Knuckleballer, slugger in Fenway battle

Boston's pitching staff will face off against baseball's top home run hitter once again on Wednesday night at Fenway Park when they continue their three-game series against Jose Bautista and the Toronto Blue Jays (7:10pm ET, NESN).

Bautista is now the -200 favorite on Oddsmaker's MLB prop wager for 'Most Regular Season Home Runs', with Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira (EVEN) and Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder (+300) behind him on the current chart.

On Wednesday night Bautista will be looking to launch some longballs off Red Sox veteran knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (4-3, 4.82 ERA), who has given up five runs in each of his past two starts (versus the Astros and Pirates). As inconsistent as they come, Wakefield is 2-2 with two no-decisions over his past six outings, with Boston going 3-3 in those contests.

Ricky Romero (7-7, 2.75 ERA) gets the ball for the Blue Jays on Wednesday night, and he's needed to be almost perfect in order to add to his win column so far this season. The lefthander has given up two or fewer earned runs in eight of his past 10 starts, but Toronto only won five of those contests.

Romero pitched against the Red Sox at Fenway Park back on April 18, getting tagged with a loss after allowing five runs on eight hits in just 4 1-3 innings of work.

Elsewhere on Wednesday the Braves will be looking for another strong start from Jair Jurrjens (11-3, 1.89 ERA) as they continue their home series against the Rockies (7:10pm ET).

Righthander Jurrjens tossed a one-hit shutout against the Orioles in his last start, walking one batter and fanning eight in the victory. That marked Jurrjens' third straight victory, and he's 7-3 over his past 10 trips to the mound.

On Thursday MLB bettors are offered up a battle of two quality pitchers on middling teams as the Mets' Dillon Gee (8-2, 3.47 ERA) takes on the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw (8-4, 3.23 ERA) at Dodger Stadium (10:10pm ET).

Righthander Gee, a relative unknown before the season started, has pitched his team to eight victories over his last 10 trips to the mound. Gee, though, has run into a little trouble lately, going 1-2 in his past three starts and allowing 11 runs over those 17 innings of work.

Kershaw beat the Mets back on May 8 in New York, holding them to one run on six hits in his 6 2-3 innings pitched. The righthander fanned 10 in his last outing against the Angels, but that didn't offset the fact that he allowed seven runs (six earned) on nine hits over those six innings of work to take the loss.