Toronto Blue Jays look to stop skid against surging Angels

May 16, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Toronto Blue Jays relief pitcher Marco Estrada (25) pitches in the bottom of the first inning to the Houston Astros in the first inning at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports

Game 4:  Thursday, May 21st  –  7:07 ET

Marco Estrada is scheduled to take the hill for Toronto in their finale as he looks to hold off Daniel Norris for his starting job.  He made a good case in his last outing, striking out eight batters over five innings against the Houston Astros.

While Estrada has performed admirably stretching himself out as a starter, it’s still evident that he was a better quality pitcher in a long-relief role.  Unfortunately, the lack of starting pitching depth on the Blue Jays roster doesn’t allow for a simple re-shuffling of the deck, so Estrada will be given every opportunity to hang on to this job.

Matt Shoemaker will close it out for LA, and despite coming off his best start of the season, he’s looked fairly inconsistent to date.  Shoemaker enters with a 5.63 ERA and shouldn’t cause the Blue Jays’ bats too many issues (knock on wood).  The right-hander will feature a fastball that hovers around 90 MPH with a changeup that he uses nearly one third of the time.

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