Red Sox 07 Game 84

Thursday, July 5    Fenway Park  7:05 PM ET

		@
J.P. Howell	1-2, 5.19		Josh Beckett	11-2, 3.38
Devil Rays	33 - 50		Red Sox	52-31

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	52	31	-	5-5	50	33
Toronto	41	43	11.5	4-6	40	40
New York	40	42	11.5	3-7	36	36
Baltimore	37	46	15	5-5	42	42
Tampa Bay	33	50	19	0-10	51	51

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From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Devil Rays: Howell suffered his second loss of the season Saturday night against the Indians, yielding five earned runs on eight hits over 4 1/3 innings. Howell now has a 9.21 ERA on the road as opposed to his 2.25 ERA at Tropicana Field. He is 0-0 with a 7.71 ERA in one start against the Red Sox in his career.

Red Sox: Beckett was hittable on Saturday night against the Texas Rangers, for no other reason than leaving the ball over the plate throughout a damaging four-run fourth inning. Despite falling short in his bid to win his 12th game, Beckett kept his fastball in the mid-90s and looked sharp for three innings, and he seems primed to bounce back against a struggling Tampa squad.

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

Hitting History vs Opposing Starter

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J.D. Drew	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
D. Pedroia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
D. Ortiz	3	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	.333
M. Ramirez	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	.000
M. Lowell	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
J. Varitek	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
C. Crisp	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000
E. Hinske	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333
J. Lugo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	14	2	0	0	1	1	1	4	.143

Most of these players have only faced Howell in one game, we should be able to tell if Coco is out of his slump though since he has almost half of the at bats and struck out three times in six at bats.

Youkilis is sitting due to his quads acting up, but don't be surprised to see him make a pinch hit appearance and maybe even Ellesbury pinch running, if it is a close game.

Historical Pitching Lines vs Opponents

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
J. P. Howell	1	0	0	0	4 2/3	5	4	1	3	7	7.71	1.71	4.67
J. Beckett	3	1	2	0	19 2/3	19	11	5	5	21	5.03	1.22	6.56

Beckett and Howell both made all of their starts last year.

Howell has a pretty good K rate in his start last year but the Sox made him work and knocked him out in the fifth inning. That is good for this team, since they know that they have a game plan for their at bats that worked. Should be interesting to see how it goes tonight.

As for Beckett, what stands out is the K rate, which was greater than one per inning vs the Rays. It also stands out that he gave up five home runs in less than twenty innings (all five in both losses), which helps to explain his high ERA vs this team. Two of his three starts were quality starts. Look for Beckett to rebound from his poor performance against Texas.

Chow!