Bartolo Colon makes his 1st start for the Red Sox since June 16th.

After getting shellacked in Game 1 this afternoon against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Boston Red Sox will turn to Bartolo Colon to try and get the game back that the Jays got in the race for the AL Wild Card.

Colon’s last big league start for the Red Sox came on June 16th against the Philadelphia Phillies where he lasted just 4 innings. On the season, Colon is 4-2 with a 4.09 ERA and has faced the Jays 16 times in his career and is 8-3 with a 3.85 ERA.

Jesse Litsch will be the second Jays starter in this series to start on 3 days rest. Like Burnett, Litsch has had good numbers in his career against the Red Sox as he is 4-1 with a 3.58 ERA in 5 starts.

This little nugget about Kevin Cash playing third base in the 1st game comes from Steve. This was his first appearance in the majors at 3B but did you know what he has played 3B eight times in the minors and is credited with 5 put outs, 13 assists, 1 double play and 3 errors. His minor league fielding pct at 3B is .857. He last played 3B in 2007 with Pawtucket in one game and was credited with one assist.

Here’s an interview from Heidi Watney with George Kottaras after his MLB debut this afternoon.

Lineups and batter/pitcher matchups for Game 2 after the jump.

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A.J. Burnett has dominated the Boston Red Sox in his career and that trend continued this afternoon as he got 5 RBI from Travis Snider as the Toronto Blue Jays won 8-1 in front of 37,341 at Fenway Park.

With the loss the Red Sox fall to 3.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East and their lead over the Jays is now at 6.5 games in the wild card.

It was not a good afternoon for Paul Byrd and the Red Sox.

Paul Byrd got the start for the Red Sox this afternoon and just stunk. He lasted 5 innings, giving up 5 runs on 10 hits. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out 3. David Aardsma made his first appearance off the disabled list and wasn’t any better than Byrd was. He alllowed 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk in an inning of work. Devern Hansack was perfect in his 3 innings of work striking out 3.

Jacoby Ellsbury led the way for the Red Sox offense with 2 of their 5 hits. He also had 2 stolen bases. Chris Carter, Alex Cora and Sean Casey had the other hits for the Red Sox in the game. The game also saw the MLB debut of George Kottaras, who struck out in his 1st AB but reached on passed ball.

The latter part of the game resembled a spring training game as at one point the Red Sox infield was Kevin Cash at 3rd, Jed Lowrie at short, Cora at 2nd and Casey at 1st with Carter in left, Van Every in right and Coco in center. The battery was Hansack and Kottaras.

Joe Inglett led off the game with a single. Byrd settled in to get Marcos Scutaro to line and he struck out Alex Rios before Vernon Wells doubled in Inglett to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. Byrd struck out Lyle Overbay to end the 1st inning.

The Red Sox had a good chance to get the run back in the bottom half of the inning.

Ellsbury led off with a single and stole second with Dustin Pedroia at the plate. Pedroia ended up flying out to right moving Ellsbury to third but Burnett settled in and struck out David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis.

Byrd cruised through the 2nd and 3rd innings but ran into some trouble in the 4th.

Rios led off with a fly out to center field. Wells followed that with a double and then was thrown at third on Overbay’s single to short center. Adam Lind brought in Overbay with a double but was thrown out at third but not before the run scored to make it 2-0.

Rod Barajas led off the 5th with a single and went to second on a Scott Rolen single. Snider then cleared the bases with a 3-run homer to put the Jays up 5-0.

Byrd allowed a leadoff single to Overbay and then Aardsma came in for him. He came in and got Lind to ground into a double play but then walked Barajas. A Rolen double moved Barajas to third and Snider ground rule double scored them both as the lead swelled to 7-0.  An Inglett single scored Snider for the Jays final run of the afternoon.

The Red Sox got their only run of the game in the 7th inning.

