The Almighty Toronto Blue Jays Come in For A Tough Four Game Fenway Series

Yes, the Toronto Blue Jays invade Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts for a four game set. They will pitch their top two, AJ Burnett and Roy Halladay, on three days rest on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Here are the remaining 2008 games with that team from Toronto...
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Fri 9/12 BOS 7:05 pm
Sat 9/13 BOS 12:35 pm
Sat 9/13 BOS 7:05 pm
Sun 9/14 BOS 1:35 pm

Fri 9/19 TOR 7:07 pm
Sat 9/20 TOR 1:07 pm
Sun 9/21 TOR 1:07 pm
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The detailed pitching matchups are right here, too...

David Purcey (3-5, 5.23 ERA) vs. Tim Wakefield (8-10, 4.11) tonight
A.J. Burnett (17-10, 4.31) and Jesse Listch (11-8, 3.70) vs. Paul Byrd (11-11, 4.39) and Bartolo Colon (4-2, 4.09) Saturday
Roy Halladay (18-10, 2.77) vs. Jon Lester (14-5, 3.23) Sunday

A four game split, at least in my opinion, will be just fine, thank you. Anything less will not work that well. I think Colon will have a good outing, as will Lester. The difference is the opposing pitchers...Halladay and Burnett are two of the best in all of MLB. Byrd was tremendous in his last start, giving up zero runs, while Wakes was as opposite as you can possibly get, going less than two innings. So we'll see what happens. The Minnesota Twins, who the Red Sox are leading for the Wild Card playoff spot (see below), lost to the Royals last night. Here are the latest Wild Card standings as of Friday morning...

W L GB Left
Boston Red Sox (12) 85 60 -- 17
Minnesota Twins 80 66 5.5 16
Toronto Blue Jays 79 67 6.5 16
New York Yankees 77 69 8.5 16

So with seventeen games left, we're 2 1/2 games out of first place and have a six game lead (in the loss column) over the Twinkies and a seven game lead over the incoming Toronto Blue Jays. The Yankees are in fourth place and should start polishing and cleaning their golf clubs and Andy Pettitte must start planning for his retirement. He's had a horrible second half. But the pinstriped team has many things wrong with them, more than just the injuries they've suffered. Hankie Steinbrenner has been moaning, belching and groaning about that spate of injuries, but it seems that he sometimes completely overlooks the fact that the Red Sox, at one time or another this season, have lost almost half their team, too. So WAH-WAH-WAH Hankie Pankie. Enjoy your October...IN FRONT OF THE TV!

Gee, I guess I got THAT out of my system! Have a great Friday and a tremendously wonderful weekend. It would be great to win ten of the remaining seventeen games...if so, October, here we come. The first place team in the AL East will play Chicago or Minnesota, and the Wild Card winner will have the task of going to Anaheim to play the already clinched Angels with no home field advantage. Ouch! Hmm, doesn't take much thinking to know why first place is SO important. Click on the title for more on these last two and a half weeks of 2008's regular season, and as always, BE WELL. Forever.