Red Sox 2008 Game 69 Preview

			@
J. Guthrie		3-6, 3.40		J. Lester		4-3, 3.50
Orioles		32 - 32		Red Sox		41-27

Thursday, June 12  Fenway Park  ✠ 6:05 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	41	27	-	7-3	10	8	39	29
Tampa	38	28	2.0	4-6	10	7	36	30
Toronto	34	35	7.0	3-7	10	16	37	31
New York	33	33	7.0	5-5	11	9	32	34
Baltimore	32	32	7.0	6-4	14	9	31	33

ESPN.Com Preview .
Yahoo's Preview .
ESPN.Com after the game Recap.
MLB.Com Press Pass
From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Orioles: Guthrie completed seven innings for the sixth time this season in his most recent start. The right-hander also had his first four-run lead of the year and made it stand up. Guthrie has given up two earned runs or less eight times in his first 15 starts of the year.

Red Sox: In a game that will be remembered for Coco Crisp charging Rays starter James Shields, Jacoby Ellsbury injuring his wrist and Manny Ramirez driving in five runs before leaving the game in the eighth nursing his right hamstring, Jon Lester quietly shut down the Tampa Bay lineup. Lester scattered eight hits over 6 1/3 innings, giving up just one run and striking out five. It was his first win in three starts since his May 19 no-hitter against Kansas City, and the young lefty turned in a strong performance in the 7-1 stomping of the Rays..

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings and 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	7	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.286	.286	.286	.571
D. Pedroia	9	5	1	0	0	0	2	1	.556	.636	.667	1.303
J.D. Drew	10	2	1	0	0	0	1	5	.200	.273	.300	.573
M. Ramirez	12	5	1	0	1	3	1	1	.417	.462	.750	1.212
M. Lowell	13	2	0	0	0	3	0	1	.154	.154	.154	.308
K. Youkilis	16	3	1	0	0	0	1	5	.188	.235	.250	.485
J. Varitek	9	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	.222	.222	.222	.444
C. Crisp	13	4	0	0	0	0	1	2	.308	.357	.308	.665
J. Lugo	10	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	.100	.100	.100	.200
Totals	99	26	4	0	1	6	6	17	.263	.305	.333	.638

Actually not bad numbers versus Guthrie. The team has had some success against him in the past, especially Pedroia (snap out of this slump little guy) and Manny. I would not be surprised to see Casey playing instead of Lowell (lefty / righty) especially since Casey has success against Guthrie. It is also possible that Varitek (who left the last game due to illness) will be replaced by Cash. That is also an improvement since Cash has success against this pitcher.

Pitching Comparisions Career vs Respective Teams

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Guthrie	5	1	0	0	33	37	10	3	10	24	2.73	1.42	6.20
Lester	5	3	0	0	29	31	11	3	13	15	3.41	1.52	5.8

Guthrie has had some good success against the Sox, but it does not carry over in the Win column. Lester does have success in the win column amazingly to me when you look at that WHIP and K/BB ratio.

I Would like to see Lester attack the zone tonight, since the Sox will be hitting the road after this game. He needs to go deep in this game to spare the bullpen.

Pitching stats for this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Guthrie	14	3	6	0	90	84	34	11	24	59	3.40	1.20	6.43
Lester	14	4	3	1	82.33	77	32	7	36	54	3.50	1.37	5.88

Guthrie is killing lester in all of the stats. I am really not comfortable with this match up except that it is in Fenway. Of course that only easing the mind a little bit since it is obvious that Guthrie has had some bad luck. Only 3 wins, yet he has had 11 quality starts this year.

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