O's game blog: Gausman against Buehrle in series opener

The Toronto Blue Jays are leading the American League East by 4 1/2 games and play 10 of their next 13 games against the Orioles and Yankees, the two teams currently tied for second place. The division race could get real interesting over this stretch. This game is set to start on time following an afternoon of rain that has kept a lot of fans away. It's a small crowd with the possibility of more rain later. The Blue Jays' run against their closest pursuers begins as the O's are set to host Toronto tonight to start a four-game series with Kevin Gausman (1-1, 4.91 ERA) facing Mark Buehrle (10-2, 2.04 ERA). Buehrle is tied for first in the major leagues in wins with New York's Masahiro Tanaka and is second in the American League in ERA. Buehrle has given up two earned runs or less in 11 of his 13 starts and has allowed one earned run or less seven times. He has 11 quality starts, including eight in a row coming into tonight's game. On the road, he is 5-0 with a 1.47 ERA and .217 batting average against. In one start this season against the Orioles he got the win on April 13. He gave up five hits and one run over seven innings, throwing 91 pitches. Buehrle has really excelled in 2014 when pitching with runners in scoring positon, giving up just eight hits over 71 at-bats for an average of .113. Opponent batters are slugging just .141 off him in such instances with an OPS of .284. That is pretty remarkable. Caleb Joseph has caught Gausman in the last two years in the minors and caught him Saturday when he gave up just one run over seven innings against Oakland. Joseph puts that outing at the top of any where he caught the right-hander. "Probably was the best," he said. "He really commanded the fastball well and mixed in the offspeed when we needed to. He's proving right now why he is going to be a big part of this team now and in the future. "We've played together for two years. Now we just have to adjust to the scouting reports accordingly. I know exactly what he does well and you add that to the advance reports and I feel like we have a good plan each time. He's a special talent and we're glad to have him on our team."