Red Sox 2008 Game 60 Preview

			@
T. Wakefield		3-4, 4.70		J. Guthrie		2-6, 3.64
Red Sox		35 - 24		Orioles		26 - 29

Monday, May 12  Oriole Park at Camden Yards  ✠ 7:05 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Tampa	35	22	-	8-2	9	7	32	25
Boston	35	24	1.0	5-5	9	8	34	25
Toronto	31	28	5.0	7-3	9	12	33	26
New York	28	28	6.5	7-3	9	6	27	29
Baltimore	26	29	8.0	2-8	12	8	25	30

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From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Red Sox: With Daisuke Matsuzaka experiencing shoulder fatigue, Wakefield will likely be moved up one day to pitch the finale of this four-game series against the Orioles. Thanks to Thursday's day off, Wakefield would be on regular rest. The knuckleballer was brilliant in his last start, yielding just a run and five hits over eight innings. He walked none and struck out eight. The bad news? It came in a losing effort on a night the Red Sox were stifled by Seattle's Erik Bedard. Wakefield had pitched well at Camden Yards over the years, going 7-5 with a 3.58 ERA in 22 appearances.

Orioles: Guthrie lost another close game in his last outing and is currently mired in a string of hard luck. The right-hander has allowed three earned runs or less in nine of his 12 starts, but Baltimore has scored a total of eight runs in his six losses. Nine of Guthrie's 12 starts have been decided by two runs or less, but he's 2-4 with three no-decisions in those games.

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

Sox Batting vs Guthrie

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBP	Slg.	OPS
J. Ellsbury	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.250	.250	.250	.500
D. Pedroia	9	5	1	0	0	0	2	1	.556	.636	.667	1.303
D. Ortiz	12	4	3	0	0	1	1	3	.333	.385	.583	.968
M. Ramirez	9	4	1	0	0	2	1	1	.444	.500	.556	1.056
M. Lowell	10	1	0	0	0	3	0	1	.100	.100	.100	.200
K. Youkilis	13	2	1	0	0	0	1	4	.154	.214	.213	.445
J. Drew	7	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	.143	.250	.286	.536
K. Cash	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
J. Lugo	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
Totals	71	18	7	0	0	6	6	11	.254	.312	.352	.664

If I was Francona I would play Cora and Crisp tonight. Combined they are 5 for 21 with a couple of walks. But hey, that is better than Lugo's 0-7.

Pitching Comparisions Career vs Respective Teams

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Wakefield
Guthrie	4	1	0	0	26 2/3	29	8	2	9	19	2.70	1.43	6.17

Guthrie has been lights out vs the Sox. Today would be a good day to look for defense as opposed to offense, because you just ain't going to get the offense versus Guthrie.

Wakefield has lost his last three starts at Camden Yards. Each start was progressively worse than the previous. Here's hoping the wind is blowing the right way tonight to get that knuckleball to really knuckle.

Pitching stats for this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Guthrie	12	2	6	0	76 2/3	70	31	10	23	48	3.64	1.21	6.39
Wakefield	11	3	4	0	67	63	35	10	30	44	4.70	1.39	6.09

Actually, Wakefield and Guthrie have pitched better than their stats. Wakefield has 6 Quality starts and has only allowed 3 runs or fewer 8 times. Of course when Wake has been bad he has really been bad. Lets hope he's more like the Seattle start then the Minnesota or Oakland start this year. Wake has also lost 3 of his last 4 starts with a No decision thrown against Milwaukee.

Guthrie has 9 Quality Starts this year. 2-6 does not equate to that, so, a little of bad luck and some mistake pitches have definitely cost him this year. Here's hoping he makes a bad mistake or two tonight.
♊ - When all else fails, get a bigger hammer!