Red Sox 2008 Game 76 Preview

			@
K. Lohse		8-2, 3.77		T. Wakefield		4-4, 4.19
Cardinals		42-32		Red Sox		46-29

Friday, June 20      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	46	29	-	7-3	10	8	44	31
Tampa Bay	43	29	1.5	6-4	12	7	39	33
New York	40	33	5.0	8-2	13	9	39	34
Baltimore	37	34	7.0	6-4	17	10	34	37
Toronto	35	39	10.5	3-7	11	18	38	36

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From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Cardinals: Lohse keeps throwing strikes and pitching deep into games. Not coincidentally, he keeps winning. He's gone at least six innings in six out of seven starts, with the only exception being a rain-interrupted affair in Washington. Lohse has issued a total of six walks in those seven games. That combination will typically add up to some solid results, and what do you know, Lohse has won five straight starts.

Red Sox: After just missing his fifth win of the season in Cincinnati on Saturday when Jonathan Papelbon allowed a game-tying homer, Wakefield gets another chance to get over the .500 mark. Wakefield has thrown at least seven innings in each of his last starts, including last Saturday when he allowed just four hits and two solo home runs over seven, walking two and striking out six. He is 1-2 with a 5.29 ERA in five career starts against the Cardinals.

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

Red Sox Batting History vs Lohse

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA	OBA	Slug	OPS
J. Ellsbury	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
D. Pedroia	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
J. D. Drew	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
M. Ramirez	8	3	0	0	1	2	3	1	.375	.545	.750	1.295
M. Lowell	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
K. Youkilis	---	---	---	---	----	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
K. Cash	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
C. Crisp	28	8	0	0	0	1	2	2	.286	.333	.286	.619
J. Lugo	7	2	0	0	1	5	0	1	.286	.222	.714	.937
Totals	47	13	0	0	2	8	5	6	.277	.346	.404	.750

Not a lot to see here as there are a lot of players who have no history or very little history against Lohse. Of the bench players (for tonight's game), only Varitek and Casey have faced Lohse and they are a combined 5/15, so not even a lot of history there either.

Manny does own Lohse, but how is his hamstring tonight?

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Lohse	6	0	3	0	27 1/3	35	19	3	16	14	6.26	1.87	5.27
Wakefield	5	1	2	0	32 1/3	36	19	1	19	26	5.29	1.70	6.07

As a starter versus the Cardinals, Wakefield has decent numbers, but nothing outstanding. The ones to watch against Wakefield tonight are Izturis and Encarnacion who have very good numbers against Tim.

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Lohse	15	8	2	0	88 1/3	86	37	5	21	40	3.77	1.21	5.89
Wakefield	14	4	4	0	88	77	41	12	38	59	4.19	1.31	6.29

Lohse is having a very good year, but in some aspects not as good of a year as Wakefield. In June Lohse has gone 19.0 innings with a 2.84 ERA. He does struggle on the road though as he has a 5.04 ERA in 30 1/3 innings and is allowing a .325 BAA. Cue the offense!!!

Wakefield has been great in June, in 21 innings he has a 2.57 ERA but is only 1-0. At home this year Wakefield is 3-1 in 5 starts and has a 3.90 ERA in 32 1/3 innings. He also has a .231 BAA at Fenway. How about some support offense?


♊ - Well, let's hope we get some funny hats too.