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The Toronto Blue Jays look to keep their perfect home record this season intact as they host the Oakland Athletics at Rogers Centre on Tuesday.

Getting the start for Toronto will be A.J. Burnett (1-0), who is coming off an impressive start against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in the team's second game of the season on April 2.

Toronto Blue Jays' A.J. Burnett will look to build on a solid win when he faces the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday.
(Julie Jacobson/Associated Press)

Burnett, 31, allowed two runs on five hits with three strikeouts and a walk in six innings in the Blue Jays' 5-2 win.

The right-hander will look to build on that performance against an A's team that he has had some success against. In three career starts against the Athletics, Burnett has posted a record of 1-1 with an earned-run average of 2.18.

Burnett appears to be continuing his roll from late last season, when he went 6-2 with a 3.01 ERA in his last 11 starts after a stint on the disabled list with right shoulder soreness.

All good signs for a Toronto team trying to extend a solid opening seven-day stretch into a second straight week.

Despite dropping two of three games against the Yankees by one run each, the Blue Jays responded with a sweep of the World Series champion Boston Red Sox, capped by a 7-4 win on Sunday.

In the team's sixth straight win over Boston dating back to last season, Roy Halladay (1-0) outlasted Red Sox ace Josh Beckett, striking out six and allowing just one walk in eight innings of work.

Vernon Wells smacked a two-run shot while Frank Thomas added a thrilling grand slam in the sixth inning to account for the majority of the Blue Jays' offence.

"To start off that way, where we're playing sound defensively, pitching well and to see the bats come in and take advantage of chances, it's nice to see that early on," said Halladay.

Athletics rebound after slow start

Rich Harden was slated to start against Burnett but injury woes continue to be a concern for the right-hander. Muscle soreness in his side will push his third start of the season to Saturday.

It's undoubtedly a frustrating setback for the talented 26-year-old, who started only four games last season and has been placed on the disabled list five times in the past three seasons.

The Athletics were trying to take a preventive approach with Harden — keeping him on a strict pitch count of 90 pitches despite throwing five strong innings of shutout baseball in his last start against the Red Sox, on April 2.

In his place on Tuesday, Chad Gaudin (11-13, 4.42 in 2007) will get the start after being activated from the 15-day disabled following offseason surgery on his left hip.

Justin Duchscherer, Wednesday's scheduled starter for Oakland, will also miss his start because of a strained right-biceps tendon.

Oakland comes to Toronto after its own surprising weekend series against a top team.

The Athletics (3-4) took two of three from the Cleveland Indians, last season's Central Division champs, only losing 2-1 on Sunday.

Joe Blanton kept the A's in the game by allowing just two runs in 6 2/3 innings, but the Indians' Cliff Lee gave up only one unearned run during the same span.

Oakland won last season's series against Toronto 5-4.

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