Red Sox 07 Game 21

Thursday, April 26 Oriole Park at Camden Yards 7:05 PM ET

Josh Beckett, RHP (4-0, 2.55) Red Sox (13-7) @ Adam Loewen, LHP (2-0, 3.72) Orioles (11-10)

Boston is 2 1/2 games ahead of Baltimore, 3 ahead of Jays, 4 ahead of D Rays and 4 1/2 games up on NYY . 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: Beckett labored a little in his previous outing against the Yankees on Saturday, but he still got the win. Over 6 2/3 innings, Beckett gave up nine hits and five runs, four of which were earned. Beckett won his only start against the Orioles last year, allowing two hits over seven innings. He has 25 strikeouts this season and just seven walks.

Orioles: Loewen has been erratic in his past few starts, but he always seems to come up with the big pitch when he needs it. The southpaw walked a career-high seven batters in his previous outing and left the mound as the new league-leader in walks (19). Despite his inconsistent command, Loewen has thrown at least five innings in three of his first four starts and has only left with his team trailing once.

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	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000
K. Youkilis	5	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	.200
D. Ortiz	2	0	0	0	0	1	3	1	.000
M. Ramirez	4	3	0	0	1	3	1	0	.750
J.D. Drew	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
M. Lowell	6	2	0	0	0	2	1	0	.333
J. Varitek	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.667
Wily Mo	7	3	0	0	0	1	1	3	.429
D. Pedroia	3	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	.000
Totals	31	11	1	0	1	8	8	5	.355

Small sample size here for the batters. Pena has the most at bats against this pitcher and is tied with Manny for the most hits. Manny has the only home run against him. I really think that they can get to this guy, but with the starters only having 31 AB's its just hard to say one way or the other.

Historical Pitching lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Loewen	3	0	1	0	13	15	13	1	10	10	9.00
Beckett	1	1	0	0	7	2	1	1	0	6	1.29

If you look at the numbers, which with a 9.00 era is terrible you would think that the Sox will have no problems with this pitcher. That may not be true though. Adam had one terrible start (his first start), where he was absolutely horrible on 8/11/2006. In that game he lasted 2 1/3 innings giving up 6 earned runs. The other two games he went 5 1/3 innings each game and has a 5.91 ERA. While that is not great its also not terrible.

Beckett was just outstanding last May in his only start against the O's. The way he is pitching right now, I don't see that changing.