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Shaun Marcum has done nothing but impress the Blue Jays since the club decided to move him into the starting rotation. Since leaving the bullpen, Marcum has gone 1-0 with a 2.16 ERA in four starts for Toronto, which owns a 3-1 record in those games.

On Sunday, Marcum will have a chance to clinch a series victory over the White Sox, who have lost six of their last seven contests. In his four starts, the 25-year-old right-hander has tallied 21 strikeouts and allowed just 12 hits over 25 innings.

In his last outing, Marcum earned a no-decision in a strong performance against the Yankees on Tuesday. He turned in six shutout innings and only yielded two hits. Marcum struck out six, marking the third time he's notched at least that many strikeouts in his four starts.

Chicago will counter with left-hander John Danks, who has never faced Toronto, which has gone 13-8 since losing nine in a row at the beginning of May. It took until his ninth big-league start, but Danks finally looked like a rookie during a loss to Minnesota in the Metrodome on Tuesday night.

The southpaw, who previously had shown the composure of a veteran, allowed six earned runs on nine hits over 3 1/3 innings. Danks walked four, gave up two home runs and didn't strike out a batter in the shortest outing of his career. He was 3-1 with a 2.45 ERA in his previous four outings.

Pitching matchup
CWS: LHP John Danks (3-5, 4.59 ERA)
Danks has gone 1-3 with a 5.40 ERA in five starts on the road this season.

TOR: RHP Shaun Marcum (2-2, 3.70 ERA)
Right-handed batters have posted a .137 average versus Marcum this year.

Player to watch
Toronto second baseman Aaron Hill has hit .421 (8-for-19) with one home run and seven RBIs through the first six games of the current homestand. Hill went 2-for-5 with three RBIs in Toronto's win on Saturday.

Nice thread Good job!

Nice win..only 2 hits.

Looks like Doc's back.

Nice work Rare, hopefully the Jays can continue to take advantage of the struggling Sox the next few games.

what more can you say about Doc - would love to see this guy in the playoffs some day

Doc truly amazes me. We have one of the best pitchers in the game, and we've had him for years. We need to make a run while we have him.

I never liked how Vernon got all that money, and became our top paid guy. No doubt Roy is the leader of this team.

Andrea>Dirk wrote:Nice thread Good job!

Seriously! Sweet looking game-day thread.

Halladay is the man. If Burnett can keep it up and McGowan and Marcum are for real, we will make a wildcard run. We're only 5 back and there is lots of time left. Boston will swoon at some point, but I think they're for real. Thomas and Wells need to start to earn their cheque.

kelso wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Seriously! Sweet looking game-day thread.

Halladay is the man. If Burnett can keep it up and McGowan and Marcum are for real, we will make a wildcard run. We're only 5 back and there is lots of time left. Boston will swoon at some point, but I think they're for real. Thomas and Wells need to start to earn their cheque.

Totally agree. Also:

Thomas is coming around, Wells is at least TRYING to hit the ball up the middle and the other way some of the time now. He should start hitting soon.

I really think they need to push Glaus down and put Rios behind Wells and Thomas to force teams to throw strikes to them.

Put Hill up top because, well, he's the smartest and best hitter we've got who actually has some speed. He's really learned to take the pitch away and hit it hard. He also knows when to pull the ball, and has some good gap power.

Leave Overbay where he is because those two work as a good hit and run tandem. Hill should open up some holes for him to swing through.

Wells has to hit third because he's a triple threat with speed and Thomas hits fourth, with the ability to take close pitches and take a walk.

Glaus is a typical six--see the ball hit the ball. Rios protects all of the hitters enough where they might see a few more fastballs to their liking.

Hill
Overbay
Wells
Thomas
Rios
Glaus
Lind
Fasano/Phillips
Mcdonald.

The DOC is back!

youreachiteach wrote:

kelso wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Seriously! Sweet looking game-day thread.

Halladay is the man. If Burnett can keep it up and McGowan and Marcum are for real, we will make a wildcard run. We're only 5 back and there is lots of time left. Boston will swoon at some point, but I think they're for real. Thomas and Wells need to start to earn their cheque.

Totally agree. Also:

Thomas is coming around, Wells is at least TRYING to hit the ball up the middle and the other way some of the time now. He should start hitting soon.

I really think they need to push Glaus down and put Rios behind Wells and Thomas to force teams to throw strikes to them.

Put Hill up top because, well, he's the smartest and best hitter we've got who actually has some speed. He's really learned to take the pitch away and hit it hard. He also knows when to pull the ball, and has some good gap power.

Leave Overbay where he is because those two work as a good hit and run tandem. Hill should open up some holes for him to swing through.

Wells has to hit third because he's a triple threat with speed and Thomas hits fourth, with the ability to take close pitches and take a walk.

Glaus is a typical six--see the ball hit the ball. Rios protects all of the hitters enough where they might see a few more fastballs to their liking.

Hill
Overbay
Wells
Thomas
Rios
Glaus
Lind
Fasano/Phillips
Mcdonald.

I like it.

Also- did I actually see a BlueJay catcher throw someone out yesterday?? Wow. I like Fasano- he handles the pitcherd well and Phillips is Huckaby revisited if you ask me. When Zaun comes back, Phillips needs to go away.

Tough break for Beurle. He will never pitch a game that well and lose again. No baserunners at all. Never had to pitch from the stretch. 2-hitter, complete game. But still takes the loss..

Went to the game last night. That was one of the quicker games I've ever been to. Sal Fasano actually played really well, throwing out two runners and calling a gem with Halladay. Aaron Hill got some pretty good wood in his at bats, you can tell his confidence at the plate is much different this year, I got the same feeling with Rios. Vernon Wells is a clown in the dugout, jumping on players and playing around with them all.

updated with tonight's lineups, starting pitchers and preview.

Burnett with 12k's and no run support. Sheesh.

whosthebosh? wrote:Burnett with 12k's and no run support. Sheesh.

Yeah the offense is really doing a poor job recently.

Vazquez pitched one hell of a game too, though.

WOW sick comeback by the Jays this afternoon!

Rios just belted one out of the park...his 13th!

Third consecutive good start by McGowan. Very encouraging. He's the only young pitcher on the team who could be a top of the rotation starter, so if he pans out, the rotation is going to look very good moving forward.

Thank god for the extra option year....

Huge win for the Jays and especially for Vernon who really needed something go his way. Mcgowan was great once again and we have a legit shot at the wildcard if the starting 4 can stay healthy and Chacin comes back.

Michael Bradley wrote:Third consecutive good start by McGowan. Very encouraging. He's the only young pitcher on the team who could be a top of the rotation starter, so if he pans out, the rotation is going to look very good moving forward.

Thank god for the extra option year....

Agreed. Having McGowan winning games really improves this team's prospects. Three front-end rotation pitchers leaves only 1-2 starting positions to fill... and that means targetting one FA this coming offseason instead of trying to fill out the entire rotation.

For this season, however, if the bats start hitting more reguarly, we just might have a shot at the wild card. A long shot, mind you, but nevertheless, maybe something to get excited about.