5 Keys to the Toronto Blue Jays Success Against the Boston Red Sox This Weekend

A wet and gloomy day in Toronto means that the roof of the Rogers Centre will most likely be closed for tonight's game against the Boston Red Sox. This is the first game of a three game weekend affair between the Jays and their AL East rivals.

The Jays are coming into the weekend after sweeping a series at home to the Baltimore Orioles—who are seeing their lead of the division close quickly on them. As for the Red Sox, they finished out a series at Fenway Park to the Detroit Tigers this week. The Sox were able to win the series by taking the first two games, before losing the final one 7-3 on Thursday.

The Jays are looking to build off of their last series sweep—starting tonight against the Red Sox.

Here are five keys to the Toronto Blue Jays game should they want to have some success against the Boston Red Sox this weekend.

Strong Pitching

Henderson Alvarez needs to turn things around quick—like starting tonight—when he takes the mound in the first of three games against the Boston Red Sox.

After winning three games on three consecutive starts to end April and start May, he has put together three outings since then that are anything but excellent.

In his only other start this year against the Red Sox, Alvarez put together six solid innings—allowing only one run before the Blue Jays lost the game by allowing three runs in the ninth. He gets another start against the team he put together his best outing against, so maybe another start against them will get him going.

As for Kyle Drabek—who gets the start on Saturday—he will look to rebound after a disappointing three inning performance against the Rangers. He allowed two homers—for nine runs—in his worst performance of the year.

Drabek also got his year off to a good start against the Red Sox where he won his first game in as many starts. He put in five innings allowing only three hits and one run.

For the Sunday matchup, Drew Hutchison will get the call.

He is coming off an excellent game against the Orioles where he controlled the hard hitting Os, even getting himself out of a tough jam with great confidence. He threw for seven innings and sat down nine hitters over that time.

"I found my slot, found my release point, which is something I was looking for. I had inconsistently found it and I was able to find it consistently," Hutchison said to U-T San Diego, of his recent performance.

Where is Bautista?

After a strong mid-May that looked like Bautista could be turning around his early season struggles—and return to his form from the last two years—he closed off May in horrific fashion.

In the last two series against Texas and Baltimore, Jose Bautista has gone 4-for-23 at the plate with four BBs. As nice as it would be to see his average rise, most important is that he hits like he is getting paid to hit.

Yes, he has 12 home runs on the season but it does not seem to be coming on a consistent basis. In those last six games, Bautista has not hit a home run and has only brought in three runs.

The Blue Jays have shown that they do not need to depend on Joey Bats for driving in runs—especially with Edwin Encarnacion picking up the slack with a career year. If they did have him in true Bautista form however, they could be doing a lot more damage and probably sporting a record better than just over .500.

Nonetheless, Bautista needs to start this month strong and carry momentum right through for the rest of the season. He needs to become clutch. His average does not matter, his home runs do not matter, but he needs to hit the ball and be a leader on this team. If he has a chance to make a difference, it has to be done no matter what.

This series against the Red Sox could turn Bautista around and be the start of a good June—or it could continue the slide he is in.

Time to get it going Jose.

Keep the Long Ball Coming

The Blue Jays showed in the return to the Rogers Centre this past week, in their series against the Orioles, that they love playing at home. In sweeping the series, they also were able to bring in a few runs courtesy of the long ball.

The Jays have received solid hitting so far this year but it seems like the ball is flying off their bats when they play at home.

So far this year, they have hit 42 home runs at home and only 30 on the road.

That includes the fact that they have played one more game on the road than at home. In the last series against the Orioles, the Jays were able to pull off a victory with all the runs coming from home runs.

The May 30th matchup against Baltimore included dingers by Edwin Encarnacion—who leads all Blue Jays will 17 on the year, and second in all of the major leagues—Rajai Davis, Brett Lawrie and Colby Rasmus.

A home run is not just a guaranteed run, but it also brings down the opposing pitcher. If the Jays can continue hitting the ball deep at the Rogers Centre it could turn into a dangerous place for opposing teams to travel to.

Where is the Missing Sox

Injuries have played a tough role in the start to the 2012/13 season for the Boston Red Sox. Coming into their weekend affair against the Jays they have many key players who are not going to be in their lineup.

In total the Red Sox have 13 players who are sidelined including Carl Crawford, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Chris Carpenter and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Sounds like part of the AL All-Star Team to me and it is amazing how the Red Sox are able to keep pace in the division with injuries like that.

Once these guys get back into the lineup, the Red Sox are going to turn into a totally different team.

“You can’t let injuries overtake you. It seems like every time we turn around we have another one, but you have to be ready with other guys who can step in and play at a high level, and that’s what we have on this team,’’ Ortiz tells the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo.

If the Jays want to take some early, easy games against the Red Sox it has to be now.

As good as they have been playing of late, the Red Sox still are facing some crucial injuries to their ball club. Many of these players are expected to be back by June or July—so the time is now for the Jays to take advantage of this and get some needed wins in the division.

After all, you know the Red Sox will not be hanging around the bottom of the AL East for much longer.

Continue the Winning Ways

After turning in a miserable effort down in Texas last week, the Jays were able to return home to the comfy confines of the Rogers Centre to put together three wins. If they want to move up the standings they are going to have to improve on the road, but gaining as many wins at home helps as well.

The series against the Orioles—where they won all three games—should bring momentum to them as they look to do the same against the Red Sox. If they can sweep the series against the Sox, giving them a six game win streak, it should lead to some new found confidence before they take to the road to face the White Sox and Braves.

''We needed this game. It was a big win to sweep them (Orioles) and get back in the race. Now we're just two games back of them. That was a big series for us.'' Morrow said as according to Yahoo! Sports.

Especially after their last road loss to Texas, the Jays locker room seemed to lose the jump that brought these guys together at the start of the year.

Stringing together a few wins at home should be able to bring that pop back into the team that we saw in spring training. If these guys are as close as they make it seem—and start playing together as a team again—then the road should become less of a daunting task for the Blue Jays.