Ray Day!!

The Blue Jays will send young righty Robert Ray to the hill tonight when they complete their three game series with the Red Sox at Fenway Park. It is a crucial game for the team, not just to avoid their first three game losing streak of the season, but to prove to themselves that even without their best starters, that they have a legitimate chance to battle the Red Sox and Yankees for the AL East Division crown.

Thus far this season the Blue Jays have only faced each of their long-time rivals once, dropping two of three to the Yankees at Rogers Centre earlier in the month, and thus far losing the first two of a three game set at Fenway. Unfortunately for the Jays, ace pitcher Roy Halladay was not scheduled to pitch in this series, and unless the team does some rotation juggling, he is set to pitch the final game of a three game set vs. the Orioles at Camden Yards (May 27) and will miss the Red Sox again during their three game visit to the Rogers Centre (May 29-31).

Unless Ricky Romero, Jesse Litsch or Casey Janssen are able to make it back to the big leagues from injury before the completion of that second series with the Red Sox, the Jays will be forced to continue pinning their hopes on their young arms. If no adjustments are made, the probable pitchers for that series are Scott Richmond, Brian Tallet and Brett Cecil.

Back to tonight's series finale, the Jays will try to take one from the Red Sox who will send LHP Jon Lester to the hill. The Jays have fared well against LHP this year thanks to solid contributions from platoon players Kevin Millar and Jose Bautista. Millar, although seeing the majority of his AB's vs. lefties, is actually hitting at a higher clip vs. righties (.277/.333) although it's important to keep in mind it's a very small sample size with only 71 combined AB's on the season. Overbay, however hit just .215 with zero HR in 149 AB vs. lefties in '08, so any production Millar can provide is an added bonus for the '09 Jays. 3B/LF Jose Baustista, who has regularly replaced young OF Travis Snider in the lineup vs. lefties this year has hit at a .316/.395/.474 clip vs. southpaws and will certainly be in tonight's lineup.

The lone lefty expected to be in tonight's lineup is DH Adam Lind who is 1-4 in his career vs. Lester. Expect to see the regular lefty lineup of: Scutaro, Hill, Rios, Wells, Lind, Rolen, Millar, Barajas, Bautista.

Lester is 1-2 in 5 career starts vs. the Jays with a 3.94 ERA and .212 BAA, however he has struggled in three of his last four starts.

Tonight's Prediction: Expect to see the Jay's bats come to life and if Robert Ray can provide a quality start, or an effort close enough the Jays should be able to pull it out. Jays 7 - Red Sox 5 and off to Atlanta to unleash the Doc on the Braves.