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Welcome Back Travis Snider! Toronto Blue Jays @ Boston Red Sox - July 20 - GameThread

By Minor Leaguer
Welcome back, kid.
Welcome back, kid.

Wow. A lot has Happ-ened since the last time the Toronto Blue Jays took the field, and I'd be Lyon' if I said that I saw all this coming. The big change involving this game is the return of fan favourite Travis Snider, as the two newest Blue Jays J.A. Happ and Brandon Lyon will not be with the team in Fenway Park tonight, and David Carpenter is being sent to AAA Las Vegas. According to Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos, Snider is expected to start every day in left field until Jose Bautista's eventual return from the disabled list. After that, the club will have to choose to send down Snider or Anthony Gose (assuming no further injuries or roster changes). So this is the chance for Snider to demonstrate that he is a big leaguer and that he deserves to stay. Carpe-nter diem, as they say!

Hey! Don't Go-se anywhere--I swear that I will not make these Laffey-bly horrible puns again (in this intro at least).

Tonight, the Boston Red Sox (48-45) sends RHP Josh Beckett to the mound, while Toronto (45-47) counters with LHP Aaron Laffey. Beckett's last three starts (against Seattle, New York, and Tampa Bay) have not been very good, having given up 11 earned runs in 17 innings pitched, and allowing opponents to hit .299 against him. Over that stretch he walked 7 and struck out 16. Laffey has had four starts so far, with each being worse than the last. As a starter, he has pitched 23 innings, having given up 9 earned runs and 3 home runs. He also struck out 14 on 6 walks and 1 hit batsman.

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2012 - Aaron Laffey 1-1 8 4 0 0 0 0 32.0 29 14 12 5 8 18 3.38 1.16

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2012 - Josh Beckett 5-7 15 15 0 0 0 0 95.1 93 47 47 9 24 72 4.44 1.23

Lineups

The lineups for both teams feature players that have been missing for a while: Travis Snider is returning from a long stint in AAA for the Blue Jays, and Dustin Pedroia is returning for his second game after spending a two-week stint on the disabled list. Both teams' best slugger, Jose Bautista for the Jays and David Ortiz for the Sox, is on the disabled list. In addition, batting ninth for both teams are players that have absolutely no name recognition outside of their respective fanbase.

Starting Lineup

TORONTO BLUE JAYS BOSTON RED SOX
Anthony Gose - RF Jacoby Ellsbury - CF
Colby Rasmus - CF Carl Crawford - LF
Edwin Encarnacion - 1B Dustin Pedroia - 2B
Adam Lind - DH Adrian Gonzalez - 1B
J.P. Arencibia - C Cody Ross - RF
Kelly Johnson - 2B Will Middlebrooks - 3B
Yunel Escobar - SS Kelly Shoppach - C
Travis Snider - LF Mike Aviles - SS
Yan Gomes - 3B Pedro Ciriaco - DH

GO JAYS GO!!!

Standard rules apply for the comments.:

  1. No asking for, or posting, illegal audio or video streams of this game.
  2. No posting of pictures or GIFs during the GameThread. You may post a link to the image if you wish.
  3. No arguing with moderators, stop when one of them tells you to stop--they are in slightly better moods now that Travis Snider is back, but they are ready and willing to ban. You can start posting pics when the game is over.
  4. No puns.

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