And just like that, the Boston Red Sox find themselves atop the AL East standings. On the other side, the Toronto Blue Jays are in the cellar as these two teams get set for a best of three series over the week. Of course, the separation from first to worst is 3.5-games making it a huge series for both teams as they each try and make some noise in the division.
This series will be contested from Friday, June 30, 2017 through Sunday, July 2, 2017 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Saturday's clash is being shown live on the MLB Network.
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Pitching Matchups
Doug Fister will get his second start for the Red Sox on Friday night to kick off the series. Boston will follow with Chris Sale and Drew Pomeranz on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Fister had a solid debut for Boston, delivering a quality start while filling in for Eduardo Rodriguez.
It was Fister’s first big league start of the season, but the veteran right-hander has a successful track record as a big league starter and knows out to get outs. The question is: can his diminishing stuff continue to play up?
Toronto will be a good next test. Over his career, Fister has a 5.06 ERA in four starts at the Rogers Centre.
To oppose Fister, the Blue Jays will turn to Marco Estrada. The right-hander was struggling mightily before his last start, giving up 23 runs in 16.1 innings, including surrendering five homers.
Command has been a necessity for Estrada to find success and it seems to have come back in his last outing as he led a streaking Royals team to three runs in seven innings. Overall, Estrada is 4-6 with a 4.89 ERA, but his FIP is down at 3.99 and he still has a 3.64 strikeout to walk ratio.
Estrada also has some success against Boston. He held them scoreless in six innings earlier this year.
Moving on to Friday, Sale will be pitching opposite of Francisco Liriano.
With nine more strikeouts last time out, Sale now has 155 for the year and is averaging 12.3 per nine innings. He’s flat out dominating right now. His 2.77 ERA is good, but doesn’t even tell the story. He’s 10-3 with a 2.05 FIP and 0.906 WHIP. The opposition is batting just .200 against him.
He pitched eight scoreless against Toronto in his only other start against them this year and struck out 13 Jays. That’s one way to build confidence.
Regardless of who Toronto sends to the mound against Sale, they’ll be at a disadvantage, but that’s especially true with Liriano toeing the rubber.
The veteran southpaw has had a rollercoaster of a career and he’s definitely in the midst of a downward spell. He’s pitching to a 5.46 ERA and 1.607 WHIP. He’s walking more than a batter every other inning and has been incredibly easy to hit, too.
As the series continues, so does the Boston advantage.
The Sox have Pomeranz pitching against Joe Biagini on Sunday. This could be the latter’s last start with Aaron Sanchez’s return imminent.
Biagini is a serviceable fill-in with a 4.50 ERA, but Pomeranz is throwing the ball well right now. He’s 7-4 with a 3.81 ERA overall. He’s pitched to a 2.66 ERA over his last eight starts. He’s 4-1 in that time.
Betting Trends
The Blue Jays have had trouble getting to .500. After a poor start, they did a good job getting close to back even, but have never been able to reach .500.
Some of that has bad to do with injury. The team has seen a number of key players go down from Josh Donaldson to Aaron Sanchez to Troy Tulowitzki to J.A. Happ. Many of those players are back, including both offensive threats listed above, but the offense has remained stagnant.
Toronto has scored the fewest runs of any AL team in the month of June, plating just 88 runs through 23 games. Only the Padres have been worse. The Red Sox’s offense has continued to underperform, too, but they’ve scored 111 runs in the month.
Power is still an issue for the Red Sox who miss David Ortiz’s bat in the middle, but they’ve at least done a better job manufacturing runs.
Boston has the younger players while many of Toronto’s key bats like Jose Bautista could just be on the downhill slide.
Names to Remember
Red Sox’s prospect Sam Travis has only played in nine big league games, but he’s already having an impact with the bat.
The 23-year old is 9-for-26 with three doubles and three walks. That’s good enough for a .346 average and .414 OBP. The first baseman doesn’t have a place to play if Hanley Ramirez can play, but until then, he’s a nice fill in at DH. After Ramirez is back, Travis at least provides a nice option off the bat to pinch hit for Deven Marrero so the third base spot in the order isn’t a complete waste every time through the order.
On the other side of this matchup, Steve Pearce is the likely name to watch off the bench. Pearce can play the corner outfield spots or first. He’ll likely be on the grass more than anything considering how good of a season Justin Smoak is having.
Still, Pearce is a great option against southpaws which the Red Sox will feature in two of the three games in this series. Over his career, Pearce has a .847 OPS against lefties, including a .350 OBP.
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