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Game two of the series gets underway at 1:07 pm today, as R.A. Dickey and the Toronto Blue Jays take on Rick Porcello and the Boston Red Sox. The Jays will look to get back to .500 with a win today, and try to get even with the Red Sox in the standings in the process.
In case you missed it, here are the scores from yesterday's games in the American League East:
Boston 8, Toronto 7
Baltimore 6, Tampa Bay 1
Detroit 4, New York 0
Here are the lineups for today's game:
Rick Porcello is a right-handed pitcher that will limit walks, generate groundballs, and give up his fair share of home runs. He averaged 91 mph on his fastball last season, and will also utilize a slider, curveball, and change up when attacking hitters. Although he struggled with a 4.92 ERA last season, he did manage a 3.57 FIP in the second half of the season, an encouraging sign for Porcello heading into 2016. It will be interesting to see if the Blue Jays hitters can take advantage of their new dirt infield today against this groundball pitcher, as the surface seems to be much quicker than the old turf.
David Ortiz, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Ryan Hanigan are all out of today's lineup for the Red Sox. Pablo Sandoval, Rusney Castillo, and Blake Swihart will play instead. For the Blue Jays, Michael Saunders has been given the day off, and it will be Ezequiel Carrera taking his place. With Donaldson still limited to DH duty, Darwin Barney will be in the lineup instead of Chris Colabello or Justin Smoak, which seems to weaken Toronto's lineup quite a bit.
In terms of bullpen usage, Noe Ramirez was the only reliever to pitch multiple innings in yesterday's game. Matt Barnes, Junichi Tazawa, Koji Uehara, and Craig Kimbrel all pitched one inning for Boston, but should all be available on back-to-back days. Jesse Chavez, Drew Storen, Brett Cecil, Gavin Floyd, and Joe Biagini all pitched one inning or less for the Blue Jays, but Franklin Morales may not be available due to injury.
Other games around the American League East today include:
New York (Sabathia) vs. Detroit (Pelfrey)- 1:10 PM
Tampa Bay (Smyly) vs. Baltimore (Wright- 7:05 PM
Enjoy today's games!