We start yet another 3 game series against the Red Sox tonight, at Fenway this time, so I sent a handful of questions to Randy Booth from Over the Monster, SB Nation's Red Sox site. He was kind enough to answer.

At the start of the season your starting rotation looked strong and deep, but it seems like you've had some bad luck there. Who makes up the rotation behind Beckett and Lester? Can they catch you up to the Yankees?

Tim Wakefield, Clay Buchholz and Junichi Tazawa -- for now. Wakefield, after his great start after coming off the disabled list against the White Sox, is locked in, but Buchholz and Tazawa are question marks. Both have really struggled in their last starts and just have been inconsistent. At this point, it seems like the depth is lost, but the Sox won't give up on the youngsters. Michael Bowden also has a chance to make a splash if he comes in and starts. He had one horrid relief appearance against the Yankees and his stats ballooned.

I still think it's possible to catch the Yankees. The Sox just have to click to do it. And EVERYTHING has to click.

Speaking of rotation, what's going on with Daisuke Matsuzaka? Is his confidence gone or is he just not the pitcher everyone thought he would be?

I don't think it's his confidence. I think he was worn out from the World Baseball Classic and that just set a bad tone for his whole season. I expect him to make his rehab starts, come back and pitch pretty well. Maybe not as well as he did in 2008, but certainly not as bad as pre-disabled list.

Getting Victor Martinez is a great move, is he now your catcher of the future?

It seems like it. While he's not a great "catcher," he will make due, despite his problems behind the plate.. Unless the Red Sox ship off Mike Lowell this offseason and insert Big Vic at first base and move Kevin Youkilis to third, he's got his spot there.

Who is your shortstop at the moment? How about next year?

Alex Gonzalez is our new face at shortstop. Well, old face as well. He was with the Sox in 2006 and played amazing defense. He's back with defense that's good -- but not as great -- and is surprisingly hitting the ball well in his short time since being acquired.

Next year is a toss-up. Maybe Gonzo will be back. Maybe Jed Lowrie will be healthy. Maybe there will be a prospect that makes the leap. Maybe a free agent will come on board. Your guess is as good as mine at this point.

Who is your favorite Red Sox to watch?

In both the field and at the plate, it's Dustin Pedroia. He plays great defense and I just love watching his approach at the dish. He's a patient hitter, doesn't strike out a lot and never gets cheated out of a swing.

If we're talking on the mound, I love watching Daniel Bard. He just has a lot of gas (100 mph heater) and when his breaking stuff is on, it's fun to watch.

What else should Jay fans know about the Sox?

This team isn't dead yet. As much as they might look like roadkill at times, it's a solid team. The bullpen is the strong suit, while the starting pitching and offense take turns of sucking the most in any given night.

After being swept in a short series, the Blue Jays look to rebound against the fifth-place Orioles in a three game set this weekend.  The Orioles send three rookie starters to the hill, with a combined 16 career starts.  Not to be outdone, the Jays will be sending rookies out tonight and tomorrow afternoon.  Tonight's game, which starts at 7 pm, will see Ricky Romero and Jason Berken square off.  Tomorrow afternoon at 1, Maryland native Brett Cecil gets the start against prospect Chris Tillman.  The series closes on Sunday, when Roy Halladay again looks to pick up his 12th win and he'll be opposed by southpaw Brian Matusz.

Hopefully the Jays can take this series so we can get back on track for our series next week against the Yankees.

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After managing to take the road series from the Oakland A's, our well-rested Jays come back home to take on the division-rival New York Yankees in a two-game set tonight and Wednesday night to start their homestand.  Tonight's matchup will feature Roy Halladay dealing for the Jays and Andy Pettitte on the mound for the Yankees.  Tomorrow night, Marc Rzepczynski will be on the hill against Sergio Mitre, a man whose name combines both the pizzeria with 4-dollar pies from my youth (technically, Sergino's) and the manufacturer of my soccer cleats.  The Yankees have reeled a bit since getting extremely hot, so hopefully the Jays can take advantage of two of their weaker pitchers.

4 August

Andy Pettitte (8-6, 4.51, 1.441 WHIP)

As this is a short series, and I have already previewed Andy Pettitte here, this will be a short post.  While I am not a fan of Pettitte's work this season (or at least I wouldn't be if I rooted for the Yankees), he is coming off a good start in which he struck out eight and did not walk any over 6 1/3 innings.  Let's hope that the Jays offence comes up big after the off-day and gets Doc his 12th win this season.  He'll be hard-pressed to reach 20 -- thanks to just one win in six starts since returning from the DL, in spite of posting a 3.00 ERA, striking out 41 and walking just eight -- but, if the bats come alive and he has a strong finish, it's still possible.

