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Blue Jays try to salvage finale with Red Sox

Sep 7, 2014 - 1:04 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - It's not the best time to lose to last-place teams.

The Toronto Blue Jays will try to escape their latest trip to Fenway Park with at least one victory when they visit the Boston Red Sox for the finale of a three-game weekend series.

Toronto has lost four of its last five games against Boston, helping a plummet that's seen them drop six games out of the second American League wild card position in the season's final month. Three other teams sit between the Blue Jays and the wild card place-holder, Seattle.

"We're still in this thing. We're hanging on by a thread," manager John Gibbons said. "They've been two close ballgames, they could have gone either way, but we just came up short."

Toronto starts knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who returns after being struck in the head with a ball off the bat of Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria during Wednesday batting practice. A day earlier, he'd allowed two hits in seven innings of an 8-2 win.

One week prior, he'd beaten the Red Sox in Toronto, 11-7, after allowing an earned run in six innings. He's 3-0 against Boston in 2014 with a win in his lone Fenway outing in July.

Boston turns to Rubby De La Rosa, who's winless in his last four starts with a 6.10 earned run average and has faced the Blue Jays three times this season while compiling an uglier 7.36 ERA.

He allowed three runs in 4 2/3 innings of a matchup with Dickey on Aug. 26.

In his last start, on Monday, he surrendered three runs in 5 1/3 innings of the Red Sox' 4-3 win over Tampa Bay in 10 innings.

On Saturday, Yoenis Cespedes and Christian Vazquez both hit RBI doubles and the Red Sox defeated Toronto, 4-3.

Dustin Pedroia and Will Middlebrooks each drove in a run and David Ortiz supplied two hits and a run scored for the Red Sox.

Clay Buchholz (7-8) earned the win after surrendering just two runs on four hits with five strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings.

Colby Rasmus hit a two-run homer and Dioner Navarro brought in a run for Toronto, which had starter J.A. Happ (9-9) give up four runs on seven hits and three walks over six innings of work.