Red Sox 2008 Game 77 Recap

Final

Press Pass ✠ Box Score ✠ Play - by - Play ✠ Game Recap

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
St. Louis	4	4	0	0	0	0	1	0	0		9	12	0
Boston	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0		3	6	0

W: M. Boggs (2-0) L: D. Matsuzaka (8-1)
HR ➢ StL: A. Miles (1), T. Glaus (10), R. Ankiel (12) Bos: J.D. Drew (14)

☼ Sun - C. Smith - made his debut by going 4 innings of 3 hit ball (HR by Glaus the big hit), other than that, well not much.

☁ Cloud - D. Matsuzaka - 12 batters faced, only three retired. Left with bases loaded 0 outs in the second, enuff said.

Game thoughts!

Daisuke, needless to say, stunk up the joint. A five-pitch lead off walk, a home run, a single, a fly out, a single, a ground out, a single, a double and then a K. Nine batters faced, four runs scored and two men stranded and that was just the first inning. This was the shortest outing in Matsuzaka's brief baseball career.

Normally, in a game at Fenway if the Sox are trailing by four runs it is no big deal, but when you follow that four run first inning with the Sox blowing a lead off double by Ellsbury, you start to worry. Throw in the whole first time ever this pitcher (who was making his third career start) has faced the Sox then you start to worry.

When the second inning sees the Sox pitcher once again walking the lead off batter, followed by a single then another walk. Well, now its "are you fragging kidding me time?” Not a great game by any stretch of the imagination. Just simply, completely a Fugly game.

Factoid - Troy Glaus before today’s game has a career .311 average with a .420 OBA and .561 Slugging % at Fenway. Rest assured after today's 2 for 4 with a grand slam, those numbers will only go up.

♊ - Then don't strain your brain trying. Might break something.

Red Sox 2008 Game 77 Preview

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M. Boggs		1-0, 5.56		D. Matsuzaka		8-0, 2.53
Cardinals		43-32		Red Sox		46-30

Saturday, June 21      Fenway Park  ✠ 3:55 p.m. ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	46	30	-	6-4	10	9	45	31
Tampa Bay	43	30	1.5	6-4	12	8	40	33
New York	40	34	5.0	8-2	13	9	39	35
Baltimore	38	34	6.0	7-3	17	10	35	37
Toronto	35	40	10.5	2-8	11	19	39	36

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Cardinals: In his first big league start, Boggs acquitted himself nicely, but in game No. 2 it was a bit rocky. Against a potent offense in its friendly home park, Boggs will be doing well if he simply keeps his team in the ballgame.

Red Sox: The right-hander makes his first start since May 27 after suffering a mild strain of his rotator cuff. Matsuzaka did make a rehab outing for Triple-A Pawtucket on Monday, allowing three hits and two runs over five innings. He walked one and struck out five. Before the injury, Matsuzaka was off to a terrific start. Over 64 innings, he allowed just 45 hits while striking out 55. In Matsuzaka's first 43 Major League starts, he is 23-12 with a 3.95 ERA. This will be his first career appearance against the Cardinals.

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

No batters etc since neither pitcher has faced each other's teams. After last nights debacle of errors, stranding runners, etc. Would be nice to see this team come out swinging the bats well.

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

Red Sox 2008 Game 73 Preview

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B. Colon		4-1, 3.41		C. Hamels		6-4, 3.27
Red Sox		44-28		Phillies		41-30

Monday, June 16      Citizens Bank 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	44	28	-	7-3	10	8	43	29
Tampa Bay	40	29	2.5	5-5	10	7	37	32
New York	37	33	6.0	7-3	12	9	36	34
Baltimore	34	34	8.0	6-4	15	10	32	36
Toronto	35	36	8.5	3-7	11	16	38	33

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Red Sox: The big righty has been one of the best early-season stories in baseball. The man who was unemployed in February has won four of his first five starts for the Red Sox. Colon has given up three earned runs or fewer in four of his five outings. Colon has made four starts in his career against the Phillies, going 1-1 with a 4.00 ERA. This will be his first start at Citizens Bank Park.

Phillies: Hamels stuck out 13 on Wednesday against Florida, his highest total of 2008. For the second consecutive start, the 24-year-old lefty looked firmly in command, walking only one and giving up two earned runs on three hits over eight innings in earning a no-decision. Hamels has never faced the Red Sox during his first three seasons in the Majors, meaning he'll have to contend with some of baseball's most explosive hitters -- such as Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz -- for the first time.

