Surging Blue Jays gunning for the Red Sox: Full preview

Saturday, June 4th  –  4:05 PM ET

Marcus Stroman (5-1, 4.46 ERA)  vs.
Steven Wright (5-4, 2.45 ERA)

We regret to inform you that the knuckler-on-knuckler matchup won’t be coming to fruition as the Blue Jays have decided to push young right-hander Marcus Stroman back one day to face Steven Wright of the Red Sox.

These are trying times for the staff ace, however, both in terms of his recent performance and his numbers against the Red Sox in 2016.

Stroman’s last time out against these same Sox, he allowed seven earned runs over five and a third innings on 11 hits, the second time in three starts that he has surrendered double-digit hits. On May 17th against the Tampa Bay Rays, Stroman allowed 13 hits, resulting in another seven earned runs, over five and two thirds.

Boston also got the best of Stroman back on April 8th, scoring five earned runs on six hits over five and a third. He’s due for a bounce back start in more ways than one.

Countering for the Red Sox, Steven Wright has quietly been an extremely valuable starter in 2016 with very few bumps in the road. Here’s an interesting video from 2013 where he describes the unique aspects of his own signature pitch.

Wright is coming off a complete game on May 30th against the Orioles in which he allowed just two earned runs on seven hits striking out seven with five walks. Excluding one rough outing against the Houston Astros in mid-May (4.1 IP, 9 H, 5 ER), his past four starts have gone 9.0, 7.0, 8.0, and 9.0 innings.

The knuckler faced Toronto in back-to-back starts in April, too, where he found success. The two outings combined for 12.2 innings where he allowed three earned runs on 12 hits, striking out 11 batters

Next: Old Reliable takes the ball in the series finale