Blue Jays Pick To Click – June 27th vs Boston Red Sox

Jun 21, 2013; Toronto, ON, Canada; Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Rajai Davis (11) hits a game-winning RBI single in the ninth inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Rogers Centre. The Bue Jays beat the Orioles 7-6. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY SportsFor those of you that have “Liked” the Jays Journal Facebook page, you will have noticed that we try to run a quick fan interaction called “Blue Jays Pick To Click”. The general thesis behind it is quite simple in that the fans try to pick who they think will have the most impact on the game being played that night.

We here at Jays Journal have seen some decent activity while running it at Facebook, so we thought that it might be worth trying here at JaysJournal.com where we could expand on it further. Here, we can provide a bit of background to each game to help you make your choices (i.e. match-ups, who is streaky, etc).

So let’s give this a try shall we?

Today the Blue Jays start an important 4-game set with the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Toronto’s recent hot play has helped them move to with 6.5 games of first place Boston, and also to within 3.0 games of the American League Wild Card, so this could become a huge series if Toronto has true designs on a postseason berth.

With left-hander Jon Lester on the mound, the Blue Jays will send the following line-up to the face the lefty (career marks against Lester in parentheses):

1.) Jose Reyes (1 for 6 against Lester)
2.) Jose Bautista (11 of 50, 4 HR, 8 RBI, 11 SO)
3.) Edwin Encarnacion (5 of 30, 2 HR, 6 RBI)
4.) Mark DeRosa (2 of 11, 1 HR, 3 RBI)
5.) Melky Cabrera (9 of 33, 2 RBI)
6.) J.P. Arencibia (7 of 35, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 14 SO)
7.) Rajai Davis (6 of 27, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 9 SO)
8.) Maicer Izturis (7 of 24, 2 RBI)
9.) Emilio Bonifacio (1 of 8, 4 SO)

For those of you wondering why the hot-hitting Adam Lind is sitting, despite his success against lefties this season? Well, Lind owns a less-than-sparkling .103 average against Lester in 29 at-bats with 12 K’s.

On the other side of the coin, Chien-Ming Wang has very little history against the current iteration of the Boston Red Sox line-up. Of those in tonight’s line-up, only David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia have accumulated more than 10 at-bats against Wang. Ortiz has torched him for a .432 mark with 2 HR and 11 RBI in 37 at-bats. Pedroia owns a .278 mark in just 18 appearances.

Alright, that’s it. Time to get your picks in and have fun with this. Just comment below with your pick and let’s see what happens.