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

The only Red Sox hitter who has faced Hamels is shortstop Julio Lugo, who is 2-for-3 with two home runs against him.

A batter to watch will be J.D. Drew, who refused to sign with the Phillies in 1997. In 24 games (23 starts) at Philadelphia he is batting .300 / .417 / .533 /.950 (ba/obp/slg/OPS). You could say he is comfortable in the batters box in Philadelphia.

Red Sox are 10-2 versus left handers this year.

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Colon	4	1	1	0	27	26	12	1	11	14	4.00	1.37	6.75
Hamels	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---

Colon has faced the Phillies four times with two of those starts being quality starts. Surprisingly, all four starts were in 2002 and none of them was in Philadelphia. He needs to just keep on doing what he has been doing this year, be effecient and throw strikes.

Hamels has never faced the Sox but with the Sox being 10-2 versus left handed pitchers this year I really like our chances. Of course there is that 1st start struggles, but hey if Lugo is 2 for 3 with 2 home runs, how much stock should we put in that scenario?

Pitching Comparisions this year

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Colon	5	4	1	0	29	31	11	2	7	22	3.41	1.31	5.80
Hamels	14	6	4	2	99	74	36	11	27	86	3.27	1.02	7.07

Just like Volquez on Saturday, the Sox are facing another tough pitcher, but like I said before, the Sox are 10-2 versus left handers this year. I really like our chances versus this guy, even with out Manny and big Papi.

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

Red Sox 2008 Game 40 Recap

Final

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Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Boston	0	0	1	3	0	0	2	0	2		8	15	1
Minnesota	0	5	2	1	0	0	1	0	X		9	10	1

W: N. Blackburn (3-2) L: T. Wakefield (3-2) S: J. Nathan (12)
HR ➢ Bos: C. Crisp (2) Min: C. Monroe (2) (4), A. Everett (1)

☼ Sun - Craig Monroe - 2 home runs and 4 RBI's. Which gives him 4 and 13 for the season.
☁ Cloud - Wakefield - By far Wakefield's worst outing at the HHH Metrodome. Brutal, absolutely brutal.

Game thoughts!

Absolutely brutal outing by Timmy. 2 2/3 IP with 6 ER's. This outing was so horrible that it raised his ERA in the dome by .59 and lowered his ip/g by 1/3 of an inning. Going into the game Timmy was 7-3 in 11 games at the dome and had averaged 7 innings plus per win. 8 of his 11 starts had been quality starts, so with that history I liked our chances going into this game.

Still even with the troubles of our starting pitching the Sox made this a game as they kept on putting up runs. 5-0 after the 2nd, was followed by 7-1 after 3, then 8-4 after 4, then 9-6 after 7 and the tying run was on 2nd when Manny made the final out in the 9th. This team is a battling team and no lead is completely safe until the last out is made.

Factoid -
Wakefield's numbers in his 7 wins at HHH - 2.16 ERA, 6.48 k's/9, 2.88 BB's/9, 0.36 Hr's/9, 2.25 k's/bb's and a 1.00 WHIP
Wakefield's numbers in his 4 l's at HHH - 11.42 ERA, 6.75 k's/9, 4.16 BB's/9, 3.12 Hr's/9, 1.63 k's/bb's and a 2.02 WHIP

Those numbers sum up why we love Knuckleball pitchers and why we loath them. When they are good they are borderline greatness. When they are bad though, its open up the windows and let the stink out of the building.

♊ - Morbid and creepifing I can handle as long as we do it quiet like.

Red Sox 2008 Game 39 Preview

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D. Matsuzaka		5-0, 2.43		G. Perkins		0-0, --- (first career start)
Red Sox		23 - 15		Twins		18 - 16

Saturday, May 10  Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome  ✠ 7:10 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	23	15	-	7-3	7	4	22	16
Tampa Bay	19	16	2.5	5-5	3	4	19	16
Baltimore	18	18	4.0	3-7	8	5	17	19
New York	18	19	4.5	4-6	4	4	19	18
Toronto	17	20	5.5	6-4	4	9	19	18

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Red Sox: Matsuzaka did not have his best control in his last start. He allowed just two hits and one earned run in five innings, but he set a new career high with eight walks. He worked out of four two-on jams, disallowing Detroit to put a runner on third base. Matsuzaka has only faced Minnesota once in his short MLB career, but he gave up two runs on six hits in eight innings.

