynn (6-4) absorbed the loss after giving up two runs on six hits and four walks with six strikeouts over five frames.

"There's good and there's bad," said Lynn. "I thought I made some pitches to have some better results. There is the good and the bad. That's part of it."

Allen Craig collected two of St. Louis' seven hits and drove in the lone run for the Cardinals, who went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and suffered their fifth loss in six games.

The Blue Jays swept a three-game series in St. Louis in the last meeting on June 24-26, 2011.