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!