The New York Yankees will look to defend home turf when the Toronto Blues visit Friday night at 7:05 pm ET.
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Via ESPN:
A series of offseason transactions made Toronto (17-24) a popular pick to contend for its first division title since winning back-to-back World Series in 1992 and '93.
Instead, the team has floundered at the bottom of the East, eight games back of the first-place Yankees (25-16) while batting .245 with a 5.26 ERA from the rotation that is among the highest in baseball.
Those new acquisitions -- Jose Reyes, Melky Cabrera, R.A. Dickey, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle -- have either struggled, been hurt or both.
"All we can do from here on out is play good consistent baseball," manager John Gibbons told the team's official website. "We've dug a pretty big hole, and there's a lot of good teams in our division ... so it won't be easy. There still is a lot of time, but you got to play better baseball from here on out.
"Let's face it, we've got to have some pretty good streaks in there, too."
The Blue Jays have won four straight, hitting .340 with eight homers and 36 runs. They beat San Francisco 11-3 on Wednesday, sweeping the two-game set.
Cabrera and Jose Bautista have keyed the winning streak. Cabrera is 7 for 16 with four RBIs and five runs after being moved into the leadoff spot, while Bautista is 8 for 15 with two homers and five RBIs.
Toronto would like to see that production continue with its next 10 games against the Yankees, Tampa Bay and Baltimore.
The Blue Jays, though, have dropped 16 of 18 in New York, and were swept in a four-game set there April 25-28.
Snapping that skid is made even more daunting with Hiroki Kuroda (5-2, 2.31 ERA) scheduled to take the mound.
The right-hander, who ranks among the league leaders in ERA, has won three straight home starts, yielding three runs in 22 innings.
Kuroda allowed two runs in 7 2/3 innings of Sunday's 4-2 win at Kansas City.
