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McGowan in fine form as Blue Jays cruise past Devil Rays

Sep 8, 2007 - 3:34 AM ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- Forgive Dustin McGowan if he was just a little surprised by his offense on Friday.

Dustin McGowan struck out a career-high 12 batters and Gregg Zaun homered as the Toronto Blue Jays thumped the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7-2.

Run support is something McGowan has not been getting all that much of lately. Since August 11, the righthander had gone just 1-3 with a 3.62 ERA despite not allowing any more than three earned runs in any of those five starts in part, due to an offense that has provided him a total of 10 runs.

On Friday, McGowan (10-8) had the first double-digit strikeout game of his career, striking out two batters in four separate innings, including five in a row between the sixth and eight innings.

"He had it going tonight," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "He had that slider going about as good as we have seen it all year. He pitched a great ballgame. He had everything going tonight."

"I just attacked; we threw a lot of sliders," McGowan said. "Zaun recognized it early and we stuck with it. You learn something each start. You learn more about the game and you learn more about the hitters."

The 25-year-old righthander yielded two runs and four hits over eight innings before giving way to reliever Jason Frasor in the ninth to win consecutive starts for the first time since July 19-24.

"That's probably the best game I've seen thrown against us," Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "I was really impressed with him. I tip my hat to him. He pitched really well."

After Devil Rays starter Edwin Jackson (4-14) held Toronto hitless through 4 2/3 innings, Zaun scored a run as part of a three-run frame that gave McGowan as much run support as he had received over the last two games combined.

Zaun then capped a four-run sixth when he launched a three-run blast off Jackson over the right field fence for his ninth homer of the season and third in his last six games.

Matt Stairs had an RBI in the fifth and sixth for the Blue Jays, who won consecutive road games for the second time in two weeks after not being able to win back-to-back contests away from the Rogers Centre since June 9-10.

Jackson surrendered seven runs and seven hits over 5 2/3 innings, marking two consecutive outings he has fallen short of six frames after eclipsing that mark in six straight starts.

"Jackson was good early," Gibbons said. "We just got to him. You can see him little by little he is coming into his own. He is going to be a good one."

Akinori Iwamura and Carl Crawford each had a hit and an RBI for Tampa Bay, which lost for just the fourth time in its last 14 games.