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Athletics attempt to snap six-game slide, solve Halladay

Aug 4, 2008 - 1:17 PM Oakland (53-57) at Toronto (55-56), 6:07 pm EDT

TORONTO (Ticker) -- With the Oakland Athletics' season spiraling downward quickly, the last thing they need is a meeting with Roy Halladay.

The A's attempt to stop their six-game losing streak Monday when they begin a three-game series against Halladay and the Toronto Blue Jays.

At the All-Star break, Oakland found itself just six games behind the American League West-leading Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (69-42), who still own the AL's best record.

However, the A's have declined considerably, dropping 13 of their last 15 contests. At the root of their current skid is an offense that has failed to score more than three runs in any of their last six games.

That task figures to be a difficult one against Halladay (12-8, 2.85 ERA), who kept Oakland's offense in check in his first meeting with the A's this season. The righthander allowed a run and eight hits with nine strikeouts over eight frames on May 28 to collect the win.

The 2003 AL Cy Young Award winner, Halladay was not so fortunate his last time out after permitting three runs over eight innings in Tuesday's 3-0 loss to Tampa Bay.

Oakland counters with Sean Gallagher (1-0, 3.22), who will make the start after the A's decided to push Greg Smith's scheduled outing back to Tuesday. The righthanded Gallagher recorded his third straight no-decision in Wednesday's 4-3 loss to Kansas City after allowing three runs over five frames.