Blue Jays vs Red Sox (9/3-9/5)

Game 1: Daisuke Matsuzaka and the Boston Red Sox jumped out to an early 10-1 lead, but Matsuzaka ended up laboring in the 6th inning and giving most of the large lead back. The Blue Jays ended up scoring 8 runs in the inning (2 against Javier Lopez) before Manny Delcarmen came in to finish off the inning.

The Red Sox answered with 3 runs of their own in the bottom half of the 6th inning. The Blue Jays scored a run in the 7th off of Delcarmen before Hideki Okajima, Mike Timlin, and Jonathan Papelbon finished them off. The save was Papelbon's 32nd of the season as the Red Sox won by the final score of 13-10 and Daisuke Matsuzaka picked up his 14th win.

The Red Sox received solid contributions on offense from Mike Lowell, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Jason Varitek, and Julio Lugo. The Yankees lost to the Mariners earlier in the day which allows the Red Sox to increase the division lead to 7 games.

Gane 2: Josh Beckett continued his campaign for the AL Cy Young Award on Tuesday night. Beckett did make one mistake on the night, which was a 3-run homer hit by Matt Stairs. Luckily, the Red Sox have a kid named Jacoby Ellsbury who has made great contributions to the Red Sox in his short stint in the majors.

Ellsbury showed what all the hype was about when he took Roy Halladay deep for a 2-run shot. The homer gave the Red Sox a 3-0 lead, before the Blue Jays battled back with the homerun by Stairs.

Kevin Youkilis added an insurance run later in the game with a solo shot of his own to bring the lead to 5-3.

Josh Beckett went 8 innings and allowed 3 runs and Papelbon came in to pitch the 9th for the 3rd consecutive night and looked dominant once again. After striking out the final batter, Papelbon pumped his fist in jubilation as the Red Sox kept themselves 7 games ahead of the New York Yankees.

Game 3: The Red Sox failed to complete the sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night as the Papelbon-less bullpen. The Red Sox were ahead of the Blue Jays 4-3 going into the 8th inning until Manny Delcarmen gave up a solo homerun to Troy Glaus.

Hideki Okajima came in to pitch the bottom of the 9th after the Red Sox failed to answer. Okajima pitched a decent inning but made a fatal mistake to Vernon Wells which resulted in a 2-run homer which ended up winning the game for the Blue Jays.

Schilling got the start for the Red Sox and pitched respectably, while Shaun Marcum continued his very solid season for the Jays.

The loss decreases the Red Sox division lead to 6 games as the Yankees defeated the Mariners on Wednesday night.

On Deck: The Red Sox will begin a 4-game series with the Baltimore Orioles from Camden Yards on Thursday night. Tim Wakefield will face Garrett Olson in the opener.