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Athletics try to snap four-game slide against Blue Jays

Aug 28, 2007 - 2:21 PM Toronto (66-65) at Oakland (65-68), 10:05 pm EDT

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- The Oakland Athletics will look to end a four-game losing streak when they take on the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday.

The Athletics took the first game of a four-game series against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 12-2, on Thursday before being outscored 33-9 over the final three games. Their losing ways continued on Monday when the Blue Jays scored four times in the 12th inning en route to a 6-2 victory.

Chad Gaudin (10-9, 4.12 ERA) led the Athletics to their last win on Thursday, and will look to get them back on track when he takes the mound on Tuesday. Gaudin surrendered just one run on five hits in seven innings while striking out a career high 10 batters against the Devil Rays. Despite the win, the 24-year-old righthander is just 2-4 in his last six starts.

The Blue Jays are 4-6 in their last 10 games, including a three-game sweep at the hands of the Athletics last week. Rookie Jesse Litsch (5-6, 3.44) will look to give Toronto some retribution when he toes the rubber.

Litsch is 1-2 in his last three starts despite allowing just two earned runs in each of those outings. During his last start, the 22-year-old righthander gave up three runs - two earned - on six hits in 6 1/3 innings while striking out two en route to a 5-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Litsch has faced Oakland once this season, allowing two unearned runs on seven hits over seven innings but did not factor in the decision as the Blue Jays suffered a 3-1 setback.