In Sunday afternoon MLB action, the Oakland Athletics will battle the Toronto Blue Jays from the Rogers Centre. The Athletics (74-62) have dropped consecutive games and trail Boston by 3.5 games in the race for the final AL Wild Card spot. On Saturday, Oakland rallied for five runs in the ninth inning before falling against Toronto by a 10-8 final score.
Twenty-seven year old southpaw Cole Irvin (9-12 3.74 ERA) will head to the hill for Oakland in this contest. Last time out, Irvin gave up three runs in four plus innings during a 9-3 road victory against Detroit.
The Toronto Blue Jays have won three straight games and are 4.5 games back in the AL Wild Card chase. During Saturday’s home victory, OF Lourdes Gurriel Jr. homered and drove in four runs to power the Toronto offense. All-Star Teoscar Hernandez added a three-run blast for the Blue Jays, who improved to 72-62 on the season.
The Blue Jays will counter with talented left-hander Rpbbie Ray (10-5 2.71 ERA) on Sunday. Through 159 plus innings, Ray ranks third in the league with 202 strikeouts and owns a sparkling 1.01 WHIP.
