Morales bolstering Toronto offence

Toronto Blue Jays (65-80, fourth in AL East) vs. Boston Red Sox (100-46, first in AL East)

Boston; Thursday, 7:10 p.m. Eastern

PROBABLE PITCHERS: Blue Jays: Sam Gaviglio (3-8, 5.25 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 96 strikeouts) Red Sox: Eduardo Rodriguez (12-4, 3.64 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 126 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: Toronto has Kendrys Morales to thank for a good chunk of the team’s offensive production over the last week. He’s batting .409 with nine hits and five home runs in that span. The Red Sox enter the contest with a 10-game lead over the Yankees in the AL East. The Boston offence has compiled a .268 batting average as a team this year, Mookie Betts leads the team with a mark of .340. The Blue Jays have gone 7-13 in games started by Gaviglio. Toronto’s lineup has 186 home runs this season, led by Justin Smoak’s mark of 24. The Red Sox won 1-0 in Wednesday’s meeting, David Price earned his 15th win of the year.

TOP PERFORMERS: Teoscar Hernandez has 59 runs and 55 RBIs for the Blue Jays this season. Devon Travis has 12 hits and is batting .308 over his past 10 games for Toronto. J.D. Martinez has 40 home runs this season, second in the American League. Xander Bogaerts has two home runs and seven RBIs while slugging .636 over his past 10 games for Boston.

LAST 10 GAMES: Blue Jays: 4-6, .246 batting average, 4.30 ERA, outscored by five runs. Red Sox: 7-3, .254 batting average, 3.84 ERA, outscored opponents by 10 runs.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.