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Rookie Purcey leads surging Blue Jays against Yankees

Aug 20, 2008 - 10:13 AM NY Yankees (66-59) at Toronto (65-60) 7:07 p.m. EDT

TORONTO (Ticker) -- The Toronto Blue Jays are making it increasingly difficult for American League East foes to gain any ground on the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays.

Two days after finishing off a two-game sweep at Fenway Park, during which the Jays outscored the Boston Red Sox,19-5, Toronto posted a come-from-behind, 2-1 victory over the New York Yankees on Tuesday.

The win was the Jays' sixth in seven games and pulled them within one game of the third-place Yankees. Currently seven games behind Boston in the wild-card race, the Blue Jays will follow up this series against the Yankees with a three-game set against the Red Sox (73-53), against whom they are 6-2.

But all that is new to Toronto rookie southpaw David Purcey. The former first-round pick is coming off his best outing, tossing six innings of two-hit ball in a 4-3 win over Detroit on August 13, but in six starts has yet to face an American League playoff contender. That changes on Wednesday.

A curveball pitcher with a tendency to get a little too wild - registering 19 walks in 30 big-league innings - Purcey has put together two solid outings in a row. Prior to his victory over the Tigers, Purcey dropped a 5-2 decision to the Indians despite striking out eight in six solid innings.

The 6-5 southpaw faces a lefty-heavy Yankee lineup that just got back another left-handed slugger, Hideki Matsui. Matsui had been on the disabled list since June 23 with a swollen left knee before being activated on Tuesday. Before being sidelined, he was hitting .323 - including .342 against lefties - with seven homers and 34 RBI in 69 games. He returned to the lineup in the series opener against Toronto and hit seventh, but, like most of the Yankee batting order, was shut down by A.J. Burnett, going 0-for-3 with a strikeout.

The Yankees will send their own resident southpaw to the mound, as Andy Pettitte looks for his first win in nearly a month. The 14-year veteran is 0-2 in his last four starts with a 7.40 ERA, including a miserable July 31 showing against the Angels when he yielded 11 hits and nine runs in 5 1/3 innings.

The game may be the Yanks' best chance for victory in this series, as they face Yankee killer Roy Halladay in the series finale on Thursday. Halladay is 2-1 with a 2.05 ERA in three outings against the Yankees this season, and 12-5 with a 2.88 mark over his career.