Red Sox 07 Game 52 Recap

Final Press Pass Box

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Cleveland	0	0	0	0	2	4	0	2	0		8	18	1
Boston	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	2	0		4	10	0

W: P. Byrd (6-1, 3.57); L: D. Matsuzaka (7-3, 4.83)
HR: CLE: G. Sizemore (9), K. Shoppach (2). BOS: M. Lowell (10).

► Hero - Shoppach for his 4 hit night
► Goat - Matsuzaka

Game thoughts

These type of games are to be expected in your rookie year, but I have to admit that I am getting tired of seeing Daisuke go out and pitch well for three or four innings followed by a stinker. Tonight it was in the sixth inning for Matsuzaka.

While the sixth was a killer, the stake was driven into the heart in the seventh when the Sox got the bases loaded with no outs finally knocking Byrd out of the game. Three batters later though the score was still 6-2 and this game was basically over as Coco popped out to Blake on a foul ball that he caught on the edge of the dugout, Youkilis struck out and Papi, after almost tying the game with a blast at the pesky pole, lined out to third.

Snyder had followed Daisuke with a clean inning but Romero gave up a home run to Shoppach to lead off the eighth followed three batters later a run scoring ground rule double that pushed the lead to six. Coming on the heels of the disastrous bottom of the seventh you felt like this game was basically over, and soon enough it was over as Boston could only muster a two run homer by Lowell in the bottom of the eighth to make the final score 8 - 4.

A day off tomorrow and then its the spankees who will be trying to win their second in a row. Normally I would feel pretty good about the spankees coming into Fenway, but Wakefield has been terrible against the spankees this year giving up nine runs in 10 1/3 innings in his two appearances.

In fact Wakefield is 3 and 7 in 14 starts since 2004 vs the spankees with a 4.38 ERA in 90 1/3 innings. The spankees just have his numbers right now. His ERA is even worse in Fenway in those starts. Though his won loss record is better as he is 2 and 3 in seven starts. My worry is that if he gets hammered then that will let the spankees feel good allowing them to get on a roll.

Sox need to take two of three in this series to nail the coffin of the spankee season shut. Will have to see what happens this weekend.

Fact of the day - perfect symmetry - Home Record 18 - 8, Road Record 18 - 8.

Red Sox 07 Game 52

Wednesday, May 30                             Fenway Park | 7:05 PM ET
Paul Byrd, RHP (5-1, 3.81) Indians (31-19)

                  @

Daisuke Matsuzaka, RHP (7-2, 4.43) Red Sox (36-15)

AL East Standings

Team	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	36	15	-	7-3	34	17
Baltimore	25	27	11.5	6-4	27	25
Toronto	24	27	12.0	6-4	25	26
New York	21	29	14.5	3-7	27	23
Tampa Bay	21	29	14.5	3-7	19	31

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

Indians: Byrd was aided by some stellar defensive work and some early offense in getting his fifth win of the season Friday against the Tigers. He gave up four runs on nine hits with no walks and a strike out over 6 1/3 innings and was elevating his pitches by the end of the outing. Byrd said he shouldn't have pounded the strike zone as much as he did, especially ahead in the count. But pounding the zone has helped Byrd go 37 1/3 innings without issuing a walk.

Red Sox: Matsuzaka rode an offensive surge to his seventh win on Friday, prevailing over the Rangers despite giving up five runs over five innings in his first career start in Arlington. Matsuzaka is 3-1 with a 5.00 ERA in his first five starts at Fenway Park, where he has allowed a .259 opponents' batting average and three home runs in 36 innings. He will be facing the Indians for the first time in his career.

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	10	4	1	0	0	0	0	1	.400
K. Youkilis	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
D. Ortiz	23	7	0	0	2	6	1	2	.304
M. Ramirez	11	1	0	0	1	2	0	2	.091
J.D. Drew	7	2	0	0	0	2	0	0	.286
M. Lowell	17	7	2	0	1	4	0	0	.412
J. Varitek	15	5	0	0	1	1	0	3	.333
C. Crisp	9	5	1	0	0	0	2	0	.556
D. Pedroia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	98	31	4	0	5	15	3	11	.316

With Manny batting .091 vs Byrd, Wily Mo may get his third straight start tonight in left. I also would not be surprised to see Cora in for Dustin since he is 2 for 6 against Byrd. Hinske is 2 for 10 and Mirabelli is 2 for 2 with 2 walks. I fully expect them to be sitting on the bench.

Historical Pitching line

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
Byrd	6	3	2	0	37 2/3	42	19	8	6	17	4.54	1.27
Matsuzaka	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

You have to wonder how in the heck Byrd has three wins vs the Sox. 4.54 ERA against this team and he is 2 and 1 in Fenway. The way this team is playing I fully expect that to become 3 and 3 vs Boston.
Chow!

Red Sox 07 Game 51 Recap

Final

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Cleveland	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0		2	4	0
Boston	1	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	X		4	7	0

W: J. Beckett (8-0, 2.65); L: J. Sowers (1-5, 6.29); SV: H. Okajima (4)
HR: BOS: K. Youkilis (8), J. Varitek (5).

► Hero - Youkilis for his 9th straight multiple hit game
► Goat - Cabrera who increased the Sox lead from 2 runs to 4 runs by walking 3.

Game thoughts

Not a lot to say about this game. A solid outing by all invovled from Youkilis, to Beckett, to Donnelly, to Lopez and to Okajima.

Youkilis continues to be lights out with the bat and steady with the glove. Beckett had a little bad luck in the seventh as Drew got a bad hop in the outfield that lead to the triple. No triple right there and we would be talking about a shut out tonight. Oh, yeah, the spankees lost thanks in part to a steal of home by Adam lind. UPDATE: correction Aaron Hill stole home Adam Lind scored the winning run.

14.5 games ahead of the spankees! I think I have seen that lead before.

