Jon Lester

The Red Sox give the ball to Jon Lester (10-3, 2.7 ERA) Friday night as they open a three-game series against Toronto and attempt to bounce back from a four-game losing streak staining the end to the unofficial first half of the regular season.

Lester, anticipating his first All-Star Game appearance Tuesday, will close out his fantastic first half at Toronto against a team that he has a lifetime record of 5-3 with a 2.71 ERA in 10 starts. The last time the Blue Jays faced Lester, April 28, they could only get one hit off of him in seven innings, setting up Boston for a 2-0 win.

Most recently, Lester continued to hold the Sox’ battered team together in a 9-3 victory against the Orioles at Fenway last Saturday. Lester’s seven strong innings against Baltimore — giving up just one run on five hits, striking out seven — put him in the double-digit win column for his third straight year, more than justifying his 2010 All-Star selection.

The Red Sox enter Friday night’s matchup five games behind the Yankees and in third place in the AL East. Though the Sox have been struggling to overcome an abundance of injuries, they lost three to Tampa Bay this week by just two runs in each outing.

The Blue Jays, sending Ricky Romero (6-5, 3.39 ERA) to the Rogers Centre mound, look to continue moving forward from a three-game losing streak, after winning 6-5 Wednesday and then 8-1 Thursday over the Twins.

The lefty will get back on the hill after giving up eight runs in 2 2/3 innings against the Yankees last Sunday, feeding an 11-run third inning that would seal the Jays’ 11-3 loss to New York. Romero has one win in his last six starts.

Romero, 4-1, with a 1.75 ERA at home this year, attempts to get back on track Friday against a banged-up Boston team. He has only faced about half of the Sox’ active roster, and five of the six batters he has faced — J.D. Drew, Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz, Adrian Beltre and Bill Hall – all have notable batting and slugging numbers against him.

Red Sox vs. Romero

J.D. Drew (14 plate appearances): .500 BA/.615 OBP/.500 slugging, 4 walks, 3 strikeouts

Kevin Youkilis (13): .444/.615/1.222, 4 hits, 1 double, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts

David Ortiz (12): .500/.500/1.000, 6 hits, 3 doubles, 1 HR, 5 RBIs, 4 strikeouts

Adrian Beltre (3): .500/.667/.500, 1 walk

Bill Hall (3): .667/.667/.667,

Eric Patterson (3): .000/.000/.000

Romero has not faced Mike Cameron, Kevin Cash, Darnell McDonald, Gustavo Molina, Daniel Nava, Marco Scutaro and Ryan Shealy.

Blue Jays vs. Lester

Vernon Wells (27 plate appearance): .238 BA/.370 OBP/.476 slugging, 2 doubles, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 4 walks, 2 strikeouts

Jose Bautista (24): .200/.292/.350, 1 HR, 3 RBIs, 3 walks, 6 strikeouts

Aaron Hill (22): .100/.182/ .150/.332, 1 double, 2 walks, 9 strikeouts

Lyle Overbay (18): .250/.333/.375, 2 doubles, 1 RBI, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts

Adam Lind (15): .143/.200/.214, 1 double, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts

Jose Molina (15): .385/.467/.385, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts

John McDonald (12): .100/.182/.100, 2 strikeouts

John Buck: (8): .125/.125/.250, 1 double, 2 strikeouts

Alex Gonzalez (2): .000/.000/.000, 2 strikeouts

Edwin Encarnacion (1): .000/.000/.000

Lester has not faced Nick Green, Fred Lewis and Dewayne Wise.

Peter Gammons

Friday afternoon, Peter Gammons made his weekly call into The Big Show to talk about the topic that has been reaching beyond the field of baseball, LeBron James. Along with that, Gammons talked about the Cliff Lee to New York deal – before it fell through – and he also discussed the lack of enthusiasm from Red Sox Nation towards the current Red Sox roster.

“I think part of it was there were no expectations coming into the season because fans were constantly told that this team has no offense,” said Gammons. “You look at that lineup now and you wonder, ‘How are they going to survive?’”

“A lot of times, players get hurt, you go on a run, you make up for it. I think you get tired making up for it, and there are certain players in the game that teams can’t play without … For the Red Sox, there is no doubt that Dustin Pedroia is the heart and soul of that team. He’s the first one to the ballpark… he’s a human Red Bull.”

A full transcription is below. To listen to the interview, click on The Big Show audio on demand page.

Did you watch “The Decision” last night?

I went and watched Channel 44. But no, enough is enough. I know some people like attention, so he got it.

You’ve got to wonder if having this kind of special is the start of something bad for LeBron.

I think the question is, if it’s true in fact that LeBron’s people paid the interviewer. If that indeed is so, then we really have some issues.

It almost seems true since ESPN had their own table of interviewers come on after Jim Gray was done. Have you ever asked a player if he bites his nails, Peter?

No, I don’t think I have. The thing is, if you are financially invested, how can you ask questions that that person doesn’t want to have asked to him? It’s a little bit like 60 Minutes paying Michael Jackson a ton of money to go on that show.

I don’t know. Someone once said that when they created 60 Minutes in 1969 that changed the news world because it showed that you could make money off news, but it was no longer pure. It no longer had news as a pure entity.

If that was a true journalistic interview there would only be one question, “where are you going?” and the other questions would be unnecessary fluff.

