After losing 2-of-3 to the Texas Rangers, the Boston Red Sox hope to have better luck north of the border. They’ll try to do that as they kickoff a four-game set this afternoon against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

Today’s first pitch is scheduled for 1:07 p.m. and will be broadcast on NESN in the Red Sox television market. If you live in the Blue Jays television market, you can catch the game on Rogers SportsNet. And if you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to the game on the 2011 Red Sox Radio Network.

Josh Beckett looks to right the ship for the Red Sox in his 27th start of 2011. In his previous 26 starts, Beckett is 12-5 with a 2.54 ERA. He picked up the win in his only start of the season against the Blue Jays. In that start back on April 16th, he picked up the win after allowing one run in seven innings of work. He’s made 15 career starts against the Blue Jays and is 4-6 with a 6.57 ERA. He’s had a tough time at Rogers Centre where he is 1-2 with a 9.28 ERA in six starts.

Henderson Alvarez makes just his sixth MLB start since being called up on August 10th by the Blue Jays. In his first five starts, he is 1-2 with a 3.52 ERA. Today’s outing will mark his first career start against the visiting nine from Boston.

Click on the read more button below to see today’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the day if you’re on the home page.

Here are this afternoon’s lineups:

84-55		69-71
1. Jacoby Ellsbury	CF	1. Mike McCoy	SS
2. Dustin Pedroia	2B	2. Eric Thames	LF
3. Adrian Gonzalez	1B	3. Jose Bautista	RF
4. David Ortiz	DH	4. Adam Lind	1B
5. Kevin Youkilis	3B	5. Edwin Encarnacion	DH
6. Carl Crawford	LF	6. Kelly Johnson	2B
7. Josh Reddick	RF	7. Brett Lawrie	3B
8. Jason Varitek	C	8. Jose Molina	C
9. Marco Scutaro	SS	9. Dewayne Wise	CF
Josh Beckett	SP	Henderson Alvarez	SP

And here is how the hitters have fared against today’s starting pitchers:

Ryan Lavarnway has been called back up from Triple-A Pawtucket. This was the first day he was eligible to be called up since he had to wait 10 days after being sent down. Nate Spears and Kyle Weiland have also been called up from the PawSox. Drew Sutton was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Spears.

Check back and/or refresh often as more links will be added if/when they become available before game time.

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Jenks done for season, Bedard (knee) to be skipped [Clubhouse Insider]

Francona: Jenks out for season [CSN New England]

Ailing knee forces Bedard to skip next start [CSN New England]

Video: State of the Nation with Gordon Edes [ESPN Boston]

Video: Recapping the Sox-Rangers season series [ESPN Boston]

Video: AL East race: Red Sox or Yankees? [ESPN Boston]

Jenks likely done for ’11; Bedard to skip start [ESPN Boston]

Red Sox pregame notes: Bedard to skip next start [Extra Bases]

Erik Bedard says plan to skip start is precautionary and resembles ’05 ailment [Full Count]

Waking up was hard to do for Conor Jackson Monday morning [Full Count]

Red Sox Reportedly Skipping Erik Bedard in Rotation Due to Lingering Knee Pain [NESN.com]

Ryan Lavarnway, Nate Spears, Kyle Weiland Called Up by Red Sox [NESN.com]

Bobby Jenks Declared Out for the Year, Just as Absence Begins to Have Impact [NESN.com]

Video: Minor League Reinforcements Arrive at Just Right Time for Red Sox [NESN.com]

Ryan Lavarnway to Rejoin Red Sox on Monday, While PawSox Teammates Eye Postseason [NESN.com]

Video: Blue Jays Prospect Brett Lawrie As Good As Advertised Since Coming to Majors [NESN.com]

A Series Matter: Red Sox-Blue Jays and Sleeping Giants [Projo Sox Blog]

Sox to skip Bedard Friday [Projo Sox Blog]

Jenks likely done for season [Projo Sox Blog]

Hideki Okajima pondering future — including possible retirement [Projo Sox Blog]

Ortiz, Youkilis swap spots in order [Projo Sox Blog]

Spears earns first big-league call-up [Projo Sox Blog]

Red Sox ready for finishing stretch vs. AL East [RedSox.com]

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

Photo credits: Reuters Pictures, AP Photo

Paw Prints is our daily look at the happenings for the UConn Huskies football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams as well as some of the other sports. We will do our best to bring you the links from all of the media that covers the Huskies on a daily basis. As always, links can be found by clicking on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

Thank you for stopping by and making SOX & Dawgs your home for UConn Huskies news.

