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Blue Jays look to continue hot streak

Aug 8, 2008 - 10:06 AM Cleveland (49-64) at Toronto (59-56) 7:07 p.m. EDT

TORONTO (Ticker) -- The Toronto Blue Jays have been one of the hottest teams in the majors over the last month.

The Blue Jays go for their fifth straight win against the Cleveland Indians on Friday.

Toronto enters the contest after completing a sweep of the Oakland Athletics, surrendering nine runs during the four-game series while improving to 17-9 since July 7. The record is second only to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, who posted a 17-8 mark in the past month.

The Blue Jays have good reason to believe they will continue their recent surge of success as they have won their last eight games against teams from the American League Central. Toronto, which sits seven games behind the Boston Red Sox (66-49) in the AL wild-card race, could make up some ground with their next seven games coming against teams in the AL Central.

Rookie David Purcey (1-2, 8.35 ERA) looks for an improvement over his last three starts. The Blue Jays' lefthander has allowed 16 runs and six homers in his previous 14 innings en route to dropping two of three outings.

Righthander Anthony Reyes makes his first start for the Indians since being acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals on July 26 for righthander Luis Perdomo. Reyes was 2-1 with a 4.91 ERA in 10 relief appearances with the Cardinals.