Oh yeah, it was just, “OK, here’s LeBron’s little show and this is what we’re going to do.” It had gotten so tiresome by then anyway that I couldn’t care less. It was said to me by a good friend of mine, who is well connected to the Cavaliers and so forth – well I said, “This is kind of sad, a guy would go to Indians games wearing a Yankees hat,” because [Cleveland] is arguably the most depressed major city in the United States. There’s no tug to the youth programs that he went through in Akron and so forth. The guys said, “Hey,” – what they all say, up and down with the Cavaliers – “Kobe is all about winning and LeBron is all about attention.” Read the rest of this entry »

According to a report by the New York Post’s George A. King III, the top three teams in the AL East are interested in acquiring Phillies outfielder Jayson Werth should the team put him on the trade market before the July 31 deadline. Werth is batting .277 with 13 home runs and 48 RBI. He is due $7.5 million this season but is set to become a free agent at the end of the year. Werth had been rumored as a potential target of the Red Sox in the upcoming offseason, but they could look for help in the outfield earlier than that should it come available.

This week, Alex Speier examines the Red Sox lineup. Is the Red Sox DL lineup better than the current Sox lineup? We also give you the stat you won’t find anywhere else.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Wednesday night, for the first time since Sept. 29, 2005, Jonathan Papelbon entered a regular-season game in the seventh inning.

With the Rays holding a 6-2 lead, Red Sox manager Terry Francona called on his closer, who hadn’t pitched since July 2. Here was Francona’s explanation:

“I talked to Pap before the game. He needed to pitch tonight. It was once in the last seven or eight days. So, when we got to that inning, we can try to play it traditionally, but if we go through the heart of the order, say we bring [Robert] Manuel in then, and it doesn’t work, now we’ve got to go to [Daniel] Bard. We’re down four. We really wanted him to pitch, and then if we stay in it, we’ll not take the temperature, but if we want to come back, we can play a little different. It wasn’t because the game meant more. He needed to pitch, and if we wait or we get ourselves in a bind where we end up using everybody, that didn’t make any sense.”

Papelbon pitched a scoreless inning, claiming a strikeout while throwing 13 pitches.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A lot was made of the comments made by Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon to WEEI.com’s Alex Speier regarding Adrian Beltre‘s defense.

When describing the third baseman, Maddon told Speier, “[Beltre is] clearly the best [third baseman] I’ve ever seen in person. I think [Evan Longoria] is good, I used to think Scott Brosius was really good. … [Eric] Chavez was good, but Beltre was stupid good. I think Beltre is the best who I’ve ever seen with my two eyes — defender, not just third baseman, but defense.”

Now, with Beltre leading all major league third basemen in errors after making his 14th of the season, Wednesday night, Maddon offered his analysis of the 31-year-old.

“A little bit. I don’t think he’s as sure yet,” Maddon said of Beltre. “He’s gotten more sure at the plate and less sure on defense, that’s the best way I can describe it. At the plate right now he’s a monster. The last couple of years he’s been a monster on defense and uncertain at the plate. I think he’s kind of reversed roles a bit.”

Asked what exactly the difference in Beltre’s defensive game might be, Maddon said: “From a distance, he’s not as free on defense as he has been.”

Beltre, who has made 14 errors in each of his last two seasons, made his latest miscue in the first inning of the Red Sox’ 6-4 loss to the Rays, mishandling a Longoria grounder. It was Beltre’s first error in the last 10 games, marking the second-longest stretch without a fielding faux pas, falling short of the 22-gamer he had from May 9-June 2.

As Maddon noted, the third baseman is having one of his best offensive seasons of his career, currently hitting .334 with 12 homers. Beltre notched one hit in four at-bats Wednesday night, making him 2-for-12 for the three-game series.

“Normally it happens with catchers. A catcher will get more offensive oriented and it messes up their defense,” Maddon said. “Still, this guy is very, very good. Just the best way I can describe it as he’s looked as confident on offense this year as he has looked on defense the last couple of years.”

Jerry Remy

NESN Red Sox analyst Jerry Remy made his weekly appearance on the Dennis & Callahan show Wednesday morning. Remy talked about Tuesday’s night loss to the Rays that featured a questionable ninth-inning substitution by Red Sox manager Terry Francona, his opinion of unconventional moves by Rays manager Joe Maddon, and the Sox’ injury problems.

Said Remy: ”It’s got to catch up to them. You can’t have this many injuries and compete. You just can’t. You just hope that day by day you can hold your head above water here until you get these guys back.”

Remy agreed that the Sox are doing their best to hang on until the All-Star break but cautioned that the three-day vacation won’t solve many of the team’s problems. “Even after the All-Star break, they still don’t get all these guys back,” he noted. “Are they hanging on? Sure, they are. My biggest concern is they have a bad week, then all of a sudden you’re at the All-Star break and you’re five or six [games] back, when you’ve done all this good work to get close.”

Daisuke Matsuzaka struggled again in his most recent outing Monday. Said Remy: “It’s just frustrating as hell to watch. … I can’t figure it out, and apparently they can’t figure it out, because if they could, they’d change it.”

On a positive note, Remy said he’s been impressed with Felix Doubront. “Good for him. He did a good job last night, facing a tough lineup. … For a kid that’s coming up and filling in for a spot start, what more could you ask for than what he gave you last night?”