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Florida Moon, Sing Me a Song -- 9/8 Game Thread: Jays at D-Rays

Saturday, September 8th - St. Petersburg, FL
7:05 PM (EDT)


Toronto Blue Jays
Vernon Wells cf
Matt Stairs lf
Alexis Rios rf
Frank Thomas dh
Troy Glaus 3b
Lyle Overbay 1b
Aaron Hill 2b
Greg Zaun c
John Macdonald ss

Pitching: A.J. Burnett, RHP


Tampa Bay Rays

Akinori Iwamura 3b
Carl Crawford lf
Carlos Pena 1b
Delmon Young cf
Brendan Harris 2b
Jonny Gomes rf
Greg Norton dh
Dioner Navarro c
Josh Wilson ss

Pitching: Jason Hammel, RHP


The Jays look to make it 3 in a row tonight, after a nice easy victory yesterday behind stellar pitching by Dustin McGowan (including a career-best 12 Ks in 8 IP) and an offensive attack led by the bottom of the Jays' lineup, which has been m.i.a. most of the season.

A.J. Burnett, whose pedestrian win-loss record masks what has been a very effective season, takes on Jason Hammel. A.J. has gone 3-1 with a sparkling 2.08 ERA since returning from the disabled list, and has held opponents to a .153 BA. He has struck out 30 and walked 15 over that time (34 2/3 innings).

Hammel has mostly been lousy this season, both in the bullpen and as a starter, but is coming off a very good outing against the Yankees, where he struck out 7 over 5+ innings, yielding 5 hits and no walks for one run.

In other news, Troy Glaus has declined to comment regarding yesterday's news that he received steroids illegally in 2003 and 2004. Major-league baseball has asked to meet with Glaus.