Red Sox 07 Game 110

			@
D. Matsuzaka		12-8, 3.75		J. Washburn		8-7, 4.11
Red Sox		66-43		Mariners		60-47

Saturday, August 4    Safeco Field ✠ 10:05 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	66	43	-	6-4	16	16	67	42
New York	59	50	7.0	6-4	9	15	68	42
Toronto	55	54	11.0	6-4	19	18	58	51
Baltimore	51	57	14.5	7-3	9	22	55	53
Tampa	41	67	24.5	3-7	13	12	40	68

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ESPN.Com after the game Recap.
MLB.Com Press Pass
From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Red Sox: Despite working with catcher Doug Mirabelli for the first time, Matsuzaka held Tampa Bay scoreless into the seventh inning in a pitchers' duel with Scott Kazmir on Sunday. He then was denied what would have been his 13th win, instead taking a hard-luck loss as the Rays took him deep once for the first of five runs in the seventh inning. Dice-K was charged with two runs on eight hits in his 6 1/3-innings gem, and exhibited all of the control that has made him a dominant Major League pitcher, his lone mistake coming in the form of a forkball that hung over the plate.

Mariners: Washburn struggled to find any control against the A's his last time out, allowing five runs, three earned, in just five innings while walking three and striking out two. He has earned three consecutive no decisions, and is 0-1 in his last four starts, having allowed 15 earned runs over that span. The Mariners are 5-2 in his last seven starts.

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

Hitting History vs Washburn

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
D. Pedroia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
K. Youkilis	7	3	1	0	0	2	2	0	.429
D. Ortiz	14	4	3	0	0	3	4	3	.286
M. Ramirez	19	6	0	1	1	4	9	1	.316
J.D. Drew	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	.000
M. Lowell	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
J. Varitek	22	5	1	0	0	4	2	2	.227
C. Crisp	18	10	5	0	1	4	1	2	.556
J. Lugo	15	5	1	0	0	0	2	1	.333
Totals	110	33	11	1	2	17	20	12	.300

Everybody except Pedroia has faced Washburn and the only ones to have truly struggled are Drew, Lowell and Varitek. Even the bench players have faced this guy and Mirabelli and Cora (the only ones with hits) are 3 for 6 against him. The bench overall is 3 for 11, so the team has had moderate to great success against this left hander. The problem is they are playing in Seattle, where for some reason this team keeps on shooting itself in the foot, re see last nights first three innings. 15 and 26 at Safeco since 1999. That includes the present nine game losing streak, nine games straight they have lost at Safeco. Unbelievable!

Historical Pitching Lines

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Matsuzaka	3	0	1	0	20	16	11	0	7	13	4.95	1.15	6.67
Washburn	10	3	3	0	58	57	30	3	26	30	4.66	1.43	5.80

This will be the fourth time that Daisuke has faced the Mariners. His previous outings were on 4/11 , 5/3 , and 6/27 . The 4/11 and 6/27 games were quality starts in which he probably should of won the game. The 5/3 game he started against Ramirez (last night's pitcher) and purely stunk giving up 7 runs in 5 innings. Take that game out of the mix and his ERA drops to 2.40. So, you have a chance to win when Daisuke takes the mound. Unfortunately, the Sox are now less than 500 against lefties (16-17).

Washburn really struggles agains this team and he is 1 and 1 in his last five starts vs the Sox with a 5.53 era and a 1.55 WHIP in 5.53 innings per start in those games. Surprisingly, three of his four quality starts though were in those games (1-1). Tonight, look for the Sox to get to him by the fifth inning, the question is whether or not the Sox can then do anything against the Mariner bull pen.

From today's press pass - 5 IS THE MAGIC NUMBER: Each of Boston’s last 5 losses have come when scoring 4 runs or less…Boston is 2-9 in its last 11 games when scoring 4 or fewer runs (19-37 overall when scoring 4 or less)…By contrast, the Sox are 47-6 when scoring 5 runs or more this season, with wins in each of their last 9 such contests.

♊ - When all else fails, get a bigger hammer!