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.