Familiarity breeds contempt.

The Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles know each other well. They play each other 18 times a season. As such, they probably don’t like each other.

The issue, then, for these division rivals is what to consider when it comes to selecting their starting pitchers for the American League wild-card game. Do you go for the hot hand? Do call on a so-called “big-game” pitcher? Or do you turn to a pitcher who has been historically successful against the other team?

Obviously, some of that decision will be based upon who’s available (Sunday’s pitchers, for example, in Aaron Sanchez and Kevin Gausman, are not), but each team still has options.

Let’s take a look at who might be starting for the Orioles and Jays in this winner-take-all encounter.

Baltimore Orioles

For the Orioles, the decision comes down to staff ace Chris Tillman or the scorching hot Ubaldo Jimenez.

Jimenez has not allowed more than four earned runs in a game since July 8 and comes into Tuesday after a terrific September. For the month, the 32-year-old righty was 3-1 with a 2.31 earned-run average in five starts. One of those starts – on Sept. 29 – came against the Jays. Jimenez threw 6.2 innings of one-hit ball in a 4-0 victory.

So go with Jimenez, right? Well, not so fast when you look at the rest of his season. He was 8-12 with a 5.44 ERA and 1.560 WHIP. Also, his year against the Jays prior to last Thursday wasn’t exactly sparkling. In his four previous starts this season, he was 0-1 with an ERA of 8.30. In a pair of back-to-back June outings against the Jays, he managed to last for a third of an inning in one and 2.1 innings in the other.

Alright, so Tillman, then.

His final start of the regular season – like Jimenez – was against the Jays. On Wednesday, Tillman got a no-decision in a 3-2 Orioles win. He went 5.2 innings, allowing one earned run on six hits. In fact, the Orioles are 4-0 in games against the Jays this season that Tillman has started.

Well, hold on. That last start was atypical to the form in which Tillman finished the season. In his last nine starts, Tillman is 2-4 with a 5.44 ERA and a WHIP of 1.54. And there’s the whole issue with Tillman over his career against the Jays – it hasn’t been pretty. He’s 5-10 with a 5.44 ERA and a 1.369 WHIP.

So what does Showalter do? Tillman – who would be on an extra day of rest - is a better pitcher than Jimenez, even with the latter’s recent hot run. But if they’re convinced that Jimenez can repeat what he did last week against the Jays – a team that scored a league-low 106 runs from Sept. 1 to the end of the season – then maybe he’s your guy.

Toronto Blue Jays

Like the Orioles, the Jays’ decision is down to two pitchers in Marcus Stroman and Francisco Liriano. The former has been a hard-luck loser of late, while the latter has surprisingly emerged as more than dependable after having seemingly been relegated to the bullpen.

Stroman hasn’t won in his last eight starts, but that hasn’t reflected his effort. Over that stretch, he was 0-5 with a 3.58 ERA. In those eight starts, the Jays combined for a total of 18 runs and were shut out twice, including last Thursday against the Orioles. In that 4-0 loss, Stroman allowed nine hits and four earned runs over seven innings. This season against the Orioles, Stroman is 1-1 with a 5.18 ERA in three starts.

Liriano started the month of September in the Blue Jays’ bullpen, but quickly found himself back in the rotation, making four starts in the month. In that time frame, Liriano went 1-1 with a 2.23 ERA. His last start came on Tuesday against the Orioles, where gave up a no runs and six hits in 6.1 innings of work.

That last start aside, there are two other big reasons to consider Liriano.

Firstly, the Orioles have generally been pretty poor against lefties this season. As a team, they hit .234 (second-worst in the MLB) with an on-base percentage of .301 (third-worst) and slugged at .391 (tied for sixth-worst). Contrast that with their numbers against righties – the Orioles hit .263 (fifth-best in the MLB) with an OBP of .322 (15th) and a SLG of .461 (third). They also led the league in home runs against righties with 204.

The other pro-Liriano factor is his prior success in a wild-card game. Liriano started for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2013 National League wild-card game at home against the division-rival Cincinnati Reds. Liriano went seven innings, allowing one run on four hits in a 6-2 victory. Coincidentally, a pair of other current Jays played big parts in that game, with Russell Martin going two-for-three with a home run and two runs batted in and Jason Grilli getting the save.

Irrespective of who gets the start for the Jays, expect the other pitcher to be ready to go in case things get pear-shaped in a hurry.

Tuesday can’t come soon enough for the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles. Rest assured, the anticipation is eating at both clubs. And regardless of who gets the start for either the Jays or Orioles, you can expect the decision to be second-guessed and picked apart by the losing team’s fans all the way until next spring and maybe even longer.

So no pressure, guys.