• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Halladay looks to spark Blue Jays against Rays

Jul 29, 2008 - 1:48 PM Tampa Bay (61-44) at Toronto (54-52), 7:07 pm EDT

TORONTO (Ticker) -- The Toronto Blue Jays have been winning at an alarming rate ever since the All-Star break and Roy Halladay will try to keep his surging team rolling.

The Blue Jays continue their three-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday, looking to win for the eighth time in 10 games.

Halladay (12-7, 2.82 ERA), who allowed five runs and eight hits in six innings on July 19 in a loss to Tampa Bay, has held opponents to two runs or less in seven of his last 10 starts.

The former Cy Young Award-winner leads the major leagues with seven complete games and ranks among the leaders in almost every pitching category.

Matt Garza (8-6, 3.83) takes the mound for Tampa Bay with hopes of repeating his last outing against Toronto, where he tossed seven scoreless innings and yielded two hits in a 6-4 victory against Halladay.

A.J. Burnett tossed seven dominating innings and Matt Stairs hit the go-ahead homer in the fifth inning Monday, powering the Blue Jays to a 3-1 victory in the series opener.

James Shields yielded three runs and five hits with five strikeouts over 7 1/3 innings, taking just his second loss over his last seven decisions.

Tampa Bay, which led the American League East by as many as five games earlier this month, has averaged 2.7 runs in its last 18 games, batting just .213 as a team over that time.