Blue Jays eye fifth straight win and sweep at the Trop

Published February 05, 2015

(SportsNetwork.com) - The Toronto Blue Jays hope to stay in the playoff hunt and shoot for a three-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays Thursday at Tropicana Field.

The Blue Jays are 4 1/2 games out of the second wild card spot in the American League and made it four straight wins with Wednesday's 7-4 victory. Marcus Stroman held the Rays to a pair of runs in six innings for the win and Aaron Sanchez worked the ninth to post his second save.

Dioner Navarro and Edwin Encarnacion each hit a two-run homer for the Jays, who have won three in a row on the road.

"We have to get greedy and try to win another one tomorrow," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "Another well-played game all the way around and that's the bottom line."

Toronto, which will visit Boston next for three games, hopes Mark Buehrle can fulfill Gibbons' wishes of a well-played game when he takes the mound Thursday. Buehrle is 11-9 with a 3.50 earned run average and is winless (0-2) in his past five starts.

Buehrle gave up four runs in six innings of last Friday's 6-3 loss to the New York Yankees and fell to 1-8 in his last nine decisions. The left-hander has a 6-4 record in 13 road starts and is 10-5 with a 4.19 ERA in 26 career meetings (21 starts) with the Rays. Buehrle has a 2-0 mark in four starts against Tampa Bay this season.

Tampa Bay lost for the seventh time in the last 10 games last night and fell to 2-4 on a 10-game homestand.

Chris Archer was hammered for six runs and 10 hits in six innings by the Jays on Wednesday, while Evan Longoria belted a two-run homer and finished with three RBI for the Rays. Longoria has 37 RBI and 11 multi-RBI games since the All-Star break.

"We came out flat. We rebounded, but there was too much of a deficit," said Rays manager Joe Maddon. "They hit the ball well."

The Rays, who have lost 12 of 18 games since a 61-61 mark, will welcome Baltimore to the Trop next for three games.

Jake Odorizzi gets the call for Tampa Bay Thursday and is 10-11 with a 4.03 ERA. He ended a two-game slide in Saturday's 7-0 win over Boston and allowed only one hit through seven scoreless innings. He is 6-3 in his last nine starts.

Odorizzi has made 15 starts at the Trop this season, going 5-6 with a 2.92 ERA, and is 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA in two career starts against Toronto.

The Blue Jays are 9-6 against Tampa Bay this season.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/blue-jays-eye-fifth-straight-win-and-sweep-at-the-trop