(SportsNetwork.com) - Melky Cabrera tries to continue his torrid start to the season on Wednesday when the Toronto Blue Jays resume a three-game set with the Houston Astros at Rogers Centre.
Cabrera homered for the fourth straight game in Tuesday's opener and Toronto rolled, 5-2. Dioner Navarro went 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI and Edwin Encarnacion went 1-for-1 with three walks and two runs scored for the Blue Jays, who evened their record at 4-4.
Toronto starter Mark Buehrle (2-0), who punched out 11 batters in his season debut against Tampa Bay, tossed 5 1/3 innings on Tuesday, allowing eight hits and one run with three strikeouts and a walk.
"I'm not striking out 11, I'm not going to strikeout 11 guys in my next five starts combined," said Buehrle. "I need my defense behind me."
Brett Oberholtzer (0-2) absorbed the loss for the Astros and surrendered three runs on three hits with three walks and three strikeouts in 5 1/3 frames.
"I thought he did a good job keeping us in the ball game," said Astros manager Bo Porter on Oberholtzer. "Those last two walks in the sixth really hurt us. We had our opportunities. We had men on base with less than two outs. When you get in those situations you have to capitalize."
Cabrera managed just three home runs all of last season, a year that saw him miss time with leg injuries before having a benign tumor removed from his spine Aug. 30.
With another home run on Wednesday Cruz would become the first Blue Jay to homer in five straight games since Jose Cruz Jr. went deep in six in a row Sept. 29-Oct. 5, 2001.
"I feel 100 percent now and I'm ready to go. It's good. I don't have any pain now," said Cabrera.
Hoping to slow him down will be righty Lucas Harrell, who picked up right where he left off last season in his initial start of the season. Harrell lost a league-high 17 games a year ago and started his 2014 campaign off with a loss on Friday to Los Angeles, as the Angels battered him for five runs and seven hits in just three innings.
"It's over with and on to the next start," Harrell said. "I'll get better for my next start."
Toronto, meanwhile, will counter with right-hander Brandon Morrow, who lost to Tampa Bay his first time out. Morrow surrendered four runs and seven hits in five innings of that one.
"It was just one of those things where you think you threw better than the end results," Morrow said.
Toronto was 4-3 against the Astros last season.
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