GAME #15, BOSTON RED SOX AT TORONTO BLUE JAYS

[Bear]

RED SOX V BLUE JAYS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2017, 7:07 PM AT ROGERS CENTRE

TV:  NESN, SNET-1

BOSTON, 9-5,...........................................................................TORONTO, 2-11

BOSTON:

RICK PORCELLO, RHP, 1-1, 7.56 ERA, 18K

The righty is coming off a tough outing against the Rays  when he was
belted for eight hits, eight runs and a career-high four homers over 4 1/3
innings.  That outing snapped a streak of 43 regular season starts in which
he went at least five innings.

FRANCISCO LORIANO, LHP, 0-1, 9.00 ERA, 11K

Loriano displayed some improved command during his last start
by throwing first-pitch strikes to 18 of his 26 batters.  That was his
highest percentage since the start of 2015 and comes after an
outing when he threw just 13 of 25 pitches for strikes.

Porcello looks to get back on track vs. Jays

Keegan Matherson

With Toronto's slow start already placing a heightened importance on American League East play, the Blue Jays will send Francisco Liriano to the mound on Wednesday to face the Red Sox and 2016 American League Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello in Game 2 of the series.

This season hasn't been as kind to Porcello, though. The right-hander's ERA jumped to 7.56 after his start against the Rays on Friday, when he allowed eight runs, including four home runs, over 4 1/3 innings. Porcello's fly-ball rate has been above his career averages early this season, and manager John Farrell believes the key to turning that around will be re-establishing his sinker down in the zone.

"That's the pitch that really allows everything else to work off of," Farrell said. "The other night, he certainly missed location. He had a tendency to overthrow his fastball at times, which can lead to some sacrifice of command and location. That was the case the other night. He just has to get back to that signature pitch, and that's that sinker in the bottom of the zone."

Liriano is trending in the opposite direction, as he shook off an ugly first outing to strike out 10 batters on Thursday against Baltimore. By leaning more heavily on a combination of his slider and changeup, Liriano was able to avoid the control issues that saw him record just a single out in his first start.

"With the fastball, sometimes he likes to overpower it," said catcher Russell Martin after his last outing. "The slider is the pitch that kind of gets him back in that groove, and he was spot on with it, back door to a lot of the righties today."

THREE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THIS TEAM

• Beyond Toronto's offensive struggles, there is also some poor luck at play. Based on the Blue Jays' exit velocities and launch angles, the hit probability metric shows that their expected weighted on-base average (wOBA) is .330 instead of their actual mark of .266. That is the widest margin of any MLB team so far.

"That's still a very dangerous lineup," Farrell said of the Blue Jays, "and watching games and watching video prior to this series opening up, they've had pitchers that have gone against them and executed extremely well. We're going to need to do the same."

• Boston and Toronto have had vastly different starts at the plate, with the Red Sox leading the league hitting .287 entering play on Tuesday. Toronto ranked 27th with a .212 team average, but both teams have experienced an early power outage this season. Coming into this series, the Blue Jays and Red Sox had the fewest home runs in baseball with seven and six, respectively.

• Only once last season did Porcello give up six hits with an exit velocity of at least 95 mph in a single start. He now has done it in two consecutive rough outings, also averaging an exit velocity higher than 91 mph in both games.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/20170418225028556/porcello-looks-to-get-back-on-track-vs-jays/?game_pk=490312[/center]

[Bear]

Game 15: Red Sox at Blue Jays

Peter Abraham

Here are the lineups:

RED SOX (9-5)   ....................................................BLUE JAYS (2-11)

Pedroia 2B   ........................Pillar CF
Benintendi CF...................   Carrera LF
Betts RF   .......................Bautista RF
Ramirez DH................   Morales DH
Moreland 1B...................   Tulowitzki SS
Bogaerts SS..............   Martin C
Young LF   ......................Smoak 1B
Sandoval 3B....................   Barney 3B
Leon C...........................   Travis 2B

Pitching: RHP Rick Porcello (1-1, 7.56)

   Pitching: LHP Francisco Liriano (0

Game time: 7:07 p.m.


TV/Radio: NESN / WEEI.

Red Sox vs. Liriano:

Pedroia 6-11,
Young 1-4,
Sandoval 0-5,
Moreland 2-4,
Betts 1-2,
Bogaerts 0-3,
Ramirez 1-3,
Vazquez 0-2.

.Blue Jays vs. Porcello:

Bautista 16-38,
Martin 5-26,
Morales 5-28,
Smoak 7-24,
Pillar 6-23,
Tulowitzki 4-18,
Carrera 4-15,
Goins 2-14,
Travis 4-12,
Barney 5-8,
Saltalamacchia 2-8,
Coghlan 2-3,
Pearce 0-3.

Stat of the Day: The 1998 Florida Marlins were the last playoff team to open the following season 2-11. That team traded away many of its best players after winning the World Series.

Heating up: Mookie Betts is 12 of 22 with four extra-base hits and five RBIs in the last five games. … Andrew Benintendi is 8 of 14 with three doubles and three RBIs in the last three games.

Good trends: The Sox are 43 of 126 (.341) with runners in scoring position. … The Sox are 7-2 in games decided by two or fewer runs. … The Sox have 123 victories in Rogers Centre, the most by any Toronto opponent. The Yankees are second with 106.

Bad trends: Sox starters have a 9.64 ERA in the first inning. Take away three scoreless innings from Chris Sale and it’s 12.27. … The Sox have used their bullpen for three or more innings 10 times in 15 games.

Other notes:

Porcello is 7-7 with a 5.03 ERA in 17 career appearances against Toronto, 3-5 with a 6.23 ERA at the Rogers Centre. Even last season, when he won the Cy Young Award, Porcello had a 4.50 ERA in five starts against the Jays. …

Liriano is facing the Red Sox for the first time since 2014 when he was with the Pirates. He is 2-3 with a 5.97 ERA in six career starts against the Sox. …

Mitch Moreland leads the majors with 10 doubles. He has at least one double in nine games.

Song of the Day: “Don’t Kill My Vibe” by Sigrid.

[Rob from Mass]

E-ROD back with the Sox.Johnson back to AAA where he will look quality SP.

[Bill-806]

E-ROD back with the Sox.Johnson back to AAA where he will look quality SP.

Time is running out on the potential of Mr. E-Rod !!!

[ipot]

Panda + Moreland = back to back errors = 3-0 Jays. 

[SeaBeachFred]

Porcello gives up three UNEARNED runs and we can't come back for him?  We have one more inning and it's not going to happen tonight.  I just wonder if the Red Sox were getting ready for Chris Sale pitching tomorrow, that is going nowhere this game with their bats in preparation for doing what they have done so far every time Sale has pitched.  It better not happen.  This time to make up for tonight's shoddy performance the team should reward Chris with a big outburst of hitting.  And, please, get Leon and Young out of the lineup tomorrow.  Leon looks like he had his hot streak for the year and Young has one damn RBI in 15 games.  Vazquez and Holt in there would give us a spark and give us a good chance to win tomorrow.  Don't screw this one up Farrell.

[ipot]

Just a throwaway game.  Sandoval's D is regressing to what it was.  3 errors on the season so far.  This one costly.

[Rob from Mass]

On the bright side of a dismal game at least E rod looked good in his 1 ip.

[longgame]

Poor outing all around - no hitting and bad defense won't win many games.

[SeaBeachFred]

Poor outing all around - no hitting and bad defense won't win many games.

Let's try to be upbeat and believe with Sale on the mound today will be different.