{"id":15373,"date":"2011-05-11T08:58:32","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T13:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=15373"},"modified":"2011-05-11T08:58:32","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T13:58:32","slug":"al-east-showdown-boston-red-sox-at-toronto-blue-jays-mlb-handicapping-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/al-east-showdown-boston-red-sox-at-toronto-blue-jays-mlb-handicapping-preview-15373\/","title":{"rendered":"AL East Showdown: Boston Red Sox at Toronto Blue Jays MLB Handicapping Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays host the Boston Red Sox in the final game of a shortened two-game series after tallying an extra-innings victory last night at the Rogers Centre<\/p>\n

Boston Red Sox at Toronto Blue Jays<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Toronto Blue Jays are after a short two-game series sweep over the Boston Red Sox<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boston has had four chances this season to reach the .500 mark and has lost all four of those games.\u00a0 The Red Sox fell 7-6 to the Blue Jays in 10 innings on Tuesday night despite receiving two home runs from first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.\u00a0 \u201cA loss is a loss,\u201d Gonzalez commented.\u00a0 \u201cThere is no consolation from losing.\u201d\u00a0 This is the longest the club has gone without reaching .500 since 1996, when it took until game No. 128.\u00a0 Boston is 6-3 on the road since April 20, but is 13th in the American League with a .224 team average away from Fenway Park.\u00a0 The club is 9-14 in night games this season, but 148-114 under the lights the past three years.<\/p>\n

Red Sox starting pitcher John Lackey is 2-4 with a 7.16 ERA in six starts this season and is coming off one of his worst starts of his career.\u00a0 The right-hander allowed eight runs and 10 hits over four innings of work at home to the Angels, while only managing to strike out a single batter.\u00a0 In three road outings this year, Lackey has compiled a 1-2 record and 5.09 ERA.\u00a0 He will be making his 16th career start against the Blue Jays, going 4-5 with a 4.58 ERA, including an even 3-3 mark and 3.82 ERA in 10 appearances at the Rogers Centre.<\/p>\n

Toronto picked up its fourth walk-off win of the season and raised its record in extra-innings games to 4-1 with the series-opening victory.\u00a0 \u201cI thought we battled extremely hard and guys made some big pitches from the mound against an offense that is obviously swinging the bat very well right now,\u201d said manager John Farrell.\u00a0 The Blue Jays have won just three of their last 10 games, bouncing back from dropping the last three games to the Tigers by a combined score of 24-7. \u00a0 Outfielder Jose Bautista continues to lead the offense, launching his 11th home run of the year, while reaching base safely in 27 of 28 games this season.\u00a0 Toronto is 6-10 versus division opponents this year.<\/p>\n

Blue Jays starting pitcher Jesse Litsch is 3-2 with a 4.04 ERA in six starts this season, while alternating wins and losses over his last four outings.\u00a0 The right-hander is coming off a 7-4 home win over the Tigers, giving up a single run and four hits over 6.1 innings of work.\u00a0 Litsch has posted a perfect 2-0 record and 2.84 ERA in his first two home starts this season, as opposing hitters are hitting just .217 against him.\u00a0 In eight career starts versus the Red Sox, he has compiled a 4-3 record and 4.11 ERA.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Blue Jays due to their 98-80 home record over the past three years, while the Red Sox are 1-7 in Lackey\u2019s last eight road starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays host the Boston Red Sox in the final game of a shortened two-game series after tallying an extra-innings victory last night at the Rogers Centre Boston Red Sox at Toronto Blue Jays Boston has had four chances this season to reach the .500 mark and has lost all four of those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[998,1575,69,2151,129,2401,1748,223],"class_list":["post-15373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-adrian-gonzalez","tag-al-east","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-jesse-litsch","tag-john-lackey","tag-jose-bautista","tag-rogers-centre","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15374,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15373\/revisions\/15374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}