Red Sox 07 Game 51

Tuesday, May 29     Fenway Park  7:05 PM ET
Jeremy Sowers, LHP (1-4, 6.29) Indians (31-18)
                     @
Josh Beckett, RHP (7-0, 2.66) Red Sox (35-15) 

AL East Standings

Team	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	35	15	-	7-3	33	17
Baltimore	24	27	11.5	6-4	26	25
Toronto	23	27	12.0	5-5	25	25
New York	21	28	13.5	3-7	26	23
Tampa Bay	21	28	13.5	4-6	19	30

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.
I fully expect a press pass.

From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Indians: After beginning the season 0-4 with a 7.13 ERA in his first eight starts, Sowers had his best start of the year on Thursday against the Royals. He went seven strong innings and allowed one run on six hits -- all of them singles -- while walking one and striking out one. It was his first victory in 10 starts, dating to Sept. 5


Red Sox: Beckett is expected to be activated from the disabled list to make his first start since May 13, when he sustained a torn flap of skin on the middle finger of his right hand and had to leave after four innings against Baltimore. The 27-year-old right-hander still is chasing Roger Clemens' 1986 club record of 14 consecutive wins starting the season, but has never beaten the Indians. In two career starts against Cleveland, Beckett is 0-2 with a 13.97 ERA.

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	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Lugo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
K. Youkilis	3	2	1	0	0	1	0	0	.667
D. Ortiz	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000
M. Ramirez	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
J.D. Drew	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
M. Lowell	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
J. Varitek	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
C. Crisp	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000
D. Pedroia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	11	2	1	0	0	1	1	3	.182

There isn't a lot of history, but then what do you expect when the Sowers has only faced the Red Sox once in his career. Will Youkilis keep his hitting streak alive tonight? Is J.D. truly getting out of his offensive funk? These questions and more to be answered tonight at 7:05.

Historical Pitching line

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
Sowers	1	0	0	0	5	5	2	0	2	5	3.60	1.40
Beckett	2	0	3	0	9 2/3	17	15	6	5	9	13.97	2.28

If Beckett really wants to show that he is a different pitcher than last year, this is the game to start with, he pitched horribly last year against this team. I say he is a different pitcher and tonight is win number 8 for the prince.

Chow!

Red Sox 07 Game 50 Recap

Final

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Cleveland	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1		3	9	0
Boston	0	0	0	2	1	0	1	1	X		5	10	0

W: C. Schilling (5-2, 3.68); L: C. Lee (2-2, 5.86); SV: J. Papelbon (13)
HR: BOS: M. Ramirez (8), K. Youkilis (7).

► Hero - Schilling for 7 innings of 6 hit balls and only 1 run with 10 K's.
► Goat - MLB Rule 6.05(f)

Press pass for this game.

Game thoughts

Good hand for Trot, I was never a huge fan of Trot, in fact I am pretty much against any type of platoon players, but he did play his heart out in Boston and did deserve a nice hand. Glad to see it happen for him.

Schilling starts off the game by striking out the side in the first on 19 pitches. The Sox went down 1-2-3 with Youkilis taking a called third strike.

In the second Nixon singled after Martinez grounded out to Pedroia, Peralta struck out swinging, Dellucci singled with Trot going to third and Garko struck out swinging on 19 pitches. Lee had a six pitch 1-2-3 inning.

Schilling started the third inning by giving up a single to Barfield. This was followed by Sizemore being hit on an inside pitch with the count 1 and 2, trouble was brewing as Curt was close to 50 pitches and he hadn't even gotten an out in the third inning. Then on a 1 - 2 pitch Blake grounded into a double play started by Lowell that barely missed being an around the horn triple play. With escape from the inning in sight, Curt got out of the inning with one more pitch as Hafner grounded out to first.

Lee once again looked like he would have an easy inning as he got the first two outs, then Pedroia lined one to center and Lugo had a bunt single and it was two on with two outs. Crisp flew out to Trot to end the inning. So after three the game was still tied at zero.

The fourth was when the Sox finally put a run on the board. Youkilis led off the inning with a ground rule double, Manny moved him to third with with an out to center which brought up the yesterday's hero with a chance to put the Sox ahead for the first time in this game.

Drew delivered again with his own double between Dellucci and Sizemore. Mike Lowell then doubled to left and the Sox finally had some runs to work be comfortable.

Meanwhile Schilling continued to wheel and deal by putting down the Indians 1-2-3 in the fifth, his third time to do that and the second inning in a row. The Sox continued one of their trends this year by adding on a run off a shot by Manny into the Monster seats in the bottom of the fifth.

Schilling had a hiccup in the sixth when he gave up a run on a k, double, k and a single by Victor Martinez. That would be the last true threat that the Indians would manufacture while Curt was in the game. After the seventh Schilling was done for the night and it was good to see the good Curt show up in this game.

In the bottom of the seventh the Sox added on another run with K Youkilis inside-the-park home run to deep center, a standing up inside-the-park home run.

The eighth was not a good inning for the Sox bull pen. J Romero relieved C Schilling to start the game with the following results:

1. Sizemore walked
2. Blake walked
3. Lopez relieved J Romero
4. Hafner struck out looking
5. Martinez singled to center
6. Nixon hit sacrifice fly to center, G Sizemore scored
7. B Donnelly relieved J Lopez
8. Peralta grounded into fielder's choice to third.

In the bottom of the eighth Pedroia, who went 3 for 3 with a walk, doubled with two outs and Lugo added on by doubling down the right field line. Koplove was able to escape without any more damage when Youkilis grounded out to the pitcher after a walk to Coco.

It was Papel-bot time in the ninth, but it was anything but robotic though. Jonathan was wild to Dellucci walking him on 5 pitches. Garko doubled to left (a ball I thought Pena should have caught), followed by another double by Barfield.

Papel-bot bore down at this point and got a pop up just behind third, which prevented one more run. Blake struck out because of the goat of the day and Hafner then struck out for the fourth time of the game and it was Sox Win.

Chow!