Twins: Following the move to put Scott Baker on the disabled list with a strained right groin muscle, the Twins called up Perkins to fill Baker'’s rotation spot. The left-hander struggled early this season with Triple-A Rochester but has settled in recently, going 2-1 with a 2.97 ERA in seven appearances (six starts). Perkins pitched only 28 2/3 innings in the Majors last season after being sidelined with a muscle strain near his left shoulder. The time he’ has spent with the Twins has also been in a relief role; this will be his first career start for Minnesota.

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

Sox Batting vs Pettitte

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Ellsbury	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
D. Pedroia	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
D. Ortiz	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500
M. Ramirez	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
J. D. Drew	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
M. Lowell	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000
J. Varitek	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500
K. Youkilis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
J. Lugo	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	8	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	.250

Not a lot of history here vs Perkins. In fact overall the team has only had 13 plate appearances vs Perkins. Not sure what to think about their chances, but at least the players have seen him before. Still it is the first time he has started at the major league level.

Pitching Comparisions Career

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Matsuzaka	1	1	0	0	8	6	2	1	2	8	2.25	1.00	8.0
Perkins	0	0	0	0	4 2/3	2	0	0	1	2	0.00	.64	0.0

Daisuke has one start, last year on 9/28/2008 vs the Twins. It was a very good outing and the Twins didn't score until the 7th inning. Can he repeat that today? I say, Daisuke makes the Twins look silly today!!!


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

Red Sox 07 Game 116

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J. Beckett		14-5, 3.31		G. Olson		1-0, 3.86
Red Sox		69-46		Orioles		53-61

Saturday, August 10      Oriole Park at Camden Yards  ✠ 3:55 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	1 R W	1 R L	X W	X L
Boston	69	46	-	5-5	17	17	70	45
New York	64	51	5.0	8-2	10	15	70	45
Toronto	58	56	10.5	6-4	20	19	61	53
Baltimore	53	61	15.5	4-6	10	22	57	57
Tampa	44	71	25.0	4-6	13	12	44	71

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Red Sox: Beckett worked 6 2/3 innings, allowing one run on eight hits, as he picked up his 14th win of the season Sunday in Seattle. The Boston right-hander walked two and struck out nine as he joined Cleveland's C.C Sabathia, Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs and the Angels' John Lackey as the top winners in the Major Leagues. Beckett had lost three of his previous four starts before picking up the victory against the Mariners.

Orioles: Brian Burres moved back into the bullpen earlier in the week and will likely cede his rotation slot to Olson, who acquitted himself well in two starts earlier this season. The southpaw has gone 9-7 with a 3.16 ERA at Triple-A Norfolk, and Baltimore would like to re-evaluate him and see if he's ready to leap forward and take a rotation slot next season.

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

Hitting History vs Orioles

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
D. Pedroia	34	7	1	0	0	4	6	3	.206
K. Youkilis	125	38	13	0	3	17	23	26	.302
D. Ortiz	367	97	22	2	20	73	73	74	.264
M. Ramirez	632	199	33	1	31	142	113	136	.315
J.D. Drew	35	10	1	0	1	3	9	3	.286
M. Lowell	127	37	10	1	4	27	15	10	.291
J. Varitek	380	90	23	0	12	57	58	99	.237
C. Crisp	87	23	2	1	1	13	16	10	.264
J. Lugo	230	64	8	1	5	19	26	25	.278
Totals	2018	565	113	6	77	355	339	386	.280

The Sox have never faced Olson, so I put up their career averages vs the Orioles. Not bad for this team. The problem is they have never faced Olson, and he is a lefty. Well, you know how that can go sometimes! Still, even after a tough loss last night, I am still hopeful!

Historical Pitching Lines (Beckett vs Orioles)

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Beckett	4	2	1	0	27	21	10	2	4	22	3.33	.93	6.75

Beckett has pitched very well vs the Orioles. This will be his third start vs Baltimore this year. He is 0-1 in 2007 having went only 4 innings in the Mothers day miracle and having lost his last start vs this team on 7/31/2007. That was the game he started vs Bedard and gave up five runs in eight innings pitched. Still this is Josh "freaking" Beckett. Look for a stopper like appearance from him today!

