Bosox Board

After a solid debut for the Red Sox, Fister takes his act on the road when
he opens a ten-game road trip in Toronto.  Fister is 1-1 with a 5.06 ERA in
four career starts at Rogers Centre.

Estrada turned things around in his last start by allowing three runs
over seven innings vs. Kansas City.  Prior to that, Estrada gave up 23 runs
over his previous 16 1/3 innings of work, including five homers.

The Red Sox embark on a 10-game road trip that will lead them into the All-Star break, with their first stop north of the border, where Toronto right-hander Marco Estrada (4-6, 4.89 ERA) awaits them for the first game of a three game set.

The Red Sox counter with Doug Fister (0-1, 4.50), who will make his second start for Boston after being claimed off waivers last week. He posted a quality start in his debut with the club on Sunday, allowing three earned runs over six innings against the Angels.

Despite still being a fresh face, Fister's teammates feel he's getting acclimated within the group.

"He has the type of personality where he can get in good, quick, with anybody," Red Sox outfielder Chris Young said. "He's got a real good personality, a real personable guy. You can tell he enjoys playing the game, has fun, and he goes out there and competes. That's all you can ask for from a guy."

He'll need to be strong again in opposing Estrada, who at times has been tough on the Red Sox, including an April start in which he allowed three hits and two walks while striking out seven over six scoreless innings.

Per Statcast, Estrada has been especially strong in getting swinging strikes when working from behind. Opponents have missed on 33.5 percent of their swings against the Blue Jays hurler when they have had the favorable count. That's the second-highest such rate, behind only Max Scherzer, and he has averaged just 84.7 mph on those pitches, the second-lowest velocity among starting pitchers behind in the count, ahead of only knuckleballer R.A. Dickey.

"He's a tough pitcher," said Young, who broke up an Estrada no-hit bid last June with a homer in the eighth inning. "He has great command of all his pitches and mixes the ball up really well. It's going to be a dogfight going into the game, but every day brings a new challenge. You never know what he's going to come with that day."

Despite the teams' opposite location in the American League standings, the Red Sox know better than to overlook the Blue Jays.

"You don't take anybody lightly," Young said. "No matter if it's the team with the best record in baseball, or the worst. That doesn't matter going into the series. You know they're always going to play up and they always give us tough games, so we don't underestimate them in any way."

THREE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THIS GAME

• The Red Sox begin their second 10-game road trip, though this one will keep them away from Fenway Park longer than any other stretch this season. As the trip stretches into the All-Star break, Boston will go 14 days between home games. The Red Sox are 19-21 on the road (2-1 at Toronto) entering this series.

• In hitting his club's first leadoff home run of the season Wednesday night, Jose Bautista moved into a tie with Joe Carter for the seventh-most hits in franchise history, with 1,051. He also broke a fourth-place tie with Carter on the Blue Jays all-time RBI list; his 738 RBIs are within two of George Bell in third place.

• Fister's last outing versus the Blue Jays came on Aug. 1, 2016, while he was part of Houston's staff. He allowed just four hits over six scoreless innings and tallied a season-high eight strikeouts.

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