Game 101 - Angels 1st of 6

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Escobar Vs Lester today. Lester has never faced the Angels so it should be interesting to see how Varitek calls the game for him today. I hope that Lester is able to go 7 plus innings but would settle for 6. Escobar has started 9 games against the Sox in his career with 2 wins and 3 losses.

This year Lester is 5 and 0 in 9 starts with a 3.04 Era. In those 9 starts he has had 4 Quality Starts and the team is 6 and 3. He would have more quality starts if he could consistently pitch past the 5th inning. So far he has 5 starts of 5 innings or less.

Escobar is 6 and 9 this year with a 3.88 ERA. This is .45 runs lower than his career ERA and is .42 lower than his career era as a starter. Out of 18 starts he has 12 quality starts this year. Hmmm, 12 quality starts and yet he has a losing record. Looking closely in his 12 quality starts he is 5 and 4 with 3 no decisions. The key to beating him is to come out firing and get him out of the game early.

Escobar at Fenway is 2 and 2 with a 4.70 ERA in 6 games. He has thrown 3 quality starts with his last 2 games (7/18/2003 and 6/3/2005) in Fenway being by far his best starts against the Sox. In his career he has a 4.82 ERA against the Sox as a starter (compared to 4.30) and in all 26 games that he has faced the Sox he has a 4.66 ERA (compared to his 4.33). It looks to me like the Sox have his number compared to the rest of the league in ERA, but his overall record is 78 and 78 and is 5 and 6 against the Sox (62 and 61 as a starter).

It should also be pointed out that the Angels are also in a pennant race as they ar 1/2 game back of the Oakland A's.

Of course I fully expect the lead for the Sox to disappear this weekend. We have 3 games vs the Angels and are facing their top 3 pitchers, while the Yankees are facing the Devil Rays at the Bronx and as usual, no Kazmir in sight for the Spankees. Come Monday morning I expect the Sox to be up by 1/2 game over the Yankees since I find it hard to see a sweep of the Angels.

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