The Toronto Blue Jays would love to know when their offensive slump is going to end. But they'd love to believe their run of quality starting pitching won't stop anytime soon.
Staff ace Roy Halladay will look to help the Blue Jays win for the seventh time in nine games as they begin a 10-game road trip on Friday with the first of four against the Cleveland Indians.
Toronto (17-19) has been in an offensive drought for the last three weeks. The Blue Jays have scored more than five runs just once in their last 22 games, and averaged just 3.1 runs in that time.
They've averaged 3.5 runs in their last eight games, but have gone 6-2 due to some incredible performances from their starting rotation. Toronto's starters have gone 6-1 with a 2.02 ERA in that span, and had given up a total of 12 runs in their last seven games before Tampa Bay scored five in the 13th on Thursday in an 8-3 win.
"It's pathetic. We're a way better club than this,'' catcher Gregg Zaun said after Toronto went just 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. "There's no excuses. We need to go out there and start getting those runs home.''
Halladay (3-4, 3.00 ERA) has delivered back-to-back impressive performances. He went 8 2-3 innings in Boston on April 29, allowing his only run of the game in the bottom of the ninth to take the 1-0 loss. He gave up three runs - one earned - in 7 1-3 innings on Sunday, but the result was better this time as Toronto beat the Chicago White Sox 4-3.
"It's never easy to take him out," manager John Gibbons told the team's official Web site. "But you've got to do what you think is right."
Gibbons has already left his ace in to finish four games this season, and no other pitcher in the majors has more than one. Dating back to 2003, Halladay has pitched 30 complete games - nine more than his closest individual competitor. Twenty major league teams have fewer complete games than the right-hander.
Two of Halladay's 35 complete games have come against Cleveland (16-18), but none since Sept. 27, 2003. Halladay is 5-0 with a 3.77 ERA in 10 career starts against the Indians.
Cleveland's offense has been struggling just as much as Toronto's. The Indians are averaging just 2.8 runs over their last 10 games, even though their pitching staff - much like the Blue Jays' - has kept them from a free fall.
They were 4-5 in their last nine and had taken the first two on their trip to New York before giving up four homers in losing the series finale 6-3 on Thursday.
"This is a tough place to play," manager Eric Wedge told the team's official Web site. "But when you win the first two, you want to win the last one."
The Indians will send C.C. Sabathia (1-5, 7.51) to the mound to counter Halladay. But in a matchup of aces, Sabathia hasn't really pitched like one consistently yet in 2008.
After four woeful starts in his first appearances since being named the 2007 AL Cy Young winner, Sabathia settled down, allowing one run in 14 innings in his next two outings.
He seemed to be cruising along in his last start, tossing six shutout innings, but was pulled in the seventh after getting just one out and yielding four runs in Cleveland's 4-2 loss to Kansas City.
"I feel a lot better than I did in the first couple of games," said Sabathia, who is 6-3 with a 3.71 ERA lifetime against Toronto. "I needed to shut the door."
The Blue Jays have lost 12 of their last 13 in Cleveland.
