The Braves continued to employ the short rotation they had used during the postseason and sent Tom Glavine, the Game 1 winner, out for his second start of the series, bypassing 15-game-winner Charlie Leibrandt, who had only seen mop-up duty for Atlanta in Games 5 and 6 of the NLCS. For the Blue Jays, veteran Jimmy Key was given the start. Key had been with the Blue Jays since 1984 and was one of several players from their first ever division champion squad that were still with the team. However, he had not performed particularly well during the season and Cito Gaston had not included him in the ALCS rotation; Key only pitched in Toronto's Game 5 loss in relief.