Red Sox 07 Game 50

 Monday, May 28                             Fenway Park | 7:05 PM ET
Cliff Lee, LHP (2-1, 5.93) Indians  (31-17)

                 @

Curt Schilling, RHP (4-2, 3.94) Red Sox  (34-15)

AL East Standings

Team	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	34	15	-	7-3	32	17
Baltimore	23	27	11.5	5-5	24	26
Toronto	22	27	12.0	5-5	24	25
New York	21	27	12.5	3-7	26	22
Tampa Bay	20	28	13.5	4-6	19	29

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

Indians: After a May 18 victory over the rival Reds, Lee pitched poorly on Wednesday in a loss at Kansas City. Lee was given a three-run lead in the first, but quickly gave it back as the Royals scored seven runs in the first two innings. Lee was pulled after 90 pitches. He gave up eight runs on 10 hits, including three home runs and a walk, while striking out three.

Red Sox: Schilling has been less than sharp in his past three starts, giving up 29 hits and 12 runs over 17 1/3 innings. Schilling surrendered 12 hits and six runs in his last outing, an 8-3 loss to the Yankees on Wednesday night. Strangely, Schilling has four no-decisions in his five Fenway starts this year. Lifetime against the Indians, Schilling is 1-2 with a 4.40 ERA.

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	16	5	1	1	0	1	0	2	.250
K. Youkilis	6	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	.167
D. Ortiz	12	3	2	0	0	0	0	3	.250
M. Ramirez	9	3	2	0	0	3	5	3	.333
J.D. Drew	2	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	.500
M. Lowell	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
J. Varitek	9	2	1	0	0	0	0	5	.222
C. Crisp	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
D. Pedroia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	60	14	8	1	0	6	5	14	.233

This might be a game that Tito brings in Wily Mo Pena to give a day off to Manny. Wily Mo is 2 for 5 with both hits being home runs vs Lee. Manny has good numbers also, but I would not be surprised to see Tito give him the night off. Another possibility might be using Wily Mo in center, but the way Coco is playing defense it seems unlikely that he would do that. Still will be interesting to see.

I think I would also give Mirabelli a chance to start tonight also. The 5 K's vs Lee by the captain make me uneasy, and Mirabelli is 2 for 3 with both hits being doubles.

Historical Pitching line

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Lee	5	2	1	0	31 1/3	26	12	3	15	32	3.45
Schilling	4	1	2	0	28 2/3	29	14	5	7	25	4.40

Curt really does not have a good record against the Indians.

As a Red Sox

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Schilling	2	0	1	0	13 2/3	16	7	2	3	14	4.61

There are a couple of things that worry me about this team:

1. They are on a roll
2. Nixon knows the Sox so can really help how these batters approach Schilling and Beckett.
3. The Indians won 4 of 7 last year and it should have been 6 of 7 but for the heroics of Ortiz in game 4 between these teams and the heroics of Loretta in game 6.
   

From the espn.com preview linked above:

Nixon will face former teammate Curt Schilling (4-2, 3.94 ERA), who is trying to avoid back-to-back defeats for the first time in 2007. The 40-year-old right-hander gave up six runs -- five earned -- and 12 hits, including two homers, over six innings in an 8-3 loss to the New York Yankees on Wednesday.

The hits were the most he'd allowed since yielding 13 on April 22, 2004, at Toronto.

"I don't think Schill needs to reinvent himself, he just has to locate his fastball better," Boston manager Terry Francona told the team's official Web site. "He's not going to show up throwing like (Luis) Tiant or anything. He just needs to locate his fastball."

Schilling has not earned a decision in his last four outings at Fenway.

The game after his debacle in Toronto, Curt went out and pitched against Tampa Bay and Curt had the following pitching line:

4/28/2004 vs Tampa Bay

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	WHIP
Schilling	1	1	0	0	7 1/3	5	0	0	0	8	.652

The game after that game he went against Cleveland and pitched 7 innings allowing only 2 earned runs in a hard luck loss. Curt has done it before, he can do it again. Lets hope the 7 innings of shut out ball shows up tonight.
Chow!

Red Sox 07 Game 49 Recap

Final

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Boston	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	2	1		6	11	1
Texas	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	1		5	9	0

W: J. Pineiro (1-0, 5.40); L: A. Otsuka (1-1, 1.93); SV: H. Okajima (3)
HR: BOS: J. Varitek (4), D. Pedroia (2). TEX: M. Teixeira (9).

• Hero - J. D Drew (honorable mention Coco)
  
• Goat - Otsuka

MLB.Com's press pass for this game.

Idle thoughts and inning breakdowns

What a game to finish out this series. As the game progressed my hero went from Varitek, to Tavarez, to Teixeira, to Coco and finally J.D. Drew. The first three innings moved along rapidly as Loe and Tavarez kept the bats in check. Then came the fourth and the moment for hero candidate #1.

J.D. started out the inning by getting his first hit of this road trip. To say he had been in a slump would be an understatement. Mike Lowell followed with a single to left and we had the first real chance to do some damage against Loe. We did not have long to wait as Varitek hit a line drive home run to right field and the Sox were on the board.

Tavarez had been outstanding all day as he gave up a single to Lofton in the first, had hit Catalanotto in the second and saw Young reach on an error (a tough error I thought) in the third. That would be all that the Rangers would see in the first five innings of this game. I really felt like Varitek's home run would be the difference in this game as sexy lips just kept the Ranger batters off balance. Going into the bottom of the sixth I truly thought that Tavarez had moved ahead of Varitek. Then disaster struck.

The bottom of the sixth Tavarez seemed to lose his control. Lofton led the inning off by drawing a walk on six pitches that were all high to the batter. Young quickly followed with a single to center on an 81 mph pitch that came in belt high over the middle of the plate. Just like that Julian was facing his first test of the game. He failed miserably.

On the second pitch to Teixeira he left another pitch in the middle of the plate belt high and Mark quickly deposited this pitch into right center field. A 483 foot home run had erased 5 beautiful innings and the game was tied. Ten pitches in the sixth and three runs had scored. With the way Tavarez had been cruising you would have been hard pressed to have seen that this was coming, but Tito didn't waste any time and ordered the bull pen to start throwing.

After seeing Julian throw three pitches to Sosa that were all in the lower half of the strike zone that led to a ground out to third, I thought that Julian might be able to get out of the inning with out any more damage. Subsequent events would prove me wrong.

