(Best E Casino) - The Toronto Blue Jays open up their final homestand of the season tonight with the first of three consecutive meetings with the Baltimore Orioles from the Rogers Centre.

Toronto has won its last six home games and owns a strong 43-29 record as the host this season. The club returns to its friendly confines off a disappointing series in Boston, however, as the Blue Jays dropped three of four tests to the Red Sox to virtually kill their already-slim playoff chances.

After splitting the first two matchups with Boston, Toronto lost the final two games and now stands nine games behind the American League wild-card leading Red Sox with just 12 remaining.

In Sunday's series finale, Coco Crisp knocked in a pair of runs and Jon Lester hurled eight strong innings as Boston edged the Jays by a 4-3 count.

Jose Bautista homered and both Adam Lind and Scott Rolen knocked in runs during a ninth-inning comeback try for Toronto, which ended an eight-game road trip with a 4-4 record.

Roy Halladay (18-11) took the loss for the Blue Jays after giving up three runs -- two earned -- over seven innings of work.

Baltimore was also idle yesterday and enters tonight's tilt off a 7-3 decision over visiting Minnesota on Sunday. Radhames Liz led the way by tossing eight scoreless innings to help the Orioles avoid a potential three-game sweep at the hands of the Twins.

Liz (6-5) yielded just five hits and one walk in the longest outing of his brief major league career. The rookie received plenty of support from Nick Markakis and Oscar Salazar, both of whom belted a pair of home runs and ended with three RBI on the afternoon.

Lou Montanez added a solo blast for Baltimore, which had lost four of five prior to Sunday's triumph.

The Orioles will take their swings this evening against Shaun Marcum, who has delivered strong performances in each of his last two starts.

The Toronto right-hander defeated the White Sox on Thursday by surrendering just two runs on five hits over 7 1/3 innings. Five days earlier, he twirled seven scoreless frames in a hard-luck no-decision against Tampa Bay at the Rogers Centre.

Marcum has compiled a 4-1 record with a 2.75 earned run average over his last six starts and allowed two runs or fewer in all but one of those outings.

The 26-year-old will be facing the Orioles for the fourth time this season and owns a 1-0 record with a 4.42 ERA against Baltimore in 2008. For his career, Marcum is 1-1 with a 6.12 ERA in nine games (7 starts) versus tonight's opponent.

Baltimore will hand the ball to Chris Waters, who will be making his first career start against the Blue Jays and the ninth of his rookie campaign.

Waters has gone 2-3 with a 5.73 ERA since being promoted to the majors in early August and has lost his last three decisions. The left-hander's most recent setback came Wednesday against Cleveland, with Waters being reached for five runs and nine hits over 5 2/3 innings.

The Blue Jays are 8-4 against the Orioles so far this year and have taken seven of the last eight meetings between these AL East foes. Baltimore has lost in four of last six visits to the Rogers Centre and is just 8-17 in Toronto since the start of the 2006 season.