Burnett started the inning with the strikeout of Kottaras but the passed ball by Barajas allowed him to reach.  Burnett got Coco to ground into a fielder’s choice but an error by Inglett allowed both runners to be safe. Jesse Carlson came in for Burnett and got Ellsbury to ground into a fielder’s choice that got Coco at second. Cash pinch-hit for Pedroia and hit a sacrifice fly scoring Kottaras to make it 8-1 Jays.

The Red Sox will most certainly look to put this game behind them and move forward when Bartolo Colon takes the hill in nightcap of the doubleheader that begins at 7:05 PM.

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Paul Byrd faces a familiar foe in the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1 this afternoon.

The Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays are getting ready to play a day/night doubleheader at the Fens as the Red Sox look to make the Jays dreams of making playoffs just dreams and not reality.

That task of helping put the Jays to rest goes to Paul Byrd who will making his 3rd start in his last six games against them and 4th overall. On the season, Byrd is 2-1 with a 4.03 ERA. In 9 starts in his career against the Blue Jays, he is 5-4 with a 3.39 ERA.

A.J. Burnett makes the start on 3 days rest for Cito Gaston. He is 1-0 with a 3.07 ERA in two starts against the Red Sox this season and 4-0 with a 2.70 ERA in six career starts against them.

Hideki Okajima will be back with the Red Sox next season as his option vested for 2009 when he made his 115th appearance. He will be making $1.75 million next season.

Alex Speier of WEEI has a look at the Jays next 3 starters who will be starting on 3 days rest.

Lineups and batter/pitcher matchups after the jump.

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Here are some Saturday morning links for you regarding the UConn Huskies. If you missed my game preview yesterday, you can check that out here.

For the second week in a row, Comcast customers in Connecticut will not be able to watch the UConn football game tonight.

Donald Brown made the right decision in attending UConn over Wisconsin, Iowa and Virginia.

Scott Lutrus is the leader of the UConn linebackers.

UConn will need it’s offense to balance out it’s defense tonight.

UConn’s defense has been stubborn in it’s first two games having not allowed a touchown.

The Huskies are looking to put last year’s game against Virginia behind them with a win today.

Virginia’s defensive line gave UConn fits last season. That should change though without Chris Long there this season.

The Huskies can’t fumble away another chance like they did last year in Charlottesville. The Huskies hope to return the favor tonight with a loud crowd at the Rent.

John Silver of the Journal-Inquirer has his keys to the game.

David Gillett has video of former Husky Ben Gordon sharing his wisdom.

Kemba Walker is ready for the big stage at UConn.

John Altavilla has some notes about the UConn women’s basketball team.

The UConn women’s soccer team fell 3-0 to the #1 UCLA Bruins.

When you took a look at the radar last night, I figured there was no way the Boston Red Sox would be playing due to rain that was moving through New England yesterday. But with a doubleheader scheduled for today, they had to do everything possible to get the game in.

I’m sure Tim Wakefield was happy they did get the game in as he was just totally dominant last night. His knuckleball was dancing through the rain drops and his defense did the job behind him. It was a stark contrast to his last outing where he couldn’t find the strike zone at all against the Texas Rangers in what was his shortest Red Sox outing.

“Getting through eight today was huge for me,” Wakefield said. “I feel great. I feel a lot better than I did last year at this time, that’s for sure. I feel like it’s April or May right now.”

“Huge night for us,” Wakefield said. “Keep the momentum going, and hopefully we can do it again.”

Jed Lowrie is making sure there is no debate if/when Julio Lugo returns to the team.

Was last night the end of the road for the Blue Jays playoff run?

J.D. Drew will be out until Monday due to the passing of his grandmother.

Sean McAdam has a look at what he thinks the Red Sox playoff roster will look like.

For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Providence Journal websites.

And if you must see what the enemy papers are saying, head over to the Toronto Sun, Toronto Star and Globe and Mail websites.