The first two pitches to Catalanotto were also low in the zone and the count was 1 and 1. The third pitch was belt high and way outside which was followed by another pitch belt high and barely outside. Mr. Nemesis promptly lined that one to left field. I am not sure what Farrel said on his visit to the mound but whatever it was, don't say it again, because the first pitch to Byrd was on the inside part of the plate but belt high and we had men on first and second.

Kinsler followed Byrd with a single to center on the second pitch and the Rangers took the lead. Laird flew out to Coco on the second pitch (again every thing was up in the zone) and Tito had seen enough. Romero came in to face Vazquez and on the fifth pitch got a ground out to Youkilis. You could feel the momentum shifting to the Rangers and after Benoit started the seventh by getting Pedroia to hit a fly ball to center, a line out to left by Lugo followed by Crisp striking out the hero of the game looked like it was Teixeira's to lose.

The bottom of the seventh started off terribly. On a 3-2 count Romero left one belt high on the inside of the plate that Lofton scorched to right field for a double. The Sox then caught a break. With Michael Young up to bat, Romero got a hard ground ball in front of the runner Lofton that Lugo was able to handle. Man on second and one out.

Teixeira was able to battle Romero and drew an eight pitch walk, this was when I thought Tito had lost his mind. Making a visit to the mound he called upon Joel Pineiro to face Sammy Sosa. That is Joel Pineiro of the 6+ ERA, coming in to face one of the most dangerous hitters of the Rangers.

Pineiro surpised me. On four pitches he got a strike on a borderline inside pitch. First and second two outs with Mr. Nemesis, Frank Catalanotto striding to the plate. On the third pitch Coco saved the day by making a spectacular catch of a sinking line drive. With both runners running hard this more than likely saved two runs, but as it has all season, Coco's glove saved the pitching staff and in this instance allowed the Sox to have a chance at coming back in the game.

The eighth inning Youkilis led off with a single into the hole. On a 3-2 count to Manny, Youkilis broke for second and with the pitch being in the dirt was able to successfully steal the base. Time for the struggling Drew to become the hero, and on the second pitch he hit a double to right scoring Youkilis and putting himself in scoring position for Mike Lowell to bring him home. Mike did not let the team down, and on the fifth pitch he singled to left scoring Drew.

Even knowing that Papelbon was not available I felt like the game was now safely won. With the way Okajima has been throwing this year, all the Sox had to do was get through the eighth with the lead and it would be ball game over. Pineiro continued to surprise by getting a 1-2-3 inning. Which led to the at bat of the game.

Dustin Pedroia led off the ninth facing the former formidable reliever Eric Gagne, who has been good but not great this year for the Rangers. The first pitch was a borderline strike with Pedroia fouling off the second pitch. Gagne missed outside on his next two pitches setting up the drama. Pitch five a 84 mph curve was fouled off, pitch six was fouled off, pitch seven was fouled off, pitch eight was fouled off, pitch nine was fouled off, pitch ten was fouled off, pitch 11 was fouled off. Eleven pitches in the at bat and seven foul balls with two stikes led to a 94 mph fast ball right down the middle that Dustin quickly deposited in the left field seats. Breathing room once again.

Okajima started the inning with a two run lead and set to face the top of the Ranger order. Victor Diaz pitch hit for Ramon Vazquez and singled to center. Nelson Cruz replaced Kenny Lofton and flew out to Coco. Young hit a ground ball back to Hideki Okajima who took the out at first base. Again, Farrel came out to the mound and said something to Hideki, again whatever he said, didn't work as Teixeira singled to left and like all teams are going to do this year, scored on Manny's arm. Two outs, winning run at the plate in the person of Sosa. Three pitches later it was a harmless fly ball to center and the Sox had swept the Texas Rangers on the Road.

The Sox now have a winning record against every team they have faced this year, with only the White Sox and the Indians left to play in the American League. The Indians will face the Sox tonight in the first of seven games this year.

UPDATE: oops - I forgot, the Sox have yet to play the Devil Rays this year also.

Red Sox 07 Game 49

Sunday, May 27      Rangers Ballpark in Arlington  3:05 PM ET
Julian Tavarez, RHP (3-4, 5.27) Red Sox (33-15)

                    @

Kameron Loe, RHP (1-4, 6.38) Rangers (18-31)

AL East Standings

Team	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	33	15	-	7-3	31	17
Toronto	22	26	11.0	6-4	23	25
Baltimore	22	27	11.5	4-6	24	25
New York	21	26	11.5	4-6	26	21
Tampa Bay	19	28	13.5	4-6	17	30

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: Tavarez has settled into a groove in recent weeks. He is 2-0 in his last two starts, giving up just three runs over 12 and 2/3 innings. Tavarez beat the Yankees in his last outing, holding them to three hits and two runs over 5 2/3 innings. Tavarez will try to erase the bad memories of his April 7 start at Texas when he allowed six hits and four runs over four innings and walked five.

Rangers: Loe is 0-4 with a 7.60 ERA in his last six starts. His last victory came in his first start of the season on April 21 against the Oakland Athletics. He is 1-3 with a 5.67 ERA in eight games, including five starts, at home. Opponents are hitting .410 off him with runners in scoring position. He is 1-1 with a 3.60 ERA in five games, including two starts, in his career against the Red Sox.

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	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.000
K. Youkilis	4	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	.500
D. Ortiz	6	1	0	0	0	2	2	0	.167
M. Ramirez	6	2	1	0	0	1	1	2	.333
J.D. Drew	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
M. Lowell	5	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000
J. Varitek	5	3	1	0	0	1	1	0	.600
C. Crisp	3	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	.333
D. Pedroia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	34	11	3	1	0	4	5	2	.333

Not a lot of history here. In the past Loe has been plagued by walks to these hitters. With Ortiz's numbers I would not be surprised if he sits today with Manny batting clean up.

