Boston @ Toronto preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 6, 2011 ) Boston 14, Toronto 0

THE STORY: Red Sox pitchers are falling about as fast as Boston is in the AL East race. The Red Sox trail the New York Yankees by 2 1/2 games and start knuckleballer Tim Wakefield against Toronto in the third game of a four-game set at the Rogers Centre on Wednesday night. The Wakefield saga has been well-documented. He hasn’t won since July 24 and will make his seventh attempt at career victory No. 200. The Blue Jays, which have lost three of their last four games, go with flame thrower Brandon Morrow.

TV: 7:07 p.m. ET, RSN, NESN

PITCHING MATCHUP: Red Sox RH Tim Wakefield (6-6, 4.95 ERA) vs. Blue Jays RH Brandon Morrow (9-10, 4.78 ERA)

Despite his pursuit of win No. 200, the Red Sox skipped Wakefield’s last start. He's 0-3 with a 4.97 ERA over his last seven starts, and wasn't even effective in his last victory as he allowed seven runs over 6 1/3 innings in a 12-8 decision. With Erik Bedard, Josh Beckett and Clay Buchholz out of action, Wakefield could become an important cog for the remainder of the regular season. He is 18-14 lifetime against the Blue Jays and beat them 9-3 in early July allowing three runs in the seven innings.

Morrow won his last outing against the Red Sox on July 4 to move to 1-2 in his career against Boston. Morrow continues to rack up the strikeouts at a solid pace but is just 1-5 in his last six starts. He pitched well against the Yankees in his last start, yielding three runs on four hits in six innings of a 3-2 New York victory.

ABOUT THE RED SOX (85-56): Jacoby Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 11 games on Tuesday while David Ortiz has hit in 19 of his last 20 games batting just under .500 in the stretch. Other than those two, Boston had not swung the bats well - even though it exploded for 20 hits on Tuesday. Boston has lost four of its last six games and hasn’t recorded a save since Aug. 19, which points to the Red Sox’s failures in tight games recently. Boston has been shut out four times since mid-August. Marco Scutaro, who has been sharing time with Jed Lowrie at shortstop, had four hits - including three doubles - on Tuesday.

ABOUT THE BLUE JAYS (70-72): Toronto failed in its attempt to get back to the .500 mark on Tuesday. A day after shutting out Boston for 11 innings, Luis Perez and the Jays dug themselves a big hole before they even got to the plate. Boston scored four times in the first inning off Perez and had reached double digits bye the fourth inning. The Jays have beaten Boston just five times in their last 19 games at home and Toronto has scored just four runs in its last 33 innings.

FINAL PITCH: Beckett spent the day in Boston getting his ankle checked out. He was diagnosed with a sprained ankle and will miss at least his next scheduled start.