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MIA@BOS: Daisuke Matsuzaka on his solid start

The Blue Jays' starting rotation has taken a beating from the injury bug. Last week, three of their starting pitchers were lost, and now the team is left trying to plug the holes to keep the ship from sinking on their season.

"It's challenging, there's no doubt about it," general manager Alex Anthopoulos said last week. "But I'm sure if you sit with the other 29 GMs, they have their own challenges. Other teams have had their position players go down. At the end of the day, you just put your head down and accept the challenge and do what you can."

On Tuesday against the Red Sox, they'll turn to Aaron Laffey, a 27-year-old left-hander who has primarily served as a long reliever in Toronto.

However, Laffey does have big league experience as a starter. And with three crippling injuries, the Blue Jays will take what they can get.

Laffey is 17-19 in 49 games as a starter, all of which came with Cleveland from 2007-10. He also worked as a starter with Triple-A Las Vegas this season, compiling a 3-5 record with a 4.52 ERA in 11 starts.

He'll be opposed by Daisuke Matsuzaka, who is 0-2 with a 6.06 ERA in three starts since returning from a year-long absence due to Tommy John surgery. Dice-K has given up at least three runs in all of his appearances and has only one quality start.

He is coming off an outing against the Marlins in which he allowed four runs on four hits in 5 1/3 innings.

"Getting through the early innings has been giving me trouble," Matsuzaka said through an interpreter after the game. "Going into today's game, I did make a few adjustments, but it obviously didn't work. So going into my next start, I need to make more drastic changes in order get through those innings and place my team in a better position to win."

Blue Jays: Lind back with big league club
• After a 32-game stint with Triple-A Las Vegas, Adam Lind rejoined the Blue Jays on Monday. He began the season as Toronto's cleanup hitter, but with a .186 batting average, he was sent down to work out his issues.

Lind hit .392 with eight home runs and 29 RBIs for the 51s. With Toronto, he'll sit against lefties, as he did Monday against Red Sox starter Felix Doubront, and hit lower in the order. However, he could start with Dice-K on the mound Tuesday.

Lind is 3-for-28 (.107) against Matsuzaka in his career with a double, a home run and eight strikeouts. He is a .267 career hitter in Fenway Park, with five homers.

Red Sox: Middlebrooks earns individual honor
• Third baseman Will Middlebrooks was named the American League Player of the Week on Monday. In six games, he went 10-for-16 with three doubles, three home runs, 10 RBIs and six runs scored.

"It's a nice honor," manager Bobby Valentine said. "He had a great week."

• Outfielder Marlon Byrd, who was released earlier this month by the Red Sox, was suspended 50 games by Major League Baseball on Monday for violating its policy on performance-enhancing drugs.

"I made an inexcusable mistake," Byrd said in a statement. "Several years ago, I had surgery for a condition that was private and unrelated to baseball. Last winter, I suffered a recurrence of that condition and I was provided with a medication that resulted in my positive test. Although that medication is on the banned list, I absolutely did not use it for performance-enhancement reasons."

Worth noting
• The Red Sox are 7-2 in their last nine games.

• The Blue Jays are leading the season series with a 4-3 record vs. Boston.

• Matsuzaka is 7-1 with a 3.46 ERA in 12 career starts against Toronto. He's held Blue Jays' hitters to a .210 batting average against him.

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