Red Sox 07 Game 18

Monday, April 23 Fenway Park 7:05 PM ET

Tomo Ohka, RHP (0-2, 7.02) Blue Jays (8-10) @ Tim Wakefield, RHP (2-1, 1.35) Red Sox (12-5)

Boston is 1 1/2 games ahead of Baltimore, 4 games up on NYY and 4 1/2 ahead of Jays. 1st game of 2 game series.

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.

From MLB.Com Scouting Report:

Red Sox: Wakefield's knuckleball has been in top form in his first three starts, as he's allowed one earned run each time out. He'll pitch against the Blue Jays for the second time in a row. Wakefield will try to duplicate his success of Wednesday at Rogers Centre, where he held Toronto to just four hits over seven innings. Lifetime against the Jays, Wakefield is 13-8.

Blue Jays: Ohka turned in his best start of the young season last time out, limiting the Red Sox to four runs on four hits in 6 1/3 innings on Wednesday. The right-hander carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning before yielding the first of three solo home runs he'd allow in the loss. That trip to the mound was Ohka's only career appearance against Boston, but he pitched for the Red Sox for parts of the 1999-2001 seasons. Ohka is 3-8 with a 3.95 ERA in 17 career games at Fenway Park.

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings and this year at Baseball Reference.

Expected Batters vs opposing starter

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Lugo	11	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	.182
K. Youkilis	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
D. Ortiz	6	2	0	0	1	1	0	1	.333
M. Ramirez	18	3	1	0	1	4	1	4	.167
J.D. Drew	11	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	.182
M. Lowell	37	11	1	0	3	6	1	4	.297
D. Mirabelli	2	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	.500
C. Crisp	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
D. Pedroia	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	92	23	3	0	6	12	2	14	.250

Not sure what the status of Coco will be today. He didn't start last night due to an oblique problem but did come in to play defense in the eighth. Wily Mo would not be bad choice to start today though since he has hit 2 home runs in 12 AB's against Ohka. The other subs are pick your poisons, so maybe Hinske gets another start for Youkilis. In fact I would start Hinske the next two days giving Youkilis and Lowell days off.

Historical Pitching lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Ohka	1	0	1	0	6 2/3	4	4	3	1	3	5.68
Wakefield	31	13	8	0	224 2/3	221	96	19	80	176	3.85

This is a rematch from 4/18 of this year. Wake outlasted Ohka picking up the win. Remember Ohka was pitching a gem until the 5th inning when Lowell broke up the No Hitter by homering. Mirabelli also had a very good game that night. Can they break 2:00. Last game lasted 2:24 between these two. I think that it is more likely to be closer to 4:00 though. Since the comeback wins in Toronto by the Sox, the Jays have now lost 5 straight with Baltimore doing the damage to them this weekend. Need to win today though because tomorrow its Halladay vs Tavarez (Sexy lips?).