The Toronto Blue Jays hope keeping the retractable roof of the Rogers Centre open tonight will help them solve Tim Wakefield and the Boston Red Sox tonight.
Wakefield is 3-1 in his last five starts in the Rogers Centre with a 2.72 ERA and Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi believes Wakefield's knuckleball is more effective when he's pitching in a closed dome.
“If we can open it, we’re going to open it,” Ricciardi told the Boston Herald before Wednesday’s game. “We’d be stupid not to open it. It killed us the other night (April 18), when he was here pitching unbelievable.
“You can call it gamesmanship or whatever but if it works to the advantage of us and we can do it, we’ll do it.”
Wakefield went seven strong innings in that April 18 start, allowing just one run on three hits and is 6-2 with a 3.08 ERA in his last eight starts against the Jays overall. Wakefield also pitched seven scoreless innings in his most recent outing last week, helping the Sox to a 2-0 win under the Metrodome's roof as a -114 favorite.
Toronto's weather forecast calls for a 20 percent chance of rain tonight.
Oddsmakers have the Jays listed as –139 favorites with Roy Halladay starting. The total set at 8 ½.
