Boston @ Toronto preview
Rogers Centre
Last Meeting ( Sep 7, 2011 ) Boston 10, Toronto 11
THE STORY: The Boston Red Sox had a perfect opportunity to see their longest tenured employee reach a career milestone and gain a game in the standings at the same time. Unfortunately, neither one of those things happened on Wednesday night. With Tim Wakefield on the verge of his 200th win and the Red Sox on top, normally reliable setup man Daniel Bard coughed up the lead. Just as the offense is starting to heat up again, there are suddenly questions up and down the Boston pitching staff. The Toronto Blue Jays will take any wins they can and are happy to play spoilers to their American League East rivals. The Red Sox will be hoping to get out of Toronto with a split of the four-game series when they hand the ball to Andrew Miller on Thursday night.
TV: 7:07 p.m. ET, NESN (Boston), RSN (Toronto)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Blue Jays LH Ricky Romero (13-10, 2.97 ERA) vs. Red Sox LH Andrew Miller (6-2, 5.27 ERA).
Romero had a six-decision winning streak snapped last time out, when he was reached for five runs in 6 2/3 innings against the New York Yankees. The 26-year-old had posted seven straight quality starts prior to the loss. Boston has always been trouble for Romero, who has lost to the division rivals twice already this season and owns a career record of 2-6 with an 8.08 ERA in 11 starts.
After two strong starts in a row, Miller was lit up last time out by the Texas Rangers. The lanky lefthander recorded just four outs in that start, allowing six runs in the shortest outing by a Red Sox starter this season. Miller had allowed one run and six hits in 11 2/3 innings over his two previous starts. He has never started against Toronto.
ABOUT THE BLUE JAYS (71-72): Toronto pulled within a game of .500 in the standings when it posted an 11-10 win on Wednesday. After taking the series opener 1-0 in 11 innings on Monday and then getting thoroughly pounded by a 14-0 score on Tuesday, the Blue Jays looked as though they had no intention of bringing their offense to the series at all. But after scoring in each of the first three innings on Wednesday, Toronto did not falter when it fell behind again in the middle innings. Using a hit-by-pitch, three walks and a single to tie the game off Bard, Edwin Encarnacion played the hero with a bases-clearing double in the eighth.
ABOUT THE RED SOX (85-57): Bard, Matt Albers - who yielded Encarnacion’s double - and Dan Wheeler had been serving as a strong bridge to closer Jonathan Papelbon for most of the season. Now Wheeler has been scored upon in three straight appearances, Bard has blown saves in two of his last three and Albers has allowed multiple runs in four of his last nine chances. Plus, Jon Lester is the only member of the projected playoff rotation scheduled to make his next start. Wednesday’s blow up left the Red Sox 2 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East and seven ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays in the race for the wild card.
FINAL PITCH: Boston received some good news regarding its pitching staff prior to the game on Wednesday. Manager Terry Francona said that Clay Buchholz did not feel pain in his back after throwing for the second straight day. The Red Sox, who will skip both Erik Bedard (knee) and Josh Beckett (ankle) the next time through the rotation, continue to hold out hope that Buchholz could return in some role this season. The plan is for Buchholz to start throwing off a mound next week.