Olson has never faced the Sox, in fact he has only two major league starts both against the White Sox. Total for those games are 9 1/3 innings with 11 hits, 4 earned runs for a 3.86 ERA and a 2.04 WHIP in an average of 4 2/3 innings per start.

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

Red Sox 07 Game 101 Recap

Final

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Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Boston	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	4	1
Cleveland	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0		1	4	0

W: F. Carmona (13-4) L: J. Beckett (13-4) S: J. Borowski
HR ➢ Cle: F. Gutierrez (6)

☼ Sun - Gutierrez - the only run came on his home run
☁ Cloud - Varitek, Being, Lugo, and any one else that was thrown out on the bases.

Game thoughts!

A well pitched game by both starters that lived up to the hype. Unfortunately, the only threat the Indians were able to generate came on Guiterrez's third inning home run. What can you say, both pitchers are now 13-4 and their ERA's are almost identical (3.27 for Beckett, 3.31 for Carmona). That is pitching at its best.

Lugo watch - cs in the eighth, the only thing he did all game.

Drew watch - 0 for 3 (sharp line out to third, two ground outs), now batting .247.

Wtf was Manny doing in the sixth? He should have been there to signal Coco at home. MBM of course, because he wasn't even in the freaking picture. Oh well another day another 1 run loss.

6/1 - Sox were 8-3 in 1 run games, 9-4 vs lefties, 12.5 up on the MFY and 36-17 overall. 7/26 - 15-16 in 1 run games, 15-14 vs lefties, 6.5 up on MFY and 61-40 overall. That is not a good trend.

Later - all else fails get a bigger hammer.

Red Sox 07 Game 101

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J. Beckett		13-3, 3.41		Fausto Carmona		12-4, 3.52
Red Sox		61-39		Indians		58-42

Wednesday, July 25    Jacobs Field ♊  7:05 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	61	39	-	6-4	61	39
New York	53	46	7.5	8-2	60	39
Toronto	50	50	11.0	6-4	52	48
Baltimore	45	53	15.0	7-3	49	49
Tampa	38	61	22.5	3-7	37	62

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Red Sox: Beckett set down every batter he faced after giving up a one-out, third-inning home run to Chicago's Jim Thome. All told, he allowed three earned runs and four hits and struck out 10 batters, his first 10-plus strikeout game since April 10, 2005, when he was a member of the Marlins. With the victory, Beckett joined C.C. Sabathia atop the American League wins leaderboard.

Indians: Carmona was brilliant Friday in Texas, pitching a three-hit shutout for eight innings before exiting after 105 pitches. In four July starts, Carmona is 4-0 with a 2.05 ERA. He will be facing Boston for the first time this season and the first time in his career as a starter. In two relief appearances against the Red Sox last season, Carmona blew two save chances and sustained two losses by allowing five earned runs over one inning of work.

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

Sox Batting vs Carmona

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
C. Crisp	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
D. Pedroia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
D. Ortiz	1	1	0	0	1	3	0	0	1.000
M. Ramirez	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
K. Youkilis	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	.000
M. Lowell	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
J. Varitek	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
J.D. Drew	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
J. Lugo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	2	1	0	0	1	3	2	1	.500

Not a lot of history here as the Sox only faced Fausto a couple of times, one was a walk off by Loretta (his second) when he crushed a double off the wall last year on 8/2. The other game was when David hit his home run vs this kid on 7/31 of last year.

Of course that was after the Indians had traded their closer to the Braves and were looking at Carmona as the possible closer. Needless to say that experiment ended shortly after those fiasco's and that is why he is in the starting rotation.

Pitching Comparisons

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Beckett	3	1	2	0	16 2/3	20	17	6	6	16	9.18	1.56	5.56
Carmona	0	0	2	0	1	3	5	1	2	2	45.00	5.0	-

Like I said earlier Fausto only faced the Sox those two games and lost both of them on walk offs as a reliever. The good news, the Sox have seen him as a closer, the bad news is that he is now a starter and is making his first start vs the Sox. That is usually not good.

Beckett struggled against Cleveland last year (on 4/27 and 8/3), going 0-2 in 9 2/3. All of the home runs were given up in those two games (3 each) and the first game he walked 5. Needless to say he turned it around this year as he went 7 innings of 3 hit ball and only allowed 2 earned runs on 5/29.

