Jon Lester goes in search of win #16 this afternoon for the Red Sox.
As I said in the wee hours of the morning, the Boston Red Sox take the field with a magic number of 2 games to make the playoffs as at least the wild card. A win today coupled with losses by the Yankees and Twins and the Red Sox are in. A division title is not out of the question yet as the Red Sox sit 1.5 games behind the Rays for 1st in the AL East.
Terry Francona sends his best pitcher this season in Jon Lester to the bump this afternoon. Lester has faced the Jays three times this year and is 1-1 with a 3.93 ERA. He is 1-1 with a 3.24 ERA in 4 career starts against them and is 0-1 with an 8.00 ERA in 2 starts at the Rogers Centre.
Everybody’s favorite Doc in Toronto Roy Halladay starts for the Blue Jays and Cito Gaston. Halladay makes his 5th start of the season against the Red Sox and is 2-2. For his career, Halladay is 11-12 with a 4.46 ERA in 28 appearances (24 starts).
Mark this down on your calendars. Terry Francona will be chatting over at the NESN Playground on September 24th at 12:30 PM.
Here is your latest installment of Boston Globe scribe Amalie Benjamin’s mailbag.
There isn’t much news coming out of Toronto so far with the exception that it’s highly unlikely that J.D. Drew will play at all this weekend.
For those of us who hang out at Center Field, the great blog by Texy, we are temporarily without a home during the games. So if y’all would like to use the comments here today until things are squared away, by all means please do so. We don’t bite here and don’t mind the company.
Lineups and batter/pitcher matchups after the jump.
90-63
1. Jacoby Ellsbury, RF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
5. Jason Bay, LF
6. Jed Lowrie, 3B
7. Coco Crisp, CF
8. Alex Cora, SS
9. Jason Varitek, C
- Jon Lester, SP
82-72
1. Marco Scutaro, 2B
2. Jose Bautista, DH
3. Alex Rios, RF
4. Vernon Wells, CF
5. Lyle Overbay, 1B
6. Scott Rolen, 3B
7. Kevin Mench, LF
8. Curtis Thigpen, C
9. John McDonald, SS
- Roy Halladay, SP
And here is how the hitters have fared against this afternoon’s starting pitchers.
Come one come all step right up.
Hey, Ian. Nice of you to let us hang here.
Hey Ian — thanks for hosting. :::waves at fc:::
I’m just fixing something to eat here, will check back momentarily. I know that several of our regulars are otherwise occupied today, but will be glad to put the word out on LJ just in case…
Not a problem. I posted something in the comments yesterday. I know y’all feel a little lost but at least it’s nice to have a secondary home. Think of this as your temporary weekend home til the repairs are done at the main home.
Please do ecl. the more the merrier.
Awww, the big 3-0 for JayBay. I hope it’s a good one (in addition to being a new daddy)…
I won’t be here for the majority of the game, but hi everyone and happy birthday (but no thanks) to Bay.
A hit there would have been nice. We don’t want to see the Doc settle in and shutdown the hitters.
A few of us made do on LJ last night, but the posts show up in order here and on CF, unlike on LJ, where comments get threaded and the threads collapse and it can be hard to follow.
So it’s bandwidth issues and tech stuff for Texy? I feel badly for her — it’s got to be no fun to deal with that!
Hi Liza — hope you’re feeling better today!
I hate that the Doc got out of the jam.
I guess so. I’ve tried emailing her but haven’t heard back. Last I had seen yesterday she had over 26000 hits so one of her posts must have been picked up by somebody national.
I’m sure she’ll get it all worked out soon enough.
I mentioned coming here in the comments last night so if she’s not up and running tomorrow feel free to stop by and use the morning post from tomorrow.
I think she’s orchestrating The Big Move from Chicago to her final landing point in Boston this weekend so I’m guessing the tech problems will have to wait.
Poor Texy, she must be overwhelmed if she didn’t reply! 26,000 hits…amazing. And thanks for the advance invite!
True. She may not even know the site’s down right now. Come on Jon boy settle down and get this last out here.
I didn’t realize she was living in Chicago — thought she already lived in Boston. Sometimes it’s so hard to tell the players around here even with a scorecard!
She does live in Boston. I think she was going back there to get her things.
26474 unique page views, 30618 total page views is what she had yesterday before the site went down.
No, she’s been here, just found the place she wants to stay in, so went back to get her stuff here.
Is it bad internet etiquette to discuss someone else’s personal biz without her being here? Feels weird. Enough from me for now.
I think we’re okay on that end fc. We’ll just leave it at where it is and wish her well.
Aaaah, no offense intended, but New Englanders are so reserved. Enigmas wrapped in riddles, as you say, fc. :::shrug:::
What was he watching there?
Hi all.
