The suddenly-hot Jays have won 6 of 7, and set the team record for runs scored in Boston on Friday night. The Jays are a streaky team and their very fine offense has re-awakened lately. They have manhandled the Red Sox in recent meetings and are looking to make up ground in the crowded AL East. Just back from the All Star game, Manoah has walked the walk this year at 10-4, 2.28 ERA. He has already faced the Sox twice this year, tossing 14 innings and allowing just 2 runs. His last start was a 7 inning 1 run gem.

The Red Sox have given up 55 runs in their last 3 games, and while the pitching was especially brutal on Friday night, play on the field was also very poor. This is a demoralized team. They have now lost 7 straight, their pitching is a disaster, and they are hitting right handers at just a .198 clip L10 games.

Kutter Crawford is an unlikely savior. At the end of May, Crawford was a reliever with an 8.44 ERA. Now he has 5 starts under his belt, averages 5 innings an appearance, and has lowered his ERA to 4.50 (2.20 ERA in July). He gave up 3 runs in his last start, and hasn’t faced the Jays before.

It is hard to know how the Sox will react after such a poor effort. If it were a one-off, I would expect some bounce-back, but with 3 such poor losses in a row, who knows? The Jays often struggle when facing a pitcher for the first time, but their bats are on fire, and they will still have some innings against that very fallible bullpen. Manoah is tough to score very many runs on. Take the Jays to win.