MLB Weekend Preview

As the Major League Baseball season nears the one-third mark, here's a quick look at a couple of  divisional matchups on tap for this weekend.

In the American League East, the first-place Boston Red Sox go north of the border for three games in Toronto vs. the slumping Blue Jays. And in the National League East, the Florida Marlins visit New York for three games with the division-leading Mets.

Going into the finale of a four-game series in Minnesota on Thursday, the Red Sox have lost four of their last six games. Still, through Wednesday's play, Boston sat in a tie atop the AL East with the New York Yankees.

Toronto, meanwhile, totally blew a game Wednesday in Baltimore, falling 12-10 in 11 innings for their ninth loss in a row. The Blue Jays, who have led the AL East for much of this season, have now fallen into third place, a game and a half back of the Sox and Yanks.

Boston is slated to throw Tim Wakefield at the Jays on Friday (7pm Eastern), Brad Penny on Saturday (1pm), and lefthander Jon Lester on Sunday (1pm), while Toronto is expected to counter with Casey Janssen and lefties Brian Tallet and Ricky Romero.

These two teams hooked up last week in Boston, where the Red Sox began Toronto's swoon by sweeping three games from the Jays. Toronto scored 10 runs Wednesday, but in the first eight games of their losing streak they tallied a total of 13 runs.

As of Thursday morning, Oddsmaker.com is listing Boston at -120 to win the AL East this season, with Toronto at +600. The Red Sox are also listed at +300 to win the American League pennant this year, with the Blue Jays at +1,200. And on Oddsmaker.com's 2009 World Series betting board, the Sox are being offered at +600, while the Jays are getting +1,500.

Florida's pitching rotation for the weekend looks like rookie lefty Sean West on Friday (7pm Eastern), Josh Johnson on Saturday (1pm) and Chris Volstad on Sunday (1pm), while the Mets are expected to go with Mike Pelfrey, Tim Redding, and John Maine.

These two teams have already played two three-game series this season, and the Fish have taken two of three games both times.

The Mets just swept three games from the Washington Nationals, and have won five of their last six. Florida just took two of three games in Philly. So going into this series, New York led the NL East by a half-game over the Phillies, three games over the Atlanta Braves, and five games over the Marlins.

The Marlins may be without SS Hanley Ramirez this weekend, as he deals with a pulled groin suffered Tuesday. Meanwhile, Mets CF Carlos Beltran missed action earlier this week because of a bone bruise, and his status for this weekend's series is uncertain.

The totals are 10-11-2 in games played at Citi Field this season, as games are averaging 8.8 runs.

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