John Lackey, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Josh Beckett will make the starts and we will be following the action for you right here.
Final, Red Sox 2-0: Has the ship been righted? It would seem to be sailing smoother seas as the Red Sox have now won seven of nine and sweep the Blue Jays on the strength of two straight dominant pitching performances.
Jon Lester yielded one hit and struck out 11 in seven impressive innings and Darnell McDonald factored in both Boston runs in this one. Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon both work scoreless innings in relief.
Pretty much how you would draw it up.
The Sox have a day off before they meet Baltimore on Friday for the first of three at Camden Yards.
Mid 9th, Red Sox 2-0: Jonathan Papelbon is 6-for-6 in save opportunities this year and 20-for-20 against the Blue Jays in his career. Toronto has scored just four earned runs in 40 innings against Papelbon. Did I just jinx him?
End 8th, Red Sox 2-0: Two pitches after Jon Lester leaves, the loudest hit of the night comes off the bat of Alex Gonzalez, who doubles to the wall in center off Daniel Bard. The flamethrower then proceeds to strike out the next three men he sees.
Toronto has fanned 14 times. Bard has recorded eight of nine outs via strikeouts in his last three appearances.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 2-0: It’s set up beautifully for Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon here. The Sox go quietly in the top of the eighth.
End 7th, Red Sox 2-0: Eleven strikeouts for Jon Lester, who is absolutely dominating the Blue Jays. Amazing to think how down everyone was on the Red Sox’ starting rotation after Josh Beckett’s outing the other night. Toronto has been easy pickings ever since.
The 11 Ks are the most Lester has had since Aug. 14 at Texas, and is one off his career high. He has thrown 119 pitches.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 2-0: The Red Sox were 5-1 entering the night with Darnell McDonald in the starting lineup. He scored the first run in this one and then drove in the second with a two-out RBI single in the seventh.
There doesn’t figure to be a spot for McDonald when both Mike Cameron and Jacoby Ellsbury are back, but he’s provided quite a spark.
End 6th, Red Sox 1-0: That’s a season-high nine strikeouts for Jon Lester. He had retired 14 straight before a two-out walk in the sixth. This is what we’ve been waiting for.
Lester has 11 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings. He may get one more frame with his pitch count at 106. Or he might not.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 1-0: If it takes just one run to win this game (the way Jon Lester is throwing it might), the Red Sox just got it on a Dustin Pedroia sacrifice fly.
The fly to center brought in Darnell McDonald from third. He had doubled to lead things off and moved to third on a single by Marco Scutaro.
Scutaro is 6-for-13 in his return to Toronto.
The Sox nearly had some more runs, if not for some nice defense by the Blue Jays. Kevin Youkilis doubled into the gap in right-center field, where Vernon Wells did a good job to cut the ball off and hold Scutaro at third. Then, J.D. Drew lined a hard shot right at shortstop Alex Gonzalez, who was up the middle due to a defensive shift.
End 5th, 0-0: The Blue Jays have scored a single run in their last 15 innings going back to the series opener. Jon Lester has seven strikeouts and has retired 12 straight.
Mid 5th, 0-0: Who is going to blink first, Jon Lester or Brett Cecil? There hasn’t been a single baserunner in this game since Bill Hall doubled to lead off the third. Hall just popped up to finish the fifth, the ninth straight man retired by Cecil.
End 4th, 0-0: The highlight of the bottom of the fourth inning occurs when about 10 guys search an empty section down the right-field line for a foul ball. After a minute or two it is located, the sideshow to another perfect inning for Jon Lester.
That’s 9 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings for Lester. He has six strikeouts.
Mid 4th, 0-0: Another great pitchers’ duel shaping up here at Rogers Centre, which is basically empty once again.
Brett Cecil has set down six straight since Bill Hall’s double to lead off the second inning.
End 3rd, 0-0: Jon Lester has five strikeouts through three. And isn’t it amazing how this series has changed?
Through the first six innings of the three-game set, the teams had combined for 23 runs. In the 15 innings since, they’ve scored five.
