Bad Luck Comes In Threes - GameThread: Mariners at Blue Jays -

The Toronto Blue Jays are coming home on the heels of a three-game sweep by the Baltimore Orioles. But as the old saying goes, bad luck comes in threes, and the Jays have lost three games so they're due! The team in town tonight, the Seattle Mariners, have just come off a series sweep of their own as they knocked down arguably the second-best team in the American League for three straight games. My statsticish knowledge tells me that both teams are due to snap their respective streaks.

Oh also in the realm of bad luck, Travis Snider injured his wrist last night while playing for the Las Vegas 51s; don't forget that Snider's been having wrist problems for the last few seasons.. Of course this is following Dustin McGowan, Sergio Santos, and Brett Cecil's injuries. Hmm... maybe old sayings aren't true all time.

The Blue Jays start the day 10-9 (.526) and in 4th place in the AL East, 2 games behind the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays. The Mariners are 10-10 (.500) and 5.5 games back of the surging Texas Rangers. The Blue Jays are hoping to continue their run of good starting pitching and to have their bats awaken now that they're back home at the friendly Rogers Centre. The Mariners are trying to continue their strong offensive efforts of the past week.

On the hill tonight for the home town crew will be ace Ricky Romero. He has done is "ace duties" so far this year, with the Jays winning all 4 games in which he has pitched. RR Cool Jay last pitched this past Sunday, going 8 innings on 104 pitches and giving up 2 runs on 5 hits to go along with 5 strikeouts and 2 walks in a 5-3 win against the Royals. The Jays are looking for another solid effort from him tonight.

Blake Beavan will mount the mound against the Blue Jays for Seattle. The 23 year old right hander will be making his second career start against the Jays and his first in Toronto. When the Jays visited Safeco last August 17, they scored 5 runs on 3 homers (Lind, Rasmus, Encarnacion) against him over his 5 innings of work. Beaven's last outing was this past Saturday against the Chicago White Sox. He went 6 and gave up 3 runs, but his counterpart Philip Humber pitched slightly better.

Lineups after the jump!

The Blue Jays will be firing this lineup against the Mariners:

1. Yunel Escobar SS
2. Kelly Johnson 2B
3. Jose Bautista RF
4. Adam Lind 1B
5. Edwin Encarnacion DH
6. Eric Thames LF
7. Brett Lawrie 3B
8. Colby Rasmus CF
9. J.P. Arencibia C

Yes, our full time cleanup hitter will be batting 5th. The Mariners counter with:

1. Dennis Ackley 2B
2. Brendan Ryan SS
3. Ichiro Suzuki RF
4. Justin Smoak 1B
5. Jesus Montero DH
6. Alex Liddi 3B (Kyle Seager sitting)
7. Michael Saunders CF
8. Miguel Olivo C
9. Casper Wells LF (Chone Figgins sitting)

I won't be watching or live blogging the game tonight as I will be making a visit to the neighbourhood public house. Last Friday when I missed a game the Jays won and got a triple play, so I'm really just taking one (well, a few) for the team.

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GO JAYS GO!