Historical Pitching line

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Loe	2	1	1	1	15	18	6	1	7	5	3.60
Tavarez	2	2	4	0	39 1/3	46	27	6	19	22	6.18

Loe has had good succes against the Sox, with his two starts being last year. In a start in Arlington he went 6 2/3 innings only giving up 2 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks. His start at Fenway in May was even better as he pitched shut out ball for five innings. Still he is a pitcher with minimal control so I would expect the Sox to get to him in the early innings and work his pitch count early. Shall have to see.
Chow!

Red Sox 07 Game 48 Recap

Final

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Boston	0	0	0	2	0	5	0	0	0		7	8	1
Texas	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	0	0		4	6	1

W: T. Wakefield (5-5, 3.36); L: V. Padilla (2-7, 5.77); SV: J. Papelbon (12)
HR: None.

• Hero - Coco Crisp
  
• Goat - Joaquim Benoit
  

Inning run downs

A very good game by the Sox last night. Wakefield started strong in the first inning by getting two ground outs to Lugo and K'ing Teixeira after Padilla had retired the Sox in order in the top of the inning.

The second inning saw the first of Manny's four hits as he singled right, but J.D. Drew, Lowell and Crisp were unable to take advantage of the situation by hitting into a force, pop up and grounding out to short. Wakefield was unable to match that by giving up a double to Sosa to start the inning and after getting Sox nemesis Catalanotto to strike out allowed a single to Byrd scoring Sosa from second base.

Sosa with a good throw might of been out at the plate but in the first of two challenges to Manny's arm, his throw was wide of home plate. After striking out Kinsler, Byrd was caught trying to steal second due to a pitch out. Right call at the right time, so the damage was minimized in the inning.

Both pitchers had 1-2-3 innings in the third. Padilla struck out Mirabelli (on a pitch he thought was to low) followed by a Cora ground out to second and a Lugo pop fly to Byrd in left. Wakefield got pop outs to Manny, Drew and Lowell to keep the score cloes going into the fourth.

The top of the fourth saw Youkilis extend his hitting streak to 18 as he doubled to left, it was at this point that the Ranger pitchers started falling behind to the Sox batters. Ortiz and Manny walked loading the bases for Drew. For the year Drew was 1 for 5 with a runner on third and less than two outs knocking in 4 runs though.

Unfortunately, his slump stayed in place as he hit a grounder to first. Fortunately for the Sox, Teixeira went for the double play by throwing to second while the Pitcher covered first base. As is so often the case, the pitcher was not able to catch the wild toss by Young and the ball sailed into the dugout allowing two runs to score. Drew was stranded at second by Lowell and Creip as they popped out to center and grounded out first. Still you like it when a team can come from behind by scoring two runs on only one hit.

The bottom of the fourth saw Wakefield retire the rangers 1-2-3 again, the third time in the first four innings. Padilla was also smoking as he retired the Sox hitters in the top of the fifth in 1-2-3 fashion.

The fifth inning became the fly in the ointment for Wake as he hit Catalanotto on an 0-1 pitch that Mr. nemesis seemed to lean into and emphasised the hitting by waving his hand wildly. A pop up by Byrd was followed by a single from Kinsler and the Sox were definitely looking at trouble.

Laird followed Kinsler's single by doubling to left and both runners scored due to the ball hitting the ball girl and her stool and dying along the wall. Franco came out to argue but it was to no avail. Vasquez followed with a line drive single to right field but Laird had to hold up as Cora made a play for the ball. First and third with only one out saw Lofton hit a fly ball to Manny in left. Though the ball was not hit very deep Manny again was wide of the plate allowing Laird to score. Disaster was lurking around the corner but once again Wakefield made a good pitch and got a ground out by Young to end the inning. To put it mildly, the inning sucked.

There is a reason though why the Rangers have the second worst ERA in the league. In the sixth it became obvious. Youkilis again got things rolling by singling to center. After a well hit ball by Ortiz was caught at the 399 foot mark in right center field, Manny got his second hit of the game, a line drive triple that landed just fair and died at the base of the right field wall. Youkilis scored from first and Manny tried to do a Pete Rose impression with his slide into third, but looked more like a belly flop as he over slid the bag. Fortunately it took forever for Sosa to retrieve the ball and there was no play at third.

On the second pitch to Drew, Padilla uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Manny to score and the game was tied at 4-4. Three pitches later Drew was trotting to first on another walk issued by the Rangers. Lowell followed the walk by singling to left field and Washington came out to the mound to replace Padilla with Benoit.

A quick look at past history showed that Crisp was 0 for 6 against Benoit, with Mirabelli being 0 for 2 and Cora 1 for 6. At the time this looked like a good move by Washington but Coco on the second pitch hit a scorcher to center scoring Drew with the go ahead run. Mirabelli then defied the odds by drawing a walk to load the bases for the first time in the inning.

With the bases loaded Cora hit a sacrifice fly to Lofton and the Sox were up by two. Lugo then drew a walk to load the bases for the second time in the inning. After falling behind 1 - 2, Youkilis was able to draw an rbi walk to get the final run. After another out by Ortiz, the Sox went to the bottom of the sixth leading seven to four.

After a 30+ minute wait and with some runs to work with for once, Wakefield returned to his 1-2-3 ways in the sixth inning. A lead off double in the seventh by Manny was wasted as Drew walked, Lowell struck out, Crisp flied out and Mirabelli struck out to end the top of the seventh. Again Wakefield put down the side in order and the Sox had reached the strength of the team area of the game. This team has been dominant after seven innings in the Bull-pen with Okajima and Papelbon finishing off games.

After the Rangers put down the Sox in the top of the eighth, thanks to a double play grounder by Youkilis, Francona surprised me by going to Javier Lopez instead of Okajima. The strategy was not successful as Vazquez drew a lead off walk. With the pinch hitter Diaz coming up to the plate, Francona summoned Donnelly from the pen.

In a quick and smooth outing Donnelly faced three batters and got three outs and it was to the top of the ninth for the Sox. Would Manny get his home run to complete the cycle?