In his last start, Tim Wakefield was walloped by the Texas Rangers. This time around against the Toronto Blue Jays, he was totally dominant as he threw 8 innings of 3 hit ball to help the Boston Red Sox to a 7-0 win in front of 37,398 rain soaked fans at Fenway Park.

With the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees rained out along with the Minnesota Twins and Baltimore Orioles, the Red Sox were only able to cut the Rays lead to 2 games but increased their lead in the wild card to 6 games over the Twins.

Tim Wakefield had the nasty ass knuckleball tonight.

Wakefield was just nasty tonight in the driving rain that fell throughout the game. His knuckleball was virtually untouchable as evidenced by the 3 hits by the Jays. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out 4 to run his record to 9-10. Manny Delcarmen worked a perfect 9th inning.

Jed Lowrie broke out of the mini-slump he was in as he was 2-for-2 with 2 RBI, 2 runs scored, a sac fly an a walk. Mike Lowell also had 2 hits while the one hit David Ortiz had drove in 2 runs. Kevin Cash went 1-for-3 with a 3-run homer.

The Red Sox got their first run of the night in the 2nd inning off Jays starter David Purcey.

Jason Bay worked a leadoff walk and went to second on a wild pitch by Purcey. A Lowell single moved Bay to third and after a Mark Kotsay pop out, Lowrie knocked in Bay with a sacrifice fly. Cash struck out to end the inning.

Bay once again started things in the 5th when he reached on an error by Scott Rolen. Purcey got Lowell to line out and Kotsay to ground out as Bay got to second. Lowrie followed with a double to score Bay and put the Red Sox up 2-0.

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Tim Wakefield looks to recover from his last start against the Texas and keep the Red Sox playoff push going in the right direction.

This is a huge series this weekend for the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays playoff hopes. The Red Sox can either bury the Blue Jays from the wild card talk or the Blue Jays can put a huge dent in the Red Sox chances.

Right now the lead in the wild card for the Red Sox over the Jays is 6.5 games while they lead the Twins by 5.5 games. A split of the series would most hurt the Jays chances while anything worse then that hurts the Red Sox. Remember, they still have 3 games to play next weekend in Toronto.

Tim Wakefield starts for the Red Sox tonight and looks to recover from perhaps his worst start in his Red Sox career where he lasted just 1 2/3 innings against the Rangers. Wakefield has faced the Rangers 3 times this year and is 0-1 with a 4.15 ERA. Overall in his career, Wakefield has made 47 appearances (37 starts) against the Jays and is 15-11 with a 3.87 ERA.

The Blue Jays send out David Purcey who is making just his 10th career start in the big leagues and is currently 3-5 with a 5.23 ERA. He has not faced the Red Sox in his career.

Dan Lamothe of Red Sox Monster reminds us that the season is upon us for the rookies to get dressed as evidenced by his post about the Jays rookies. The Red Sox rookies will likely get their time when the team heads to Tampa on Sunday night.

I’ve been meaning to post these two links for a few days now and that little light bulb went off in my head again.

Please take a moment to vote Sean Casey for the Marvin Miller Man of the Year and Kevin Youkilis for the 2008 Roberto Clemente Award.

If the Red Sox are to move their spring training home to Sarasota, they need to get a deal done by October 31st to ensure the stadium will be built and ready for 2011.

The Red Sox won two coin flips concerning a potential one game playoff with either the Rays or the Twins. If the Red Sox and Twins tie for the wild card, the Red Sox will host a 1-game playoff. If the Rays and Red Sox are tied for 1st in the AL East and the wild card goes to the 2nd place team in the AL Central. If the Red Sox and Rays tie for the AL East and the wild card, then no playoff game will be played. Since it gets complicated explaining this, I’ll let Ian Browne of MLB.com do the explaining for you (1/2 way down in the article).

Cito Gaston says the Jays are ready for this series.

Lineups and batter/pitcher matchups after the jump.

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