Toronto @ Los Angeles preview

Last Meeting ( Aug 13, 2010 ) Toronto 3, LA Angels 0

The Toronto Blue Jays hope one of their lefty starters has the right stuff for the second straight night.

Brett Cecil looks for his 10th victory of the season Saturday as he leads the Blue Jays into the second game of their weekend series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Toronto enters the game having won 13 of their last 19 games, while the Angels have victories in five of their last seven contests.

Toronto won Friday's series opener in a rare matchup of southpaw starters. Mark Rzepczynski earned his first major-league victory in almost a year, scattering a pair of hits over seven sensational innings to outduel Scott Kazmir and lead the Blue Jays to a 3-0 triumph.

It was Rzepczynski's first victory in the majors since last Aug. 21, also against Los Angeles.

Toronto hopes Cecil (9-5) can follow suit. The 24-year-old left-hander is coming off one of his strongest outings of the season, limiting Tampa Bay to a run on four hits while recording nine strikeouts over seven solid innings. Toronto went on to win the game 2-1, giving Cecil just his second victory since June 10.

Cecil has pitched well over his last six outings, allowing no more than three runs in any of them. Yet, he has been handcuffed by a lack of run support that has seen him go just 2-0 with four no-decisions over that span. To his credit, Toronto is 4-2 in his last six outings.

Cecil has made just one career start against the Angels, and it was a beauty. He limited them to a pair of hits over 7 1/3 shutout innings to propel the Blue Jays to a 6-0 victory back on May 24. With that loss, the Angels became the last team in the majors to be shut out this season.

Friday must have felt a little like deja vu to the Angels, who again struggled against a Toronto left-hander. Rzepczynski kept the Angels off-balance all night, registering six strikeouts without walking a batter. He induced 12 ground balls and just three fly balls in the victory.

The Angels counter with right-hander Ervin Santana (11-8), who bounced back from a pair of horrid outings his last time out. The 27-year-old allowed three runs on six hits over 6 1/3 innings to backstop the Angels to a 6-4 win over Kansas City. Santana had surrendered 16 runs in just 9 2/3 innings over his previous two appearances.

Santana is 4-3 lifetime against Toronto with a 4.61 ERA in 52 2/3 innings. He has had the Jays' number this season, orchestrating a pair of complete-game victories over them. The last came May 25, when he went he struck out 10 Toronto batters on the way to an 8-3 victory.