Blue Jays’ R.A. Dickey On Schedule For Red Sox Saturday Start After Toronto Lets Home Opener Slip 8-7

After giving-up a 7-2 lead in a heartbreaking loss to the Red Sox at the Blue Jays 2016 schedule home opener at the Rogers Centre last night, Toronto is set to meet Boston for the second in a three-game series this afternoon, with veteran R.A. Dickey getting the Toronto start, as reported by MLB.

Twenty-seven-year-old Rick Porcello is reported as the starting pitcher for the Red Sox. The game is scheduled to start in Toronto at 1:07 p.m. and will be broadcast on Sportsnet in Canada and the New England Sports Network (NESN) in the United States, as reported by MLB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzMjU4bI-Kc

Toronto had appeared to take early command of last night’s game, building a 3-2 lead over Boston, managing to load the bases in the bottom of the fourth inning, with no outs, and then sending 30-year-old Josh Donaldson to plate for the Canadian team. Donaldson came into the game, playing .500 baseball over the first four outings of the season; the third baseman had just been honored by former Blue Jay AL MVP George Bell for his 2015 MVP season during Friday’s home-opening pregame.

Donaldson smacked a mighty grand slam, and ratcheted up the Blue Jays’ lead to 7-2. Toronto fans, understandably giddy with first-game-of-the-season joy, celebrated heartily. However, their celebrations would prove premature, as the Red Sox did soon demonstrate.

In the top of the sixth, with one out, Boston second baseman Brock Holt hit a low, line-drive over the right field wall, and brought the Red Sox back within reach of a win, and the score to 7-6.

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In the seventh, veteran Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz hit his second RBI of the evening, tying-up the game; Ortiz is reported to hold more RBIs versus the Blue Jays than any other player. Hanley Ramirez then advanced Xander Bogaerts to home with an RBI in the very next at bat, and Boston took an 8-7 lead, where the score would finish. The game was reported to be the first of the 2016 schedule where both teams hit grand slams, as reported by MLB.

The win brought Boston’s record to 2-1 for 2016, leaving them in second place in the AL East, behind the undefeated Baltimore Orioles, who are 4-0. Toronto is in fourth, with a 2-3 record.

Forty-one-year-old R.A. Dickey will lead the Blue Jays pitching staff into today’s game after last night’s drubbing. Dickey is off to a solid start in 2016. Though his listed ERA of 5.40 will almost certainly come down through the season, after allowing three runs in five innings during his first appearance of the year in Tampa Bay on April 4, Dickey got the win for the game; one of only two the Blue Jays have under their belts thus far in 2016.

Robert Allen “R.A.” Dickey has an ERA of 3.97 over 340 games in his 14-year career in MLB. Dickey is a true knuckle-ball pitcher and has played in Seattle, New York, Minnesota, and Texas, in addition to his over three full years of service with the Blue Jays. The Toronto pitcher has recorded 101 wins and 93 losses through his years in the big leagues.

Dickey was a member of the U.S. Olympic team who won bronze at the 1996 Atlanta games, and has been involved with Honoring Thy Father Mission, a non-profit group “aimed at reaching out to school, athletic and church youth groups as well as performing missionary work in Latin American countries.”

The Blue Jays starter has been inducted into the Tennessee Baseball Hall of Fame and was named the Tennessee Male Athlete of the Year in February, 2011. R.A. Dickey has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, together with fellow MLB players Dave Racaniello and Kevin Slowey, in an effort to create awareness for the Bombay Teen Challenge, as reported by the New York Times. The MLB players were reported to have raised over $100,000 for the group.

[Photo by Harry How/Getty Images]