Red Sox 2008 Game 68 Preview

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G. Olson		5-1, 3.86		B. Colon		3-1, 3.91
Orioles		32 - 31		Red Sox		40 - 27

Wednesday, June 11                 Fenway Park  ✠ 7:05 p.m. ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	40	27	-	7-3	10	8	38	29
Tampa Bay	38	27	1.0	5-5	10	7	35	30
Baltimore	32	31	6.0	6-4	14	9	31	32
Toronto	34	33	6.0	3-7	10	15	37	30
*New York	32	32	6.5	5-5	11	9	31	33

* Yankee record as of 12:39 a.m. 6/11

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From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Orioles: Olson is four or five starts behind most of his peers, but he's already managed to tie for the team lead in victories. The southpaw has allowed three earned runs or less in seven of his eight starts and has only been knocked out once before completing five innings. Olson has worked into the seventh inning in half of his starts and appears to have sealed a long-term job.

Red Sox: Colon lasted just five innings in his last start against Seattle, picking up his first loss of the season. Colon gave up just three earned runs but committed two costly errors early in the contest that led to three unearned runs for the Mariners. It was his first less-than-stellar performance of the season, however, as the 2005 American League Cy Young Award winner posted strong outings in his first three appearances after his contract was purchased from Triple-A Pawtucket on May 21.

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

Red Sox Batting History vs Olson

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBA	Slug	OPS
J. Ellsbury	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	.000	.667	.000	.667
D. Pedroia	11	3	0	0	1	1	1	0	.273	.333	.545	.879
J. D. Drew	4	2	1	0	0	2	1	1	.500	.600	.750	1.350
M. Ramirez	4	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	.000	.200	.000	.200
M. Lowell	9	2	1	0	0	0	1	1	.222	.300	.333	.633
K. Youkilis	7	1	0	0	0	0	4	3	.143	.455	.143	.597
J. Varitek	6	2	1	0	0	0	2	0	.333	.500	.500	1.000
C. Crisp	10	2	0	0	1	4	0	2	.200	.200	.500	.700
J. Lugo	10	4	1	0	0	3	0	1	.400	.400	.500	.900
Totals	62	16	4	0	2	10	12	10	.258	.378	.419	.798

Not a whole lot of history against Olson, then again he has only faced the Sox four times in his career, so we probably shouldn't expect much. Still, the Sox have had some good success, of course the Sox had good success against Cabrera also and they lost that match up last night.

Since I said I was going to treat last night as an aberration, I fully expect the Sox to beat Olson soundly.

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Olson	4	0	2	0	20 1/3	23	15	3	15	18	6.64	1.87	5.08
Colon	18	9	6	0	119	113	45	9	52	80	3.40	1.39	6.61

Not much good from Olson and that WHIP, ERA and K/BB ratio is most assuredly in the Sox favor. Colon has had some good success though against the Orioles. I like the Sox chances here.

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Olson	8	5	1	0	44 1/3	47	19	3	16	32	3.86	1.42	5.54
Colon	4	3	1	0	23	26	10	1	6	15	3.91	1.39	5.75

Olson has been real good this year. Lets just hope he reverts to the pre 2008 Garrett Olson tonight. (hey, Cabrera sucked last night when I said the same thing, so why not try that with Olson also, eh?)

Colon has had two rough outings of the four he's started this year. Of course the worrisome thing is that they have been the last two outings. I don't think he will make it three in a row tonight though.

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