Tampa Bay @ Toronto preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 10, 2010 ) Tampa Bay 9, Toronto 8

For 23 years, the Toronto Blue Jays have trotted out an array of sluggers who failed to break the franchise record for home runs in a season.

Saturday, the new standard may be set by the unlikeliest of players.

Jose Bautista looks to become the Jays' new single-season home-run king as Toronto resumes its three-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays at the Rogers Centre. The Rays come in having won two of their last three games while the Jays have dropped three in a row.

Tampa built an early seven-run lead in Friday's series opener, but Bautista led the Jays all the way back. His two-run homer in the fifth inning cut the deficit to 8-5, and he added a two-run shot in the seventh to even the score 8-8.

The Rays regained the lead for good in the ninth, scoring the go-ahead run on an error by Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar.

The story of the night was Bautista, who increased his major league-leading home-run total to 46. The 29-year-old, who hadn't hit more than 16 home runs in a season prior to 2010, is just one home run shy of equaling the franchise mark set by George Bell in 1987.

No other Blue Jay in team history – not Fred McGriff, Carlos Delgado, Shawn Green or Jose Canseco – has duplicated Bell's feat, which earned him the American League MVP award that season. Canseco came the closest, belting 46 homers during the 1998 season.

If Bautista can hit four more home runs over the team's final 21 games, he'll become the first AL player to reach the 50-homer plateau since New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez hit 54 back in 2007. That was also the last year an NL player turned the trick, with Milwaukee's Prince Fielder belting 50 that season.

Bautista will look to equal the franchise mark against Tampa hurler Wade Davis (11-9), who hasn't been very accommodating of late. The right-hander, who turned 25 earlier this week, is on a personal six-game winning streak and has allowed two runs or fewer in six of his last eight starts.

Davis took a no-decision in his last outing, charged with four runs over five innings in a game the Rays eventually lost 8-7 to the Baltimore Orioles. Prior to that start, he limited Toronto to a pair of runs over 7 2/3 innings on the way to a 6-2 victory.

Bautista managed just a single in four at-bats in the game, and is just 1-for-6 lifetime against Davis.

Friday's win was a big one for the Rays, who closed to within two games of the division-leading New York Yankees in the race for top spot in the American League East. The Yankees dropped a 6-5, 13-inning marathon to the Texas Rangers.

Tampa will aim to make it two in a row at the expense of Toronto starter Ricky Romero (12-8). The 25-year-old left-hander is 6-2 over his last 10 starts, including a victory over the Rays on Aug. 31. He surrendered five runs over 7 1/3 innings as the Jays cruised to a 13-5 victory.

Romero is 2-1 lifetime against Tampa with a 3.18 ERA in 28 1/3 innings.