To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

UConn Football links

What we learned in the Big East: Week 1 [Andrea Adelson – ESPN.com]

Big East bowl projections [Andrea Adelson – ESPN.com]

Pasqualoni Presser Notes [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Former UConn QB Michael Box Headed To Indiana (Pa.) Univ. [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Report Card: Fordham [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

UConn Recruit Bobby Puyol’s Dwyer (Fla.) Team On ESPN Today [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

One man’s opinion on the three quarterbacks [John Nash – The Hour]

Sunday wrap [John Silver – Journal Inquirer]

UConn-Fordham, the day after [Neill Ostrout – CT Post]

Video: 2011 UConn Football Rentschler Field Intro Video [SOX & Dawgs]

Two Former Huskies Join NFL Practice Squads [SOX & Dawgs]

Linemen lead the way for Huskies [CT Post]

With Just Three Penalties, UConn Off To A Clean Start [Hartford Courant]

Small in stature, Lyle McCombs plays big on field [New Haven Register]

‘D’ was dominant, but UConn offense wasn’t too bad either [The Day]

D.J.’s d-jection might not last for long [The Hour]

UConn Notebook — Fordham’s in the past, focus turns to Vandy [The Hour]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Alumni Profile: Ray Allen [UConn Huskies Basketball]

Kemba Walker to visit Boys & Girls Club of Stamford [ShorelinePlus.com]

College basketball’s hardest workers [Rivals.com]

Other UConn related links

W. Soccer. Women’s Soccer Falls To No. 25 Virginia Tech, 1-0 [UConnHuskies.com]

Field Hockey. No. 4 Field Hockey Upends No. 8 Penn State in Overtime [UConnHuskies.com]

M. Soccer. Diouf Leads No. 4 Huskies Over No. 7 California, 4-1 [UConnHuskies.com]

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

Apparently Boston Red Sox starting pitcher John Lackey is a magician and had us all fooled. He had been 7-2 in his last 10 starts of which only three were quality starts. So after another shellacking of Lackey on Sunday, this time by the Texas Rangers in their 11-4 win, are the curtains slowly but surely closing on his act?

If you had to choose right now between Lackey, Erik Bedard, Tim Wakefield and Andrew Miller for a third starter behind Josh Beckett and Jon Lester, who are you going to choose? With Lackey, Wake and Miller you really don’t know what you’re going to get. While the same goes for Bedard, he’s been pretty consistent on the mound for the Red Sox since coming over in a trade with the Seattle Mariners.

Without a good third starter, the Red Sox will have a tough time getting out of the division series. And you have to hope the can win the division as I’m pretty sure they don’t want to play the Texas Rangers or face any of their lefty pitchers.

Speaking of the playoffs, the Red Sox loss coupled with a win by the New York Yankees increases their lead to 1.5 games in the AL East. The lead in the AL Wild Card is down to eight games over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Yesterday, I talked about Felix Doubront and how he had a chance to be the go-to lefty in the Red Sox pen. Given a high leverage situation when Lackey left the game with the bases loaded, Doubront failed miserably.

He allowed a single, walk, sacrifice fly, walk and a triple and by the end of the 6th inning, the local nine went from being down 2-0 to losing 9-0. Matt Albers came in and bailed out Doubront and actually pitched better in his 1.2 innings of work. Hopefully this outing turns things around for Albers. Lord knows the Red Sox need any help they can in the bullpen from players not named Alfredo Aceves, Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon.

