Rangers seek sweep of slumping Blue Jays (Apr 28, 2018)

TORONTO -- The Texas Rangers are doing their best to undo a poor start to the season, while the Toronto Blue Jays are going in the other direction by rapidly undoing the positives of their surprisingly good beginning.

The Rangers will be going for a three-game sweep of the Blue Jays Sunday afternoon at the Rogers Centre as they try to dig themselves out of a hole created by a 4-11 start.

The Rangers will start left-hander Martin Perez (2-2, 9.82 ERA) against Blue Jays left-hander J.A. Happ (3-1, 3,72).

The Rangers assured themselves of their second series victory of the season by defeating the Blue Jays 7-4 on Saturday.

"We need to go out and play another clean game of baseball," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said.

Their other series win was against the World Series champion Houston Astros at Houston April 13-15.

The Rangers (11-17) have won three games in a row for the first time this season. The Blue Jays (14-12) have lost four straight for the first time since Aug. 27-30 and have dropped seven of their past nine games.

To make matters worse for the Blue Jays, the starting pitching, which was supposed to be their strength, has not performed consistently well and that has put a strain on the bullpen.

"It's beat up," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "We've got the right guy going with Happ (Sunday). We'll see what happens. They're on fumes right now."

The Rangers also scored a run against Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna in the ninth inning Saturday and Banister felt it might help his team in the series finale.

"That was a big run for us I believe there in the ninth," Banister said. "To do it off their closer is obviously something that put a few more pitches on him and it may play out a little bit for us tomorrow. We'll see."

In his past three starts, Happ has pitched six innings twice and seven innings once.

After being carved up for seven innings by 44-year-old Bartolo Colon on Saturday, the Blue Jays will face a struggling Perez who will make his fifth start of the season Sunday. Perez has allowed 46 of 100 batters he has faced this season to reach base safely.

The 27-year-old, however, is 1-1 with a 2.08 ERA in three career starts against the Blue Jays. In one career start at the Rogers Centre, he did not factor in the decision of a 3-1 Rangers loss May 3, 2016 in which he allowed no runs, four hits and three walks while striking out four in five innings.

Happ is 3-2 with a 3.07 ERA in five career starts against the Rangers and has been the steadiest member of the Blue Jays rotation so far. Marcus Stroman, on Friday night, and Jaime Garcia on Saturday, allowed six runs in 5 1/3 innings and five runs in five innings respectively.

In a media scrum that was short, almost comedic and was an example of how uptight the Blue Jays become, a terse Garcia was asked if there was anything positive to be taken from Saturday.

"No," he said. "We lost. I didn't get the job done."

He also muttered something about how the Rangers put some good swings on some pitches.

His brief quotes were as accurate as they were unenlightening.

Garcia also was not helped by some shabby defense by all three outfielders, but he put himself in a position of vulnerability with four walks, three wild pitches and homers.

Despite their poor overall record, the Rangers are 7-5 on the road. The Blue Jays are 8-7 at home and will be trying to get their second win of a six-game homestand on Sunday.

Toronto also needs a win to even the season series with the Rangers after taking two of three at Arlington, Tex., April 6-8.