Blue Jays Visit Fenway To Begin July

Despite his success in the rotation, Bronson Arroyo remains the top candidate to go to the bullpen. Arroyo:

My arm can take the pounding. I can pitch two or three innings every other day. Whether I think I can flourish in that role, I have no idea. ... You have to change mentally a little bit. It's a totally different vibe, man. When you're warming up in the bullpen, you don't know how your stuff is, because all you care about is getting yourself loose to get into the game. I definitely don't enjoy that aspect of it. ... I'm comfortable with whatever they decide to do. The only reason I care about being in the starting rotation, honestly, is monetarily.

Arroyo's contract includes a $25,000 bonus for reaching these innings pitched totals: 180, 190, 205 and 215. Arroyo has pitched 94 innings so far this season.

The Red Sox bullpen is the worst in all of baseball in allowing inherited runners to score (40-of-92, 43.5%). By contrast, the two best teams are the Angels (10-of-63, 15.9%) and Mets (24-of-98, 24.5%). First batters have an on-base percentage of .367. Individual Sox pitchers:

           % of IR     1st Bat OBP
Myers   4-of-22  18.2%    .276
Embree  8-of-21  38.1%    .294
Foulke  2-of- 5  40.0%    .314
Mantei  6-of-12  50.0%    .424
Timlin  9-of-15  60.0%    .379
Halama  7-of-10  70.0%    .417

From the Globe: "Nine months after World Series win, newest Sox fans are coming to life" (Umm, Pedrina?!?)

The Orioles host Cleveland, the Yankees visit Detroit and the Blue Jays are at Fenway (plenty o' stats here):

Friday: Matt Clement / Ted Lilly, 7:00
Saturday: David Wells / Gustavo Chacin, 7:00
Sunday: Bronson Arroyo / Roy Halladay, 2:00