Kevin Youkilis looks to be getting out of the slump since returning from the DL as he had two hits. David Ortiz added two hits and an RBI while Marco Scutaro had a hit and two RBIs. Darnell McDonald knocked in the other Red Sox run.

While the Red Sox got two of those runs off of Rangers starter, lefty Matt Harrison, it was a little too late. They’ve had a really tough time getting anything going against the Rangers lefties lately so something needs to change. Hopefully seeing two lefties in the upcoming four game series with the Toronto Blue Jays can help exercise future demons.

Since the Red Sox are playing an afternoon game (1:07 p.m.) this afternoon in Toronto, we’ll be back in a short while with this afternoon’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the day. But for now, enjoy the overnight links below by clicking on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

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Texas-sized trouble? Rangers a major October obstacle for Red Sox [Alex Speier – WEEI.com]

Tough sixth inning dooms this Lackey mission [Boston Globe]

Jackson involved in run-in in right field [Boston Globe]

Sox are messed with by Texas [Boston Globe]

John Lackey without answers as Rangers rout Red Sox [Boston Herald]

Dubious effort for Felix Doubront [Boston Herald]

Kevin Youkilis stops post-DL drought [Boston Herald]

John Lackey bends, breaks [Boston Herald]

Red Sox rocked by Rangers, 11-4 [CSN New England]

Lackey, Doubront dominated by Rangers bats [CSN New England]

Napoli’s blast one of Fenway’s longest [CSN New England]

Notes: Jackson (knee) leaves after collision [CSN New England]

Rapid reaction: Rangers 11, Red Sox 4 [ESPN Boston]

Bullpen wall 1, Conor Jackson 0 [ESPN Boston]

Napoli HR travels to rare climes [ESPN Boston]

Red Sox giving fans cause for concern [ESPN Boston]

Red Sox notes: John Lackey and Alfredo Aceves effectively wild and Josh Reddick ‘pretty sore’ [Full Count]

Closing Time: Rangers continue to batter Sox in win at Fenway [Full Count]

Familiarity brings futility? Lackey continues struggles vs. Rangers [Full Count]

Rangers make their biggest pitch against the Red Sox [Full Count]

Video: Conor Jackson Sore From Crashing Into Right-Field Wall, But ‘Checked Out Fine’ After Game [NESN.com]

Rangers Get to John Lackey in Series Finale, Potentially Clearing Up ‘Game 3’ Dilemma [NESN.com]

Red Sox-Rangers Playoff Encounter Would Lack Drama If Regular Season Is Any Indication [NESN.com]

Video: Peter Gammons Says Red Sox Fans Should Be Worried About Texas Rangers’ Pitching, Which Is Much Better Than People Think [NESN.com]

Texas lays a smackdown on Lackey and Boston [Providence Journal]

Jackson left battered and bruised after collision with fence [Providence Journal]

Red Sox Journal: Minor league playoffs can be a major test [Providence Journal]

For more slices of Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, CSN New England,  ESPN Boston, NESN, Providence Journal and WEEI websites.

And if you must check out the enemy news, head over to the Dallas Morning News, ESPN Dallas and Ft. Worth Star Telegram websites.

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

Photo credit: Getty Images

When NFL squads made their final cutdowns yesterday, seven former members of the UConn Huskies football team found themselves on rosters while eight were looking for jobs. On Sunday, two of them found work on NFL practice squads.

Former Husky linebackers Greg Lloyd and Scott Lutrus will be in the NFL this season just on the practice squad though.

After being cut by the Philadelphia Eagles, the team that drafted him in the 7th round in the 2011 NFL Draft, Lloyd was officially added to the Eagles practice squad roster on Sunday.

Lutrus, who had been signed as an undrafted free agent by the Jacksonville Jaguars and cut by them on Saturday, was signed to the practice squad of the St. Louis Rams.

Finally, according to former Huskies defensive lineman, Rob Lunn aka The Fat White Guy via Twitter, former Husky lineman Zach Hurd is working out for the Cleveland Browns.

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

Photo credits: Patrick Raycroft – Hartford Courant, John Woike – Hartford Courant