The Red Sox will have Chris Young in left field as they send Rick Porcello to the mound against Marcus Stroman and the Blue Jays.
Marcus Stroman, as you might know, is right-handed. Chris Young is not good against righties. Why is Chris Young starting? The fear would be that something is up with Blake Swihart, who would be the obvious left field starter vs. Stroman. On the other hand, the fear is also that nothing is wrong with Blake Swihart, and that John Farrell is just going with Young because.
It's kind of a no-win situation under the circumstances. All we know is that Young is starting vs. a righty, and this is bad. Hopefully it won't be bad enough to keep the Red Sox from scoring some runs. They didn't actually do a very good job of it yesterday when you account for Toronto's gift runs, which makes two games in a row now where the lineup hasn't really looked all that dangerous.
They will, at least, have a more reliable starter on the mound then in their two losses. Rick Porcello has had some trouble with these Jays, but really only the obviously dangerous portions of the lineup. If he can get through those dangerous waters--especially if he can afford to pitch around some of them by keeping the others off base--he should at least do better than Kelly did last night.
First pitch is at 1:07 p.m. ET with broadcasts on NESN, WEEI, and the MLB Network.