Toronto @ St. Louis preview

Last Meeting ( Jun 24, 2010 ) St. Louis 0, Toronto 5

THE STORY: The Toronto Blue Jays are having their fair share of difficulties with the interleague schedule. Coming off a three-game sweep at the hands of the Atlanta Braves, Toronto will try its luck against the host St. Louis Cardinals in Friday's series opener. The Blue Jays, who are now 3-6 in interleague play, will test their mettle against Jake Westbrook. For its part, St. Louis won for just the third time in 12 outings after routing the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday.

TV: 8:15 p.m. ET, RSN (Toronto), FSMW (St. Louis)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Blue Jays RH Brandon Morrow (3-4, 5.02 ERA) vs. Cardinals RH Jake Westbrook (6-4, 5.16 ERA)

Morrow posted his first victory in over a month in his last outing. The 26-year-old Californian tossed 6 2/3 scoreless innings and struck out six in a 4-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday. The victory was a welcome result, considering he yielded a career-high nine earned runs in a 16-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox last week. Morrow won his lone career start against the Cardinals, tossing eight shutout innings.

Westbrook has yielded four runs on eight hits in both of his last two outings. As a result, he received a no-decision against the Kansas City Royals on Saturday and a loss against the Milwaukee Brewers on June 12. The latter decision stopped a four-game winning streak for the hurler. Westbrook has posted a 3-2 career mark with a 4.54 ERA versus the Blue Jays.

ABOUT THE BLUE JAYS (36-39): Toronto is trying to solve its offensive woes. The Blue Jays have batted a paltry .168 and plated just 10 runs during the first six games of their road trip. Adam Lind is certainly doing his part to help Toronto. He is batting .344 with eight homers since returning from the disabled list. Jose Bautista is expected to move from the outfield to third base. The Blue Jays recalled outfielder Eric Thames, who had been on a tear for Triple-A Las Vegas. He is batting .375 in 17 games this month. The move is being made with the intent of infusing some much-needed life into the offense.

ABOUT THE CARDINALS (41-35): Lance Berkman belted a three-run homer to highlight a six-run uprising in the eighth inning of Thursday's 12-2 rout of the Phillies. Berkman now has 54 RBIs on the season. That's quite the contribution since he had 58 in the entire 2010 campaign. Berkman is 2-for-5 in his career against Morrow. Rookie catcher Tony Cruz collected his first two RBIs of his career with a pair of run-scoring singles on Thursday. Cruz was playing in place of Yadier Molina, who was scheduled to have the night off. Molina will assume his rightful place behind the plate on Friday.

FINAL PITCH: St. Louis leads the all-time series by winning six of the nine contests between the clubs.