Hola and welcome to the partay
Hi all, thanks for having us here Ian. I was so sad when I saw Center field was down yesterday. Lets go Lester!
You’re welcome. I’m always happy to help out a good friend in a time of need.
What up Jon? Get in the groove.
He needs to be like Stella and get his groove back.
ahhhhhhhhhhh sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit
Well, this stinks.
That looked like a pretty stern talking-to from Farrell.
Aw crap.
C’mon, Jon. GET THE OUTS, PLEASE.
This is getting worse by the minute. WAKE UP JON BOY!
WTF was Cora thinking there??? If you don’t have a play eat the dang ball.
FINALLY!!!
Thank you, infield, for the DP. Geesh.
Thank you Pedie.
Thanks Ian for hosting us today!
(And thanks ecl for teh heads-up over at LJ)
You’re welcome Mary. I’ll be hosting tomorrow as well if CF isn’t back up.
Nice job Papi. Just keep chipping away boys.
Youk is unimpressive so far today. Seems like he’s cooled off lately.
I know they are all tired at this point but he fell off last year as well.
Atta boy, Jason. Show those Jays what a REAL Canadian can do.
Now that was a Bay-utiful birthday present to himself. A nice 2-run homer.
Keep chipping away boys. Keep chipping away.
So I leave the room for a couple of minutes and we’re right back in this game. Way to go! Maybe I should disappear more often, eh?
Happy Birthday Jason Bay!
)
(What a way to celebrate
You’re welcome, Mary. I’m glad someone saw my post.
And what a nice birthday present for Bay.
Youk fell of around mid-season last year so his endurance seems much better this year. I just hope he doesn’t need rest now.
I didn’t know it was his birthday today.
Happy Birthday, Bay!
Yeah let’s hope he doesn’t. I wish it wasn’t a race for the lead in the East so that Tito could rest some people.
Yes today’s Bay’s 30th birthday. It’s his birthday and he can cry if he wants to.
Happy birthday Jason Bay! (I guess he’s giving presents to us)
Much better Jon Boy! Where were you the first two innings?
Much better Lester- I hope he’s settling in.
I want to be Paris Hilton’s new BFF for those of you just saw that commercial.
Speaking of commercials, have you noticed that the “Meet the Governors [of New England]” RSN commercial leaves out one state?
Yes I have noticed that. The reason why is when they filmed that ad (it was filmed the day they announced the New England governators), the original RSN governor from Connecticut wasn’t at Fenway Park.
We also have a new governor here in CT since I guess the other one decided he didn’t have time for it.
Would you consider running again, Ian?
If they decided to hold the voting again in a few years, I’m sure I would throw my name in the hat.
Ahh — I had forgotten it’s likely for more than just one season!
Jon, didn’t we just talk about this?
apparently he was listening to you fc.
nice of NESN to get that little exchange between Lester and the plate ump.
It’s a good thing that Jon doesn’t have the mouth that his buddy Josh does.
I see they’re having a pitcher’s duel in NY.
RemDawg doesn’t strike me as the type to pass up free beer, unless he’s not a Miller fan.
Now it looks like Halladay wants to have some words with Reynolds.
:::begs and pleads with the Jedster:::
Halladay’s giving Reynolds the “death stare”. I see words between them coming shortly.
I liked Bay’s chances for getting someone home better than Lowrie’s.
Dammit.
Damn.
Good inning Lester. Lets go COCO!
You couldn’t trip and fall there Vernon or miss the ball.
Hoping for some bats to back up Jon’s very nice work over the past several innings…
We can only hope.
spit-clap-clap
Let’s go Papi!
I just swore at my computer… :::huge frown:::
nice job boys. runs would be nice!
I want Bay to give us more presents for his birthday.
Getting Bay in the offload of Manny was brilliance. What a solid player. Thank you, Theo.
Did Remy just call Overbay “Jason Bay”?
You’re right, fc — he is very good.
:::jumps up and down with glee at the error:::
Yes, fc, he did call him Jason Bay.
AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!
sheeeeeeeeeeit
(quietly collapsing in a corner)
Fluck fluck fluck
Crap.
And sheeeeeeit again.
I’ll come save you. Be there in about 2 hours.
and you can swear here too if you want too.
so fuck shit cocksucker.
maybe Blow Job Ryan will give it up here.
C’mon Pleats, save us.
well that just sucks balls.
Not today. :::holds head:::
Well, we can hope that Minnesota has a good day today against TB.
The Yankees just walked off, BTW.
one
bad
inning
Well two bad innings at the start. If Lester had only pitched the first 2 innings like he did the last 5, it might have been a different story.
BTW, Texy’s site is back up and running. If there’s no game thread over there, just come back here tomorrow. I’ll have a new post up in the late morning to use.
It’s been a pleasure and we thank you for choosing SOX & Dawgs Airline.