Unfortunately for Manny no his fourth hit of the game was another single after Ortiz had hit another ground ball. Drew quickly drew a walk for his third free pass of the game. Again though the Rangers killed the rally by getting a pop up from Lowell and a K from Coco and it was off to the bottom of the ninth with Papel-bot coming into the game.

The ninth brought some excitement though as Sosa reached on an error by Lugo. Papel-bot bore down though and got Catalanotto to fly out to left and Byrd to fly out to Crisp in center field. Kinsler got his second hit of the night to right field though and the tying run was at the plate in the body of Laird. Three quick pitches though and the game was over as Crisp tracked down the ball in deep center field for the final out. Red Sox win and have once again won another road series. The last pitch by Papel-bot, his fifteenth, registered 95.4 mph.

Today its Sexy Lips vs Loe at 3:05. Pull up a chair and crack open a cold one as the boys in red go for the sweep.

Chow!

Red Sox 07 Game 48

Saturday, May 26      Arlington   8:05 PM ET
Tim Wakefield, RHP (4-5, 3.14) Red Sox (32-15)

                        @

Vicente Padilla, RHP (2-6, 5.52) Rangers (18-30) 

AL East Standings

Team	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	32	15	-	6-4	31	16
New York	21	25	10.5	4-6	25	21
Toronto	21	26	11.0	6-4	23	24
Baltimore	21	27	11.5	3-7	23	25
Tampa Bay	19	28	13.0	4-6	17	30

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
Update: MLB.Com Press pass here.

Red Sox: After getting off to a terrific start, Wakefield has struggled of late. Over his last two starts, Wakefield has been touched up for 11 runs over 12 innings. Pitching at Texas might not be the best remedy. Lifetime against the Rangers at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Wakefield is 4-11 with a 5.63 ERA. However, he was solid in his start at Texas earlier this year, giving up three hits and one earned run over six innings of a tough luck loss.

Rangers: The Rangers won for only the second time in Padilla's 10 starts this season when they defeated the Twins, 14-4, on Monday. He is now 2-3 with a 5.05 ERA in his last seven starts. This will be just his fifth start at home, where he is 2-2 with a 3.04 ERA. Opponents are hitting .229 off him with runners in scoring position. He is 1-2 with a 4.70 ERA in five career games, including four starts, against the Red Sox.

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	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Lugo	5	2	0	0	0	0	2	0	.400
K. Youkilis	7	2	1	0	0	0	1	1	.286
D. Ortiz	10	4	2	0	2	5	2	0	.400
M. Ramirez	11	1	0	0	0	0	0	4	.091
J.D. Drew	17	7	2	0	1	4	3	3	.412
M. Lowell	35	7	3	0	0	6	2	3	.200
D. Mirabelli	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
C. Crisp	10	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	.600
D. Pedroia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	98	29	9	0	3	15	9	11	.296

Some good history here for the Sox batters. Only Manny and Lowell have really struggled against him in the past. Mirabelli basically has faced him only one game. Would not be surprised to see Cora play since he is 6 for 18 (all singles) against Padilla. Hinske, and Wily Mo are a combined 1 for 8 (Hinske) so I do not expect them to replace anybody in the outfield.

Historical Pitching line

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
Wakefield	22	7	14	0	140 2 /3	157	92	24	55	113	5.89	1.51
Padilla	4	1	2	0	23	25	12	3	6	20	4.7	1.35

As a starter only Wakefield actually does not improve against the Rangers. In 22 starts he has 9 quality starts and has went 6 innings 15 times. His record as a starter is 7 and 12 with all other numbers being fairly close (5.89 ERA). Will the struggles continue for Tim?

Padilla's last three starts vs the Sox have all been quality starts (3 total in 4 games started). He has went six innings, seven innings, and seven innings giving up a total of seven runs (3.15 era) His record is 1 and 1 in those contests. That to me is surprising when you look how the team has batted against him.

From the Boston Herald:
Wake on tap

Tim Wakefield [stats] will be looking to change his recent fortunes against the Rangers when he opposes Vicente Padilla tonight.
The knuckleballer is 7-14 with a 5.89 ERA in 29 career appearances against the Rangers, including 4-11 with a 5.63 ERA in Texas. Wakefield allowed only two runs (one earned) on three hits in six innings in Texas on April 6, but he took the loss when the Sox were blanked, 2-0, by Robinson Tejeda and two relievers.
Wakefield is 1-4 with a 5.46 ERA in five starts at Texas since the start of the 2004 season.

See you at 8:00 Chow!

Red Sox 07 Game 47 Recap

Final

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Boston	0	4	0	0	2	4	0	0	0		10	10	0
Texas	0	0	0	5	0	0	1	0	0		6	8	0

W: D. Matsuzaka (7-2, 4.43); L: W. Littleton (0-1, 3.00)
HR: TEX: F. Catalanotto (4), R. Vazquez (3).

• Hero - Manny Ramirez
  
• Goat - Brandon McCarthy

Idle thoughts

Well the first inning went the way I thought it would as both pitchers managed to escape with out giving up a run. The top of the second inning was when things started to go off script. The first three Sox drew walks to load the bases. Varitek hit a sac fly to Lofton and the Sox were on the board with 1 run off of zero hits.

Coco Crisp kept the inning going by drawing a walk and was followed by Pedroia who on the seventh pitch hit a single to right field, scoring J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell. Lugo followed up with a FC to Sammy Sosa who dropped a ball along the foul line, and since Pedroia had to hold up, Sosa was able to force Pedroia at second base. 4 runs in the inning and only 1 hit.

The third inning saw a 1-2-3 inning by Daisuke after the Sox squandered a chance on a single and double by Ortiz and Manny to start the inning off of Littleton who replaced McCarthy to start the inning. At the end of the third was when we first saw signs that something might be wrong with Daisuke as he held his side going off the field.

To say that Daisuke sucked in the fourth would be an understatement, though it was obvious that something did not feel right with him. Leading off the fourth Teixera tripled, Sosa doubled, Catalanotto homered and it was 4 - 3 Sox.