5 August

Sergio Mitre (1-0, 7.90, 1.976 WHIP)

Sergio Mitre has been victimized by bad luck so far (7.90 ERA vs. 4.14 FIP), but it does not help when 25% of batted balls are line drives.  In his three starts so far, he's struck out six (3.5 K/9) over 13 2/3 innings, but he has walked just three (1.7 BB/9), which is a good rate.  He has been an absolute ground-ball machine his entire career and this season is no different (56.4% grounder-rate), but he will need to miss some more bats if he wants to stay up in the big leagues.  At 28 years old, he's running out of time.  He was pretty effecting in AAA this season, striking out 43 and walking just nine over 56 2/3 innings, but AAA batters are not major league batters and he hasn't been able to carry that dominance over to the American League.

In the minors, Mitre has been far more effective against righthanded batters (70 K, 12 BB over 93 2/3 career innings) than lefties (32 K, 15 BB over 47 2/3 career innings) and that relative success against righties has carried over to the majors where he's been fine against righties (.288 / .343 / .418; 2.78 K/BB) but has been pounded by lefties (.320 / .388 / .460; 1.02 K/BB).

Mitre throws a two-seam fastball in the low-90's.  He uses both a slurvey curve (mostly against righties) and a change (mostly against lefties) to keep hitters off-balance.

I sent a few questions off to Jeff from Lookout Landing, SB Nation's great Mariner site and he was nice enough to send me some answers back (thanks Jeff). Since I'm sitting at the airport waiting to board the plane I thought I'd post it. He's a bigger Adrian Beltre fan than I figured he'd be.

1. You guys have a new manager this year, I know nothing about Don Wakamatsu, what are his strengths and weaknesses?

Don always keeps a cool head, he's helped to bring together what was once a famously divided clubhouse, and he's been good about maximizing the outfield defense, by which I mean keeping Griffey out of left and then making Ryan Langerhans the everyday starter for a little while. So those things are neat. On the other hand, there have been several occasions on which he neglected to pinch-hit in the later innings (most often with Griffey), which tends to get on our nerves. Truthfully, though, it's just hard to complain about him. Given a different bullpen, I'm sure he would've made some decisions that didn't go over very well, but this is a guy who for most of the season hasn't had a single left-handed reliever. Take away the lefties and managers have limited opportunity to get unpleasantly creative.

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Another series against the Rays this weekend.  Tonight, it's Roy Halladay and Matt Garza, tomorrow afternoon it's Brian Tallet and David Price and Sunday afternoon it's Brett Cecil and Jeff Niemann.  We've done all these pitchers before, here for Garza and Niemann and here for Price.

That was just a few weeks ago, so no real need to look back on them, but hopefully we can hit Niemann and Price better than last time (7 1/3 IP, 1 R and 6 IP, 1 R) and Garza better than usual (1.89 career ERA vs. Blue Jays in 47 2/3 IP).

Fresh off a series win against the loathed Red Sox, the Jays look to keep rolling after the off-day when they continue their homestand in a three-game mid-week series against the Cleveland Indians.  The series opens tonight (Tuesday) at 7 pm with two lefties matching up, Brett Cecil for the Jays and Cliff Lee for the Tribe.  The series continues on Wednesday night when Ricky Romero starts for Toronto and the magnanimous Carl Pavano makes the start for Cleveland.  The series concludes with a getaway game on Thursday afternoon at half past noon, but it hasn't yet been released who is actually starting for Cleveland, though I am anticipating it being Tomo Ohka.

Hopefully the Jays continue their winning ways (if you can call one series win "winning ways") and string together a few more good games against Cleveland before the division rival Tampa Bay Rays come back into town next for a weekend series.  It won't be easy to get started off against Cliff Lee, but hopefully the Jays have a bit more offensive success against this excellent lefty than they did against Jonathan Lester yesterday.

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It might surprise you to know, considering how the only thing being talked about around here is the Roy Halladay trade rumors, but there is a baseball game tonight. We start a series against the Indians. So I sent some questions to Ryan from Let's Go Tribe (thanks Ryan), SB Nation's Cleveland Indian blog. And the results are after the jump:

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