Red Sox 07 Game 72

Friday, June 22    Petco Park |  10:05 PM ET
Daisuke Matsuzaka, RHP (8-5, 4.18)
Red Sox (46-25)

      VS

Greg Maddux, RHP (6-3, 3.90)
Padres (41-30)

AL East Standings

Team	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	46	25	-	6-4	44	27
New York	35	35	10.5	6-4	41	29
Toronto	34	37	12.0	5-5	36	35
Tampa Bay	31	39	14.5	4-6	28	42
Baltimore	31	41	15.5	2-8	35	37

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.
MLB.Com press pass
From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Red Sox: The Red Sox's big offseason acquisition from Japan is finally showing signs of making a run. After losing stellar starts at Oakland and Arizona, Matsuzaka made sure a single run of support against San Francisco would be enough, shutting out the Giants through seven. At 4.18, Matsuzaka's ERA is creeping down to its mid-May levels, and his next start comes in the pitcher's paradise of San Diego.

Padres Maddux won his first road game of the season in his start on Sunday at Wrigley Field -- a place Maddux is very familiar with. The Padres provided Maddux with nine runs of support over the first five innings, and he didn't run into trouble until the sixth inning, when the Cubs scored twice. All told, Maddux allowed three earned runs over six innings on seven hits. He didn't walk a batter and had one strikeout.

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.D. Drew	15	3	0	0	0	0	0	4	.200
D. Pedroia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
D. Ortiz	3	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	.333
M. Ramirez	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
M. Lowell	49	18	2	0	4	8	3	5	.367
J. Varitek	14	4	2	1	0	1	1	2	.286
C. Crisp	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
J. Lugo	8	1	0	0	0	1	0	3	.125
Totals	97	27	4	1	5	11	4	15	.278

So, basically the team that should be out there has faced Maddux about two games worth of at bats. Of, course Mike Lowell has half of those bats and the most success of the starters. However, I would not be surprised if Wily Mo starts since he is 5 for 14 with 3 home runs vs Maddux. Will have to see, but if Tito is cautious with Drew then WMP might be playing right field tonight, with Coco moving up to the 1st or 2nd slot in the Batting order.

Since Daisuke has never faced the Padres before I will just recap Maddux's history against the Sox. Its pretty good, he's faced the Sox 7 times and is 5 and 0 with a 3.42 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP.

He has went six plus innings or greater in all of the starts but one, and the one he didn't go six in he had a no decision after going 5 innings with 0 earned runs (1 unearned). So even in his bad start he was pretty good. So, the nibbler better be on his game and challenge the Padre hitters or this could get ugly. Still, I like the Sox chances, it seems they have gotten back their mojo, my pick for final score is 3-1 Sox.

Chow!