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Blue Jays-Red Sox Preview

Sep 19, 2010 - 4:03 AM By MATT BROWN STATS Editor

Toronto (74-73) at Boston (82-65), 1:35 p.m. EDT

One of the bright spots in a disappointing season for the Boston Red Sox, Jon Lester has had one blemish in his last seven starts.

That blemish - the worst outing of his career - came at home against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Lester seeks to reverse the result of that start and help the Red Sox avoid a three-game sweep to slugging Jose Bautista and Toronto on Sunday at Fenway Park.

As the Red Sox (82-66) stumble towards their first year without a postseason appearance since 2006, Lester (17-8, 3.17 ERA) certainly hasn't shut down his game for the winter. The left-hander has won his last four starts - accounting for nearly half of Boston's nine victories in that span - and six of his last seven outings.

He was excellent Monday, allowing one run and three hits while striking out 12 in eight innings of a 5-1 victory at Seattle to establish a new career high for wins. Manager Terry Francona credited maturity for Lester's steady improvement.

"His maturation and the development of his curve, change and cutter and adding velocity. That's a pretty good mix," Francona said. "He can attack both sides of the plate. He changes speeds. He can attack both lefties and righties. When he's throwing the ball like he wants to, he has a lot of ways to get hitters out."

Lester got only six batters out the last time he faced the Blue Jays (75-73), giving up a career-high nine runs in a career-low two innings of Boston's 16-2 home loss Aug. 20. He surrendered a pair of home runs to Lyle Overbay.

Bautista homered later in that contest, and has also gone deep in the first two games of this series to increase his major league-leading - and Blue Jays record - total to 49. His solo shot in the first inning Saturday set the tone for Toronto's 4-3 win, and put his club in position to sweep a late-season series in Boston for the second straight year. The Blue Jays took three games at Fenway from Sept. 28-30, totaling 31 runs.

Bautista is 5 for 23 with one homer lifetime off Lester, who is 6-4 with a 3.75 ERA versus Toronto.

"Jose's probably looking for five more, but we'll take one more," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said.

Toronto will send Shaun Marcum (12-7, 3.58) to the mound, seeking a career high in wins of his own. The right-hander, who finished 12-6 in 2007, has yielded three runs or fewer in six consecutive starts but has only a 2-1 record to show for it. He allowed three runs in six innings last Sunday, failing to earn a decision in the Blue Jays' eventual 5-4 victory.

Marcum is 1-2 with a 4.32 ERA but a sparkling .187 opponent batting average in four starts against Boston this season.

With their next defeat, the Red Sox will match their loss total (67) from each of the past two seasons.