Texas Rangers vs. Boston Red Sox

Two contenders in the American League had rough first weekends back after the All-Star break and will face each other as one team will break out of a minor slump and the other will be in a little bit bigger slump after the series is over on Wednesday.

The Boston Red Sox (55-36) dropped two of three games to the fading Toronto Blue Jays north of the border over the weekend while the usually potent home standing Texas Rangers (49-41) watched as the Minnesota Twins nabbed two of three.

The losses were costly as the Red Sox saw their lead slip to a single game over the surging New York Yankees in the AL East while the Rangers fell three games behind the Los Angeles Angels in the AL West.

Texas comes in the hotter of the two clubs as they won their lone game of the series on Sunday evening with a walk-off two-run home run by Ian Kinsler in the 12th inning, the slugger’s second of the game.

Boston won the first game after the All-Star break in Toronto but dropped the final two. The Boston Red Sox were unable to get much offense going as they garnered just 18 hits and seven runs in the three games, including managing only one run to future former Blue Jays’ ace Roy Halladay in Sunday’s 3-1 series finale loss.

Monday’s game will pit to former Atlanta Braves hurlers as John Smoltz (1-2, 5.40) will take the mound for Boston and face former teammate, from 1997-2002, Kevin Millwood (8-7, 3.46).

Smoltz scuttled in his first two starts of the season, but showed a lot of signs of improvement by allowing a run in five innings of a 15-9 victory over the Kansas City Royals, including striking out seven Royals.

Millwood will probably be asking Smoltz for advise again after a promising season has hit the skids recently. Over his last three games, Millwood is 0-2 with an 8.83 ERA, causing his ERA to rise by nearly an entire point, from 2.64 to 3.64.

The Red Sox have won six of their last seven games in sweltering Texas, but dropped two of three to the Texas Rangers in Fenway Park from June 5-7.

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