It looked like the damage might be limited to the three runs after Daisuke struck out Nelson Cruz and got a fly ball to Coco by Ian Kinsler. No such luck though. Laird hit a ground ball single to center over Daisuke heads and then gave up another home run to Ramon Vazquez. Lofton finished the inning by grounding out to Youkilis but momentum had shifted to the Rangers, who led at this point 5 - 4.

Boston struck back quickly though. Lugo hit a dribbler in front of the plate that Laird handled easily for one out. Kevin Youkilis then extended his hitting streak to 17 games by singling to right, David Ortiz tied the game by doubling to right and Manny singled to left to score Ortiz. Score 6-5 and the Sox never trailed again eventually extending their lead to 5 runs before the Rangers scored on a Wild Pitch in the 7th to finish the scoring for the night. Sox Win, Sox Win!!!

Drew and Lowell were the only Sox to not get a hit, with Youkilis, Ortiz and Manny having two hits each. Lowell and Drew both grounded into double plays during the game.

Daisuke's ERA after this game rose to 4.43 while Okajima and Papelbon both pitched 1-2-3 innings in the eighth and ninth.

J.D. Drew has the lowest batting average of the regular players with a .230. Lugo is the next closest with a .235. Manny raised his average to .256 after his two hits.

Though not a pitchers duel it was still a good game as the Sox gained ground on all of the other AL east teams who lost their games.

Chow!

Red Sox 07 Game 47

Friday, May 25 Rangers Ballpark in Arlington 8:05 PM ET

Bos Daisuke Matzuaka, RHP (6-2, 4.06)

                @

Tex Brandon McCarthy, RHP (4-4, 5.82)

AL East Standings

Team	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	31	15		6-4	30	16
New York	21	24	9.5	4-6	25	20
Toronto	21	25	10	6-4	22	24
Baltimore	21	26	10.5	3-7	22	25
Tampa Bay	19	27	12	5-5	17	29

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.
UPDATE: MLB.Com Press Pass is here.
From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Red Sox: Matsuzaka is on fire. In his last three starts, he's 3-0 with a 1.87 ERA. Matsuzaka has gone at least seven innings in all of those starts. In his last two starts, he hasn't walked a batter. Matsuzaka has lowered his ERA from 5.45 to 4.06 in a span of three starts. He is holding opponents to a .235 average. This will be Matsuzaka's first career start against the Rangers.

Rangers: He's 3-0 with a 2.31 ERA in his last four games, holding opponents to a .202 batting average. That's a complete turnaround from April when he was 1-4 with a 9.90 ERA and opponents hit .356 off him. The big difference has been putting his fastball in the spot where he wants it, using his changup effectively and making adjustments quickly before innings get out of control. He is 2-1 with a 6.23 ERA in three starts at home this year. He is 1-1 with a 2.03 ERA in four games, including one start, in his career against the Red Sox.

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	H	2b	3b	4b	RBI	BB	K	BA
J. Lugo	3	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.333
K. Youkilis	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
D. Ortiz	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
M. Ramirez	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.167
J.D. Drew	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
M. Lowell	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	1.000
J. Varitek	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	.000
C. Crisp	5	2	1	0	1	1	0	0	.400
D. Pedroia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	30	5	1	0	2	2	3	3	.167

As you can see not a lot of history here. The bench players also don't have a lot of history either as Cora is the only one to have faced Brandon in the past and he is 0 for 1. Still this is one of the top hitting clubs in baseball and the Sox usually bat well in the Park at Arlington. 340 for 1,245 with a slugging pct of .459 and 0ba of .354 with 46 home runs.

Historical Pitching line

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Matsuzaka	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
McCarthy	1	1	1	0	13 1/3	8	3	3	3	9	2.03

McCarthy's only start against the Sox was in September of 2005 at Fenway Park. He went 7 innings of 3 hit ball with 7 k's and no runs for the Win. As the scouting report states, both of the pitchers are on fire and are 3 - 0 in their last 3 (Daisuke) and 4 (McCarthy) games. With sparkling ERA's in those games. This could be a very good pitching match up tonight.

Chow!

Red Sox 07 Game 46 Recap

Final

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Boston	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	0		3	12	1
NYY	3	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	X		8	16	0

W: A. Pettitte (3-3, 2.66); L: C. Schilling (4-2, 3.94)
HR: BOS: C. Crisp (1). NYY: H. Matsui (4), D. Mientkiewicz (4).

• Hero - Hidecki Matsui
• Goat - Curt Schilling

Idle thoughts

To say that this was a stinker of a game would be an insult to stinkness. As 1 healthbetold said at at 38 pitches said " Way to be older and crappier then Mussina was last night. " Still I think that was a little harsh since the Sox seemed to keep on getting in the way of playing well.

The first inning looked like it might start off well when Coco walked on 5 pitches after a ground out by Lugo led off the game. Unfortunately, after Ortiz K'ed on a pitch that broke out of the zone, Coco was called out on a stolen base / pick off play. Unlike Tuesday night, it was clear that he was safe. From there it was all down hill as this game was over after the bottom of the first.

The spankees led off the inning with three straight hits. Damon led off the inning with a double that should have been scored a single with an error on Cement Glove. Jeter quickly followed that with a single of his own followed by a line drive home run on the 3-2 pitch by Matsui. The pitch was high and over the plate and there was no doubt that it was gone. Game over.

Bright spots in this game:

1. Everybody but Lugo and Varitek had 2 hits.
2. Youkilis kept his hitting streak alive
3. Manny looked better in his at bats, even getting an infield hit in the 2nd.

Bad spots:

1. Schilling sucked
2. Donnelly sucked
3. Pinerio sucked
4. Lugo keeps on making stupid errors
5. Lugo sucks as a lead off batter again
6. 19 freaking runners left on base compared to only 10 for the spankees.

Not the way you want to end a series against the team that has been killing you the last decade. Still, the lead is 9.5, 9 games back in the loss column. With only 9 games left against the spankees and six of those in Fenway the Sox have a chance to make up some ground and get the lead back over 10 before next weeks series at Fenway.

Off day on the 25th as the Sox get ready to take on the Rangers. Of course the Rangers are the only other team that the Sox have lost a road series against this year. The boys need to take at least two games in Arlington.

