The Boston Red Sox, who have won seven straight games and seven straight series to jump into the top American League Wild Card and into second place in the AL East, face a very tough upcoming schedule beginning with a three game series in Torono against the Blue Jays Monday night.
Boston will play 30 of the next 33 contests against teams with winning records. The good news is 17 of those 30 will be played at Fenway Park. The Red Sox start a two week AL East stretch playing only against the first place New York Yankees and the current fourth place team Tampa Bay Rays beginning Monday, July 4 with seven games against both. After the three games in Toronto, they head to Chicago to battle the Cubs for a three game interleague series. After the 14 games that consist of just the Yankees and Rays, MLB takes their annual All-Star Break. Boston picks it back up with a 10 game homestand starting Friday, July 22 and will face Toronto (3), Cleveland (4), and another interleague matchup with Milwaukee (3). They get some reprieve with a trip to Kansas City to face the Royals August 5-7.
The team has called up Connor Seabold from Triple A Worcester to start the series opener Monday night against Toronto. Seabold has posted a 5-1 record with a 2.09 ERA this season in 11 starts with the WooSox (51 K’s, 14 walks in 51.2 innings- .197 batting average against). This will be his second career MLB start, the first of 2022. The Blue Jays are 1.5 games behind the Sox for first in the wildcard and second in the division. Boston had a 10-19 record on May 8, and has gone 32-12 since then including 19-4 this month. Here are the pitching matchups for the three game set north of the border-
Monday- BOS Seabold (0-0, 0.00 ERA 1st start) vs TOR Gausman (5-6, 3.19)- 7:07 p.m.
Tuesday- BOS Wacha (6-1, 2.34) vs TOR Stripling (4-2, 3.08)- 7:07 p.m.
Wednesday- BOS Pivetta (8-5, 3.25) vs TOR Manoah (9-2, 2.05)- 7:07 p.m.