Boston Toronto series Preview (2)

This is a series Toronto would love to win. They should be on ahigh note with Rolen kick-starting the offence and Lind filling big gap in LF. Plus Boston is down right now as were the Jays on Saturday evening.
Boston is in five games losing streak their longest in three years, will have some lineup returns to help them tonight.
Ortiz and Lowell should be back after injuries. With the day off yesterday also Boston should be ready to go. They didn’t lose more than four straight in 2007.

Toronto has Halladay pitching followed by Burnett and McGowan so certainly have the stars aligned to give Boston a headache. Halladay helped Toronto complete a three-game home sweep of Boston on April 6, pitching eight innings and giving up four runs in a 7-4 victory. It might also give bullpen time to recuperate from overuse in forst few weeks of season.

Ortiz missed the last two games due to a bruised right knee. He has five homers in 76 at-bats versus Halladay.
Lowell has been out since April 10 with a sprained left thumb.
"I don't have any pain," said Lowell. "I'm looking forward to getting back." Lowell's has three homers in 24 at-bats against Halladay.

Toronto Lineup: On Sunday Gibbons put Rios at leadoff with Eckstein day off. It worked very well and Alex had 4-5 game. Last season he had similar good luck at leadoff. With Eckstein in tonight will Gibbons leave Alex there and drop Eckstein below the big bats or maybe number two ?

Tonight could look like this: Rios, Overbay, Rolen, Stairs, Wells, Hill, Lind, Zaun, Eckstein. Looks a great deal stronger now with Rolen and Lind playing. Let’s hope the Green Monster gets some dents tonight or better still over the top.

Pitchers Lester and Halladay. For Boston Jon Lester is starting tonight, ahead of Daiske Matsuzaka who's recovering from flu-like symptoms and is scheduled to pitch Wednesday. In his only appearance against Toronto he gave up one run and three hits over 6 2-3 innings.
For Toronto: Halladay is coming off his third consecutive complete game, but second straight loss. He allowed five runs in eight innings of a 5-3 defeat at Tampa Bay on Wednesday.

What they said:
Wells on John Gibbons during slump: "He's not out there hitting for us or in the field for us. I've been here long enough to see managers come and go (Jim Fregosi, Buck Martinez, Carlos Tosca)... good people, and he's one of the good people I've been fortunate to be with.”

Halladay: who was unable to hold a 3-0 lead against Tampa. "It's frustrating. It's disappointing. It's a number of things,"

FYI. Ex-Jays
Frank Thomas: ONE FOR THE BOOKS AND RIPLEY BELIEVE IT OR NOT. tripled for the first time in six years and got three hits against Angels Monday night in the opener of a four-game series.
"That was priceless," winning pitcher Chad Gaudin said of Thomas' 12th career triple. "I played with the guy in '06, and I don't think I saw him beat out a ball - much less go from home to third on a triple. It's uplifting. He told me a couple of days ago, 'I can run now.' And I said, 'Really.' And I'm thinking to myself, in 15 years, all of a sudden you can run now? And sure enough, he can run."
Thomas hit a towering fly that landed just inside the right-field line after a long but fruitless run by Vladimir Guerrero. His first triple since April 24, 2002, with the Chicago in a 9-2 win at Cleveland. His last one before that was Aug. 22, 1998. "It's been a long time since one of those," Thomas said, laughing. "The way the ball was curving, I just thought it was going to be a double. But then I saw the ball get by him. I've felt better all year, so I'm running a lot better. I was happy to get it. It's something I haven't done in a long time, so it was fun."

Everything is fun again for the 19-year veteran. "It just feels good to be back playing. I don't have any hard feelings about anything. It was a bad fit over there (in Toronto) and it didn't work out, so I'm just happy to be able to come back here and fit in. This is a good situation for me. "I saw this team earlier in the year when they swept us and I saw how talented they were. I saw the good left-handed bats, the great defense and great young pitching. So when all this went down in Toronto, this was the first place I was trying to go to because I still had so many friends on this team. It was an easy transition. Business took me away, and business brought me back."

Reed Johnson: Having a great time with the Cubs now leading the Division. Highlight reel this week with incredible diving catch and slide into the wall that was close enough to wall to bend his cap peak. Batting .324 and nine rbis in 71 at bats .

Troy Glaus: First home run of the season this week but still hitting 18 rbis in 92 at bats. Glaus is having problems with his eyes due to allergies in night games at home. Struck out twice on Friday before leaving game.