Tonight is a night where he can really show that some of his bad starts last year were only due to unfamiliarity with the league. Look for that to hold tonight as we get another nail biter!
Later - When all else fails, get a bigger hammer!

Red Sox 07 Game 97

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J. Danks		6-6, 4.81		K. Gabbard		3-0, 3.38
Chicago White Sox		43-52		Red Sox		57-39

Saturday, July 21    Fenway Park | 3:55 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	57	39	-	4-6	58	38
New York	48	46	8.0	7-3	54	40
Toronto	46	50	11.0	4-6	48	48
Baltimore	43	52	13.5	6-4	47	48
Tampa	38	57	18.5	4-6	38	57

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White Sox: The rookie southpaw evened his record Monday at Jacobs Field, thanks to 11 runs from his offense. Danks threw 102 pitches over 5 2/3 innings, allowing five runs on eight hits, striking out four and walking one. He was also touched up for home runs by Victor Martinez and Franklin Gutierrez, giving him a team-high 18 allowed this season. Danks has never faced the Red Sox, but he has a 3-3 record on the road.

Red Sox: On Monday night at Fenway, Gabbard served notice that he could be in Boston for the long haul. For nine sparkling innings, he silenced an underrated Kansas City offense, allowing no runs on three hits and striking out eight. The performance wowed a packed Fenway house and had coaches and teammates giddy after witnessing his two-hour, 18-minute clinic. Gabbard's breakout, on the heels of a strong performance in Detroit before the All-Star break, has set up an interesting rotational dilemma with Curt Schilling's impending return from injury.

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

Sox Batting vs Danks.

The Sox have never faced Danks, another one of those games where you hope the pitcher really struggles, so that you are in the drivers seat early.

Pitching Comparisions (last 5 games overall).

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Danks	5	3	0	0	29	31	19	6	8	23	5.90	1.34	5.80
Gabbard	5	3	0	1	29 1/3	21	11	2	14	25	3.38	1.19	5.87

Overall, Danks has done better in his last 10 games as he has a 5.37 ERA with a 4-2 record. His WHIP and IP / GS is worse though as he has a 1.62 WHIP in those games and only averaged 5.37 innings per start.

Still he is a lefty and the Sox have been struggling against the lefties since June 1st. Since that date they are 4-10 against left handed pitchers. That is not a good trend.

Danks has a medium fastball, low 90's but has an above average curve ball. In his last five starts he has only 1 quality start and last 10 starts only 2.

Gabbard has done well in his last two starts and has faced the White Sox once, last September 5, in Chicago. That was a well pitched game as he went 7 innings giving up 3 hits, k'ing 6 and walking only 2. That was the first win of his career and he had to be good, since the Sox were only able to score only one run vs Vasquez. This will be his tenth start in the majors.

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

Red Sox 07 Game 93

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L. Nunez		0-0, ---		T. Wakefield		10-8, 4.47
Kansas City		39-53		Red Sox		56-36

Tuesday, July 17    Fenway Park | 7:05 PM ET

American League

East	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	56	36	-	5-5	56	36
New York	46	44	9.0	7-3	52	38
Toronto	45	47	11.0	5-5	47	45
Baltimore	41	51	15.0	5-5	45	47
Tampa	35	56	20.5	2-8	34	57

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Royals: Nunez was summoned from Triple-A Omaha to take sore-backed John Thomson's spot in the rotation. A former reliever, Nunez appeared in 48 games for the Royals in 2005-06 with a 3-2 record and 6.99 ERA. His left wrist was broken by a line drive in Spring Training; he worked his way back this season through Wichita and Omaha as a starter. In his last start, he pitched five shutout innings against Round Rock. Nunez works his fastball in the 90-92-mph range and also throws a slider and a changeup.

Red Sox: Wakefield was his usual self in his last start, winning his 10th game against the Blue Jays with a six-inning nine-hit effort. Fifteen years of knuckleball-heavy diets have done little to prepare hitters for subsequent at-bats against Boston's ageless wonder, who has a 3.66 ERA in 23 career appearances against Kansas City. "Wakey keeps guys off balance," Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew said. "He's definitely a guy that you don't want to face."

