Red Sox vs. Blue Jays lineups for September 25; Wildcard rankings

The Red Sox picked an interesting time to start winning baseball games: Their fourth consecutive victory on Tuesday night gave the end of the season a little kick.

Boston is now 3.5 games behind the Royals and has four games left in the final wild-card spot. According to FanGraphs' playoff odds, the Red Sox's chances of making the playoffs were 0.1 percent before this recent winning streak; that number has risen to 0.8 percent as the Sox finish the season strong.

The Sox will turn the ball over to Richard Fitts, who has played surprisingly well since being called up from Triple A and will face the Blue Jays on Wednesday. Fitts has yet to allow an earned run in the major leagues and has had three scoreless games of at least five innings. Unfortunately, Boston still managed to lose all three of those games.

The Blue Jays will rely on right-hander Kevin Gausman, who has plenty of experience against the Sox; he has faced Boston 30 times in his career.

Lineups

RED SOX (80-78): Duran CF, Abreu RF, Casas 1B, O'Neill LF, Yoshida DH, Story SS, Stimmed 3B, Wong C, Valdez 2B

Set up: RHP Richard Fitts (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

BLUE JAYS (73-85): Clase CF, Lukes RF, Guerrero Jr. 1B, Kirk DH, Barger 3B, Clement SS, Jimenez 2B, Loperfido LF, Heineman C

Set up: RHP Kevin Gausman (13-11, 3.91 ERA)

Time: 19:07

Television, radio: NESN, WEEI-FM 93.7

Red Sox vs. Gausman: Wilyer Abreu 0-3, Triston Casas 1-6, Jarren Duran 6-16, Romy González 1-3, Tyler O'Neill 2-10, Ceddanne Rafaela 0-2, Trevor Story 3-25, Enmanuel Valdez 2-6, Connor Wong 0-3, Masataka Yoshida 5-9

Blue Jays vs. Fitts: Has not faced a Toronto batsman yet

Statistics of the day: The Red Sox have won four games in a row for the first time since early July.

Notes: The Red Sox overcame a 3-0 deficit on Wednesday and tied the game with two runs in the seventh and one in the eighth inning. Boston scored three in the 10th and survived Toronto's two-run comeback in the bottom half of the inning. “The guys fought unbelievably to the end,” manager Alex Cora said. “We used everybody and it was one of the most gratifying wins since I've been here.” … Fitts allowed two unearned runs in his first major league start against the Chicago White Sox on Sept. 8, which Boston lost 7-2. He pitched 5 ⅔ innings in that start and five innings in each of his next two starts. He allowed 13 hits in his starts, struck out seven and allowed five walks. … Gausman is 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA against the Red Sox in 2024 and 8-10 in 30 career games (25 starts) against Boston … Toronto's Alejandro Kirk hit 1 for 4 on Tuesday to extend his hitting streak to 16 games; his batting average was .284 (19 for 67).

You can reach Amin Touri at [email protected].