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.
