Detroit @ Toronto preview

Last Meeting ( Jul 9, 2016 ) Detroit 3, Toronto 2

The Toronto Blue Jays' season-high seven-game winning streak may be a thing of the past, but the club probably couldn't be much happier about its current situation during what was a trying first half of the season. The Blue Jays will enter the All-Star break seeking their eighth win in nine tries Sunday, when they look to take a four-game home set and the season series from the Detroit Tigers.

Toronto, which has split six games with Detroit in 2016, stumbled to a 19-23 start in part due to an inconsistent offense that ranked in the middle of the pack in runs scored with 264 through June 10, but Edwin Encarnacion and Josh Donaldson have sparked the underachieving unit to a major-league best 177 runs in the 27 games since. The result has been a 17-7 record over the following 24 contests, guaranteeing the Blue Jays (50-40) their best first half since winning the first of two consecutive World Series titles in 1992. The Tigers have already assured themselves a winning 11-game road trip (6-4 so far) after Victor Martinez belted a go-ahead solo homer in the eighth inning of Saturday's 3-2 victory to break the Blue Jays' winning streak, but they have dropped four of six since beginning their long journey with a four-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays. Martinez is only 1-for-10 this series and has opened the month slowly (7-for-34), but he is still batting .333 with 11 home runs and 31 RBIs in 48 road games this season.
TV: 1:07 p.m. ET, FSN Detroit, SportsNet (Toronto)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Tigers RH Anibal Sanchez (5-9, 6.52 ERA) vs. Blue Jays RH R.A. Dickey (6-9, 4.10)
With Detroit's rotation decimated by injury, Sanchez will draw a second straight spot start five days after getting pounded for seven runs on five hits and four walks over 4 1/3 innings in a loss to Cleveland. Since opening the season with wins in both of his first two turns (3.38 ERA), the 32-year-old Venezuelan is 3-9 with a 6.95 ERA over his last 19 appearances (11 starts). Sanchez has held Toronto scoreless in a couple of relief outings this season and picked up the victory in his last start against the Blue Jays last July.
Dickey improved to 1-6 with a 4.82 ERA in nine home starts in Tuesday's win over Kansas City, limiting the Royals to two runs on five hits and three walks while fanning eight across seven frames. The 2012 National League Cy Young Award winner fell one strikeout short of his season high and lasted at least seven innings for the second straight turn, matching the number of times he did so over his first 16 outings. Dickey is 8-3 with a 4.01 ERA in 20 career appearances (13 starts) versus the Tigers.

WALK-OFFS
1. Donaldson is one run shy of becoming only the sixth player in AL history to score 80 runs and hit 20 homers before the break (Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Reggie Jackson, Frank Thomas and Alex Rodriguez).
2. Detroit 1B Miguel Cabrera hasn't homered in his last nine games but needs only one to tie Hall-of-Famer Mike Piazza for 47th place on the all-time list with 427.
3. Toronto's rotation has held the opposition to three earned runs or fewer in 11 consecutive outings, and two runs or fewer in eight of those contests.

PREDICTION: Blue Jays 11, Tigers 4