Manager John Gibbons will trot out almost the same starting lineup for tonight's American League wild-card game against Baltimore that helped the Blue Jays win the final two games of a weekend series at Boston.
The only difference is Michael Saunders, who appeared as a pinch hitter on Saturday and Sunday, will start the one-game playoff at 8:08 p.m. ET and make his 10th appearance of the season as the designated hitter. Jose Bautista DH'ed the two games in Boston, but he will start in right field tonight.
Saunders, a native of Victoria, B.C., played 106 of 129 games in left field this season, but will give way to the more fleet-footed Ezequiel Carrera at the Rogers Centre.
A left-handed bat, Saunders has a .286 batting average (6-for-21) against Baltimore starting pitcher Chris Tillman with two home runs and a .348 on-base percentage. Saunders gives Gibbons a little more speed on the bases than if he started fellow lefty hitters Justin Smoak and Dioner Navarro.
How have the @BlueJays fared vs. Chris Tillman? #WildCard http://pic.twitter.com/RhhsilXtu0
— @MLB
Devon Travis will also be in his customary leadoff spot after going 5-for-14 (.357) in Boston, where the second baseman provided Toronto its first run in Sunday's 2-1 victory with a solo home run off Red Sox lefty David Price in the fifth inning. Travis has three hits in eight at-bats versus Tillman with two doubles and seven runs batted in.
Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Troy Tulowitzki and Kevin Pillar each have three homers versus Tillman, who limited the Jays to two runs (one earned) over 5 2/3 innings last Wednesday but is 5-10 with a 5.44 earned-run average in 24 career starts against Toronto.
The #BlueJays are 9-34 when they don't hit a home run, 5-17 when they don't hit a HR at Rogers.
— @joe_sheehan
Baltimore, which is 4-6 at the Rogers Centre this season, will have veteran major leaguer Adam Jones leading off. He has gone 5-for-16 (.400) against Jays right-hander Marcus Stroman, whom Gibbons elected to start over Francisco Liriano, who has a 2.03 ERA in six games (four starts) since Sept. 1.
He'll be followed by left-fielder Hyun Soo Kim, a key contributor in the Orioles' series win at Toronto last week. He evened the three-game set 1-1 with a pinch-hit, two-run homer off Jays closer Roberto Osuna in the ninth inning for a 3-2 victory. The next night, he added two hits, drove in a run and walked in a 4-0 win.
Middle-of-the-order hitters Manny Machado, Mark Trumbo and Matt Wieters combined for 101 home runs this season. Wieters has taken Stroman deep twice in 14 at-bats, Machado once in 12 at-bats while Trumbo led the majors in homers this season with 47, and is 5-for-11 with two doubles against Stroman in his career.
The middle of the @Orioles order has had some success vs. Marcus Stroman. #WildCard http://pic.twitter.com/iHpuEwYnzq
— @MLB
"There are no pitches you can take off," Stroman told reporters on Monday. "Each pitch you have has to be executed. You make a mistake and they make you pay. So that's the mentality going into it."
The 25-year-old Stroman has made three post-season starts, all last fall, and has a 1-0 record, 4.19 earned-run average and 1.34 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched).
Last Oct. 14, he held Texas to two earned runs on six hits in six innings of a no-decision in Toronto's 6-3 victory in the deciding game of a best-of-five AL Division Series at the Rogers Centre.
Tillman, 28, is 1-0 with a 6.75 ERA in two post-season appearances.
The right-hander has failed to last six innings in each of his past three starts and has a 4.45 ERA in 11 starts since the all-star break.
Devon Travis leads off, Michael Saunders at DH for wild-card game
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