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

Sox Batting vs Nunez

Player	AB	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J.D. Drew	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000
D. Pedroia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000
D. Ortiz	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.000
M. Ramirez	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000
K. Youkilis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000
M. Lowell	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000
C. Crisp	3	2	1	0	0	2	0	0	.667
D. Mirabelli	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000
J. Lugo	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000
Totals	4	3	1	0	0	2	1	0	.750

There are times when I really wish that Varitek would catch Wakefield. This is one of those times as Varitek is 1 for 2 against Nunez, with that one hit being a grand slam on a 2-0 pitch on 8/4/2005. That home run made a winner of Clement and Schilling got the save.

Still, though in a limited sample the Sox have a decent record against this guy. Even though this will be his first start against the Sox, he has been seen by this team. That is always a plus.

Pitching Comparisions

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	IP/GS
Nunez	0	0	1	0	1 1/3	4	5	1	3	0	33.75	5.25	0.00
Wakefield (all)	16	10	5	0	130 1/3	117	53	17	44	85	3.66	1.24	6.90
Wakefield (GS)	16	9	5	0	110 1/3	96	48	15	38	67	3.92	1.21	6.90

This is another team that Wakefield has had very good success against. Nine out of his sixteen starts have been quality starts. Anytime you average almost 7 innings in your starts and have a 1.21 WHIP is very good. Look for another type of these starts today.

Chow!

Note - 500th post

Red Sox 07 game 92 Recap

Recap || Box|| Play by Play

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Kansas City	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	3	2
Boston	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	0	X		4	7	0

W: Gabbard (3-0) L: Bannister (5-6)
HR ► BOS: M. Ramirez (13), D. Ortiz (16), D. Pedroia (4)

► Hero - Gabbard - 9 innings 3 hits
► Goat - Bannister - 3 home runs given up

Idle thoughts!

Gabbard became the first rookie to pitch a shutout since Paul Quantrill in 1993. That will make any fans day. This was the 8th shutout for this team this year. The others were on 4/14 (W 8-0 ), 5/14 (W 2-0), 5/10 (W 8-0), 6/7 (W 1-0), 6/16 (W 1-0), 6/19 (W 4-0), and 6/20 (W 11-0). Thats one shutout every 11+ games.

Manny and Ortiz's power outages are over. Couldn't happen at a better time in my opinion. As they along with Pedroia provided all the offense this team needed.

Another game in which the first four batters provided most of the hits. In this game Drew, Pedroia, Ortiz and Manny went 5 for 16 and provided all of the runs. Lugo and Lowell had the other two hits.

Pedroia continues to show he has better range than Loretta with his good glove work in the fifth preserving the shutout. Not bad for a rookie.

The fifth inning was the only time that Kason really faced any trouble as he faced only 12 batters in the first four innings (getting double play started by Pedroia). In fact he had only given up the one hit until the fifth. After the fifth he started double plays in the seventh and the eighth and faced the minimum batters in the last four innings. An A+ game for the rookie.

A couple of more starts where he goes at least six innings and I think he will have cemented his place in this rotation. I look for more to come from this young lefty.

Chow!

Red Sox 07 Game 91 Recap

Final

Press Pass l Box Score l Play-By-Play l Recap

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Toronto	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		2	8	0
Boston	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0		1	11	1

W: Litsch (2-3) L: Beckett (12-3) S: Accardo (13)

► Hero - The wind - you didn't know how any balls were going to fall
► Goat - The wind - I'm not giving this to Beckett when he goes out and pitches 8 innings of 2 run ball.

Game thoughts!

A freaking pitchers duel that was decided by three batters in the second. The only time that Beckett even came close to struggling. After 8 innings his ERA is now 3.35.

Two for nine with RISP and a player thrown out at the plate to end the fourth leads to this loss. The biggest failure came in the third when Lugo and Crisp started off the inning with singles. With Cora at the plate he tried to lay down a bunt towards third that Litsch was able to grab and get Lugo at third. Papi then swung at the next pitch and hit into a 1-6-3 double play.

With the following numbers - Varitek vs Accardo - 1 for 1, Drew vs Accardo - 0 for 2, Pena vs Accardo - 2 for 5. Why was Hinske batting in the bottom of the ninth? Its even more perplexing when you see that left handed batters were 8 for 64 vs Accardo this season.

Sox have lost 14 games decided by 1 run. Jays are 3 - 0 in those games vs the Sox.

Freaking Jays.

Chow!