Watch Boston Red Sox Vs. Toronto Blue Jays Stream Live Free: AL East Race Starts Early, First Of 7 Sox-Jays April Games

The American League East pennant race gets an early start when the Boston Red Sox travel to Toronto for the Blue Jays’ home opener in what will be the first of seven matchups between the AL East rivals and a game that will stream live for free on Friday, as both teams are desperate to get off to a fast start in the 2016 Major League Baseball season.

The Red Sox and Blue Jays play against each other seven times in the next 10 days.

The Red Sox come into Toronto at 1-1 after the rubber game of their three-game, season-opening series against the Indians in Cleveland was rained out. The Red Sox won the opener behind a two-run, five-hit, 10 strikeout performance from their new ace lefty David Price, signed by new Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski to a seven-year, $217 million free agent contract in the offseason.

Price spent the second half of last season with Toronto, helping to lead the Blue Jays to the AL East title and their first postseason appearance since 1993.

The Blue Jays started their divisional title defense by winning their first two games in Tampa Bay against the Rays — and then losing the next two.

But while the Red Sox have pushed Price’s next start to Monday after their opener was delayed by a day due to cold weather, the Blue Jays on Friday will go back to their own Number One starter, 24-year-old Duke University product Marcus Stroman. The righty got through eight innings in the season opener in Tampa Bay, allowing just three runs on six hits to collect his first win of 2016.

But the Blue jays could be without last year’s AL MVP, third-baseman Josh Donaldson, who left Thursday’s game in Tampa Bay with a strained left calf muscle after belting two home runs in his first 16 at bats in the new MLB season.

Watch highlights of the Toronto Blue Jays AL East-winning 2015 season in the following video.

To find out how to watch a free and legal live stream of the Boston Red Sox vs. Toronto Blue Jays Al East game, see the streaming information in the final paragraph of this article. First pitch is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. Eastern Time, 4:07 p.m. Pacific, at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada — a stadium with a retractable dome, so the game will definitely be played despite outdoor temperatures predicted to drop well below freezing.

Toronto Manager John Gibbons said Thursday that he expects Donaldson to take the field against Boston on Friday.

“To be honest, I think he’ll be out there,” Gibbons told MLB.com. “If it’s worth giving him a day or two, if he needs that, it would be smart to do that, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Donaldson was deadly against the Red Sox in 2015, slamming four home runs and hitting for a.333 clip with 11 RBIs in the 19 games the two teams played last year.

The Red Sox finished in last place in the AL East in 2015 for the second year in a row and third of the last four — sandwiched around a World Series win and an AL East pennant in 2013.

Boston trots out third starter Joe Kelly, who after struggling through much of last season and even a trip to the minor leagues to straighten himself out, rebounded by winning eight of his 11 starts — all eight in one consecutive stretch — after being recalled from the Red Sox Triple-A affiliate in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on July 22.

The right-handed Kelly has fared well against most of the Blue Jays hitters — but Donaldson is a notable exception, reaching Kelly for eight hits in 14 at-bats overall.

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To watch Friday’s Boston Red Sox Vs. Toronto Blue Jays game stream live for free, use the feed provided by MLB.TV at this link, where the online streaming subscription service of Major League Baseball is offering the Sox-Jays matchup as its “Free Game of the Day.” That means the game may be streamed live by anyone without a fee, though signing up for a free MLB.com membership is required. The Red Sox vs. Blue Jays game can also be viewed for free using the MLB At Bat app for mobile devices, as well as on the MLB channel offered on set-top streaming boxes such as the Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku.

[Featured Photo By Tom Szczerbowski / Getty Images]