The rubber match of an American League East series will be played on Sunday afternoon when the Toronto Blue Jays take on the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
After the Red Sox earned a 5-0 victory on Friday behind a complete game shutout from Jon Lester, it was the Blue Jays that came out on top, 3-2, on Saturday.
The Blue Jays were clinging to a 2-0 lead late into the game, but the Red Sox tied it at 2-2 in the eighth with an RBI triple from Jacoby Ellsbury, who then scored on a throwing error.
However, Adam Lind homered in the top of the ninth inning to help the Blue Jays edge out the comeback-minded Red Sox.
The contest featured quite the pitching matchup between Mark Buehrle and Clay Buchholz. Buehrle went seven innings and came out in the eighth before allowing a walk to David Ross. Darren Oliver then came on in relief and allowed Ellsbury's triple. Oliver settled from there and kept the Red Sox from taking the lead and Casey Janssen pitched a scoreless ninth for his 10th save.
The Blue Jays broke a three-game losing streak with the win.
Buchholz went eight innings for the Red Sox, allowing two runs on six hits as he continued his impressive start to the season. Junichi Tazawa, who was recently promoted to closer, allowed Lind's home run in the ninth and took the loss. The Red Sox have lost seven of nine and found out on Saturday that closer Joel Hanrahan will miss the rest of the season as he undergoes surgery to repair a tendon in his right arm.
Tasked with pitching the Blue Jays to a series win is right-hander Chad Jenkins. Brandon Morrow was scratched from Sunday afternoon's start and Jenkins was recalled from Double-A New Hampshire on Saturday morning. The move was made after outfielder Rajai Davis was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left oblique muscle.
Jenkins went 1-3 with a 4.50 ERA in 13 games (3 starts) last season for the Jays and has faced Boston once in relief.
Ryan Dempster will oppose Jenkins as he takes the ball for the Red Sox and looks to bounce back from a loss to Minnesota last time out.
In that outing, Dempster only allowed two earned runs but three Red Sox errors ended up bringing in a pair of unearned runs. Dempster still went seven innings in the contest and struck out eight batters though he did take the loss.
Dempster has now struck out at least eight batters in five of his seven starts on the season and has allowed more than three earned runs just once. That type of performance hasn't shown up in his record (2-3), but is evident in his sparkling ERA of 2.93.
On May 2, Dempster made just his fourth all-time appearance against the Blue Jays. In that contest, he scattered four hits over six innings and allowed just one solo home run to earn his second win of the season and first ever against Toronto.
Boston took two of three from the Blue Jays in the first series of the campaign, but Toronto has won 13 of the last 22 meetings.
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