(Sports Network) - Ricky Romero will try to get the Toronto Blue Jays back on track this evening when they open a four-game set with the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field.
The Jays, who with 40 wins are one of the biggest surprises in the league, had a difficult time in Philadelphia over the weekend, dropping two of three including an 11-2 rout in Sunday's finale. Vernon Wells went 2-for-3 and upped his home run total to 19 with a two-run shot for Toronto, which committed four errors in its fifth loss in seven games.
Brett Cecil (7-5) surrendered seven runs -- five earned -- on 10 hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings to get the loss.
"We didn't give [Cecil] any support in terms of defense," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "We certainly lost as a team today."
Hoping for a little more run support tonight will be Romero, who hasn't allowed a run in either of his last two starts. Romero, though, didn't get a win on Wednesday against St. Louis despite scattering eight hits in eight scoreless innings of his team's 1-0 loss.
"It was a tough one, a pitchers' duel. I knew it was going to be a tough one. It was just a good game," said the hard-luck Romero, who is 6-3 on the season with a 2.85 eared run average.
Romero, 2-0 in two starts versus the Indians, has allowed two runs or less in four of his last five starts overall, but is just 2-1 in that time.
Cleveland, meanwhile, will counter with veteran right-hander Jake Westbrook, who is 4-4 with a 4.90 ERA. Westbrook did not get a decision in his last start on Wednesday in Philadelphia, as he allowed four runs and seven hits in five innings of his team's 7-6 loss.
Westbrook has faced the Blue Jays nine times (sevens tarts) and is 2-2 with a 5.05 ERA.
Cleveland snapped a seven-game losing streak on Sunday, as Shin-Soo Choo hit two home runs and Mitch Talbot was sharp through seven innings, helping the Indians to a 5-3 win over Cincinnati to conclude their three-game interleague set.
Talbot (8-6) surrendered just a lone run on three hits while striking out five and walking three for the Tribe, who won for just a second time in their last 13 games. Kerry Wood struck out the side in order in the ninth to earn his sixth save of the season.
Toronto swept a three-game set from the Indians back in early May and have won six of its last seven in Cleveland.