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Red Sox seek rebound effort from Lackey against Blue Jays

May 11, 2011 - 2:37 PM (Sports Network) - John Lackey hopes to bounce back from an awful outing his last time out when the Boston Red Sox try to avoid a two-game sweep at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

Lackey allowed 15 runs over his first two starts, then rebounded to surrender three in three outings after that. However, he was pounded by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Thursday, as they reached him for eight runs and 10 hits in just four-plus innings, dropping Lackey to 2-4 on the year, while ballooning his earned run average to 7.16.

"He didn't have his best stuff," catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said of Lackey. "He made a few mistakes, [but] they just came out swinging today knowing that we had to throw strikes and go deep."

Lackey has faced the Blue Jays 15 times and is 4-5 against them with a 4.58 ERA.

Toronto, meanwhile, counters with right-hander Jesse Litsch, who is 3-2 with a 4.04 ERA. Litsch picked up a win in Detroit on Friday, as he held the Tigers to a run and four hits in 6 1/3 frames. He also struck out nine and has pitched at least six innings in five of his six starts this season, including the last four.

Litsch lost to the Red Sox on April 17, but is 4-3 lifetime against them with a 4.11 ERA in eight starts.

Boston wasted an opportunity to get to .500 in Tuesday's opener, as David Cooper's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th brought in Rajai Davis with the winning run, lifting the Jays to a 7-6 win.

Facing Matt Albers (0-1), Davis singled with one out, stole second and third, then came home easily on Cooper's deep fly to center. It made a winner of Carlos Villanueva (1-0), who pitched a scoreless top of the 10th.

"[Davis has] got accelerated speed. By no means were we surprised [of him stealing]," Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek said.

Cooper also homered, as did Jose Bautista and J.P. Arencibia for the Blue Jays, who halted a three-game losing skid.

"We battled extremely hard," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said. "We created a number of opportunities for ourselves and finally pushed the final one across in the 10th."

Adrian Gonzalez homered twice and drove in three for the Red Sox, whose three- game win streak came to an end. David Ortiz also homered among his three hits and scored twice in defeat.

Boston took three of four from Toronto earlier in the year.