(Sports Network) - Outstanding control has helped Blue Jays hurler Brandon
Morrow put together a three-game win streak.
He'll try to extend his string of scoreless outings and slow down Oakland's
Brandon Inge as Toronto concludes a brief two-game series with the Athletics.
Morrow showed enough promise as a youngster to prompt the Mariners to take him
fifth overall in the 2006 draft and reached double-digit wins in each of the
previous two seasons as a full-time starter with the Blue Jays. He has
certainly put it together as of late, giving up one run and just one walk over
his last 21 2/3 innings.
The 27-year-old righty hasn't allowed a run or a walk in his last two outings,
keeping the Mariners off the board for six innings on April 28 in a 7-0 win
before tossing a three-hit shutout on Thursday at the Angels. Morrow struck
out eight and faced just one batter over the minimum thanks to two double
plays in his second career shutout.
"My fastball command is what did it tonight," Morrow said. "Most of my
strikeouts were on sliders. I was able to change speeds. I had better life on
my fastball, I could hit down and away anytime I wanted to."
Morrow, now 3-1 with a 2.38 earned run average on the season, is 3-0 with a
pair of saves and 4.01 ERA in 19 career meetings with the Athletics, including
five starts.
Morrow will be tasked with slowing down Inge, who has posted consecutive four
RBI games and capped Oakland's ninth-inning comeback in Tuesday's opener with
a walk-off grand slam for a 7-3 victory.
Cliff Pennington notched the game-tying RBI before Inge took Blue Jays closer
Francisco Cordero deep. Inge was playing in his first home game with the A's
after the long-time Tiger was released last month and signed by Oakland on
April 29.
"He's here for a reason," said A's manager Bob Melvin. "He's going to play."
Toronto had taken a one-run lead in the top of the ninth on a run-scoring hit
by Kelly Johnson, but Cordero blew his third straight save opportunity.
"The three outs in the ninth are pretty tough for us right now," said Blue
Jays manager John Farrell.
Toronto lost its third straight game, while Oakland won its third in a row and
fifth in six contests.
Melvin had originally moved up Brandon McCarthy to start Tuesday's game, but
instead opted to go with rookie Jarrod Parker. McCarthy, meanwhile, had his
next start pushed back to Saturday due to a sore right shoulder.
Struggling right-hander Tyson Ross will instead go today hoping to avoid a
third straight loss. He had allowed just three earned runs over his first two
starts, but has been tagged for 16 runs over 7 1/3 frames of back-to-back
defeats.
Ross yielded seven runs over 3 1/3 innings on Friday in Tampa Bay to suffer a
7-2 setback. The 25-year-old also saw his ERA rise to 8.55.
"I didn't think his command within the strike zone was good today," Melvin
said of Ross' outing.
Ross will make his first career start versus the Blue Jays having faced them
once before in relief.
These two clubs split 10 meetings a season ago, with each winning twice in
Oakland.
The Sports Network