Marlins, Buehrle hope to avoid Blue Jays' brooms

Mark Buehrle aims for his first win in nearly a month today, while the Marlins hope to avoid a weekend sweep against the Blue Jays and a season-high seventh straight loss overall.

Miami has lost 15 of its last 17 games, including yesterday's 7-1 final when the Blue Jays scored six times in the ninth inning.

Since the beginning of June, Buehrle is 0-4 in four starts, with a 5.48 ERA and a .289 opponents' batting average. That's a sharp contrast from May when he went 4-0 with a 3.19 ERA in five starts. His last win came June 26 against the Giants.

Buehrle came into this year with a .696 winning percentage (32-14) in June, his highest in any month, but a combination of a lack of run support and a poor outing in his most recent start has continued his skid. The lefty allowed seven hits and a six runs over five innings of a loss at Boston on Tuesday. Buehrle allowed three home runs.

Keeping the ball in the park against the Blue Jays was something Buehrle did last year. He faced Toronto twice in 2011, going 1-1 with a 1.93 ERA and didn't surrender a home run to the team that finished last season fifth in the majors with 186 homers. For his career, Buehrle is 6-4 with a 2.64 ERA in 16 games (15 starts) against Toronto.

Jesse Chavez will make his second start of the season and third appearance for the Blue Jays. The right-hander gave up three hits and four runs with four walks over 2 2/3 innings of a no-decision at Milwaukee Tuesday.

Yesterday, Colby Rasmus hit a grand slam to key the ninth inning uprising. Edwin Encarnacion hit the go-ahead homer for the Blue Jays, who have taken six of eight overall.

"We're going through a stretch where we're getting a lot of production from the bottom of the order," said Blue Jays manager John Farrell. "Because we're in interleague play, there's been an understanding that they have to produce more, manufacture runs down there."

Brett Cecil scattered five hits and one run over six-plus solid innings, but Darren Oliver (2-2) tossed a scoreless eighth for the win.

Omar Infante's RBI double was the lone strike for the Marlins.

Josh Johnson gave up one run on two hits and a pair of walks over seven full frames, fanning seven. He was undone by Steve Cishek (4-1), who was charged with four runs in 1 1/3 relief innings.

"It just seems like we keep finding different ways to lose," mused Johnson. "That's what it comes down to."

Toronto improved to 6-17 all-time against the Marlins.