The first game will be Daisuke's first chance to win a game after a loss this year. Will have to see what happens.

MLB.com's press pass for last nights game is here.

Chow!

Red Sox 07 Game 46

Wednesday, May 23    Yankee Stadium  7:05 PM ET
Curt Schilling, RHP (4-1, 3.57) Red Sox (31-14)
                 @
Andy Pettitte, LHP (2-3, 2.83) Yankees (20-23) 

AL East Standings

Team	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	31	14	-	7-3	30	15
New York	20	24	10.5	4-6	24	20
Toronto	20	24	10.5	7-3	22	22
Baltimore	20	25	11.0	3-7	21	24
Tampa Bay	18	26	12.5	4-6	16	28

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: The big right-hander has labored a little in his last two outings. In his most recent start, Schilling gave up eight hits and two runs over six innings, throwing 118 pitches. Two starts ago, he allowed nine hits and four runs over 5 1/3 innings against the Orioles. Both of those starts -- victories by Boston -- were no-decisions for Schilling. This is Schilling's second start of the year against the Yankees. He was touched up for eight hits and five runs on April 20, a game the Red Sox went on to win in dramatic fashion after Schilling's exit.

Yankees: Pettitte pitched well enough to win on Friday, but the Yankees continued to slide backward as the offense couldn't help the left-hander out in a 3-2 loss in the opening game of the Subway Series at Shea Stadium. Pettitte gave up five hits and three earned runs in seven innings, striking out four and walking one in the loss. He dropped to 2-3 on the season with a 2.83 ERA. Against the Red Sox in his career, Pettitte owns a 13-6 record and 3.18 ERA.

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	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Lugo	13	5	0	0	0	0	2	2	.385
K. Youkilis	4	3	0	0	1	2	2	0	.750
D. Ortiz	28	10	3	0	1	4	3	7	.357
M. Ramirez	64	26	7	0	3	18	6	5	.406
J.D. Drew	14	6	1	0	2	2	1	5	.429
M. Lowell	6	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	.167
J. Varitek	41	15	1	1	1	6	4	14	.366
C. Crisp	9	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	.222
D. Pedroia	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	183	68	12	1	8	33	19	36	.372

Everybody agrees that J.D. Drew and Manny have been struggling this year. This should be a break out game for them since they combine for 8 doubles and 5 home runs while batting .410 against Pettitte. However, knowing Tito, I can just see him playing Wily Mo Pena for Drew. Hey, he hasn't done what was smart the first two games (see Hinske vs Wang, Mirabelli vs Mussina), so why should he start now! Of course the Sox are 1 and 1 in this series so maybe I should just shut up!

It would not surprise me to see Wily Mo playing tonight (if he does I would expect it to be in center for Coco). He is 3 for 8 against Andy with a double and 3 k's. That is better than Coco's numbers and if Tito really wants to get WMP his AB's then this would be a situation where he might try to get him 3 or 4 AB's.

Historical Pitching line

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
Schilling	11	6	3	0	75 1/3	72	38	15	18	60	4.54	1.19
Pettitte	23	13	6	0	152 2/3	152	54	6	45	122	3.18	1.29

Two things surprised me about this matchup:

1. Curt has a very high ERA vs the Yankees and its even worse in the Bronx.
   
2. Andy does worse in the Bronx than overall.

In three starts as a Sox, Curt has had a great outing 9/10/2005, a bad outing 5/10/2006 followed by another great outing 6/8/2006. Below is the pitcher breakdowns in the Bronx.

Historical Pitching line in the Bronx

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
Schilling	3	2	1	0	21	17	11	7	4	15	4.71	1.00
Pettitte	13	8	4	0	88	80	33	3	26	79	3.38	1.20

If you threw out the one bad game that Curt has had in the Bronx his ERA drops almost 2 runs (2.81 vs 4.71) and his WHIP is an unreal .69 in those two games.

Chow!

Red Sox 07 Game 45 Recap

Final

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Boston	3	0	0	1	0	0	3	0	0		7	11	0
New York	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	0		3	4	0

W: J. Tavarez (3-4, 5.27); L: M. Mussina (2-3, 6.52)
HR: BOS: M. Lowell (9), M. Ramirez (7).

• Hero - Manny Ramirez for his 3 run bomb
• Goat - Mike Mussina
  

Idle thoughts

Lugo started the game off by making Mussina throw nine pitches to strike him out. That K was quickly followed with a 1b by Youkilis and a 1b by Big Papi. Manny then unloaded a bomb and started this game off right. He hit "The Moose" mistake pitch and made no mistake about the ball being gone. The best swing Manny has had in a week.

Drew is on a record pace for grounding into DP's. In his career the most he has had in any year was 7. Tonights dp was his third for this year.

Four strong innings by Tavarez and then he melted in the fifth. A double and 2 walks leads to an RBI for Jetes. After Mussina threw 31 pitches in the first and the way Tavarez was cruising I thought for sure Mussina would be out of the game before Tavarez. Still 5 2/3 innings and only two runs is good enough for me.

Lopez comes in and gets Abreu and we go to the top of the Seventh with the Sox leading by two runs.

Speed kills. In this case speed runs starting pitchers out of the game. After a lead off walk to Tek, Coco tried to get down a bunt but couldn't. An FC later he's at 1st and after Pedroia flies out to right steals second on a very close play. Thankfully Lugo got a pitch that he could handle and singled to right scoring Coco and we reached the 5 run mark in the Game.

Youkilis added to the lead by crushing a ball to the base of the wall in right center field and Lugo scored easily from first base. Myers in to face Big Papi doesn' t pay off for the spankees and its 7 to 2. Should be cruise time for the rest of the game.

Did you really think that Okajima would continue his scoreless streak for the rest of the year? In a way I am glad its over. Just come in and throw strikes, quit this walking people. That goes for the Papel-bot also.

Rubber game of the series tonight. Schilling who has had 4 no decisions in the last 7 starts needs to win some games and tonight he needs to have one of his good games at the Bronx.