Mid 3rd, 0-0: Bill Hall did his job in the third. Nobody else did.
Hall led things off with a double but went nowhere when Darnell McDonald grounded out. Taking matters into his own hands, Hall stole third on the next pitch, but was left there when Marco Scutaro popped up and Dustin Pedroia lined to center.
End 2nd, 0-0: He’s still getting behind guys and working out of the stretch quite a bit, but Jon Lester has thrown 7 2/3 scoreless innings over his last two starts. While not in midseason form, he is getting better results. Still, the constant three-ball counts are not helping him get very deep into games.
Lester has thrown 37 pitches through two. He struck out Alex Gonzalez and Randy Ruiz with a runner on third to end the second.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: Jason Varitek works a two-out walk and Adrian Beltre gets the count to 3-1 against Brett Cecil. But you need to tie Beltre’s hands behind his back to get him to take ball four at times. He flies to right to end the second.
End 1st, 0-0: Jon Lester was rather steamed after his last start, despite not allowing a run in 5 2/3 innings. The reason? He was tired of the walks. In the win over Baltimore, the lefty had issued four and entered Wednesday having handed out 13 in just 21 2/3 innings this year. Safe to say he was not pleased when he walked the leadoff hitter for the Jays, Mike McCoy.
But Lester bounced back well. He picked off McCoy and then recorded back-to-back strikeouts to make it a rather easy inning.
Mid 1st, 0-0: Victor Martinez has been a double play machine this year. He has now hit into eight already. The rest of the team has combined to hit into 13. Entering the night, no other player in the American League had hit into more than six.
6:59 p.m.: The Sox have Alan Embree back in the fold for the first time since 2005. He took the place of Fabio Castro, who had been recalled Tuesday. Embree rejoins the team after throwing a perfect inning in each of his last five outings for Triple-A Pawtucket.
Tim Wakefield will join the bullpen in the next day or so, likely in place of Scott Schoeneweis, who becomes expendable with Embree’s presence.
Quite a bit of shuffling for a bullpen before the first month of the season is even over, but if everybody is doing their job it could be a pretty impressive collection of arms.
6:41 p.m.: Blue Jays starter Brett Cecil has given up 12 earned runs in nine innings in his career against the Red Sox, and keep an eye on him when he passes through the middle of the Boston lineup.
Kevin Youkilis is 2-for-5 against Cecil with a walk, but J.D. Drew and Jason Varitek are a combined 4-for-4 with four home runs! Talk about production.
5:43 p.m.: As promised, here are the lineups for the finale of the three-game series:
Red Sox
Marco Scutaro SS
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Victor Martinez DH
Kevin Youkilis 1B
J.D Drew RF
Jason Varitek C
Adrian Beltre 3B
Bill Hall LF
Darnell McDonald CF
Blue Jays
Mike McCoy LF
Aaron Hill 2B
Jose Bautista RF
Vernon Wells CF
Lyle Overbay 1B
Alex Gonzalez SS
Randy Ruiz DH
Jose Molina C
John McDonald 3B
3:40 p.m.: We all saw the awkward moment Tuesday night when David Ortiz was nearly in the batter’s box when he learned that Mike Lowell would be pinch hitting for him in the top of the eighth. Well, Ortiz’s frustration may continue to grow as he is on the bench for the fifth time in eight games.
Terry Francona confirmed the lineup change earlier in the day on WEEI. We will get you the full lineups when we see them.
9:18 a.m.: Jon Lester will try for the fifth time to pick up his first win of the year when he leads the Red Sox into another matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays.
The left-hander struggled through three starts before working 5 2/3 scoreless in his fourth and winding up with a no-decision in a 4-3 win over Baltimore.
In an effort to get that first victory, Lester can use Tuesday night’s result as motivation. Clay Buchholz threw eight sparkling innings to lead the Sox to a 2-1 win and put the team on the verge of its first series sweep of the season.
Brett Cecil toes the rubber for Toronto, losers of eight of 11.
First pitch is scheduled for 7:07 p.m.
