RED SOX VS. MATT GARZA

Last night’s 8-4 win over the Rays seemingly was a big one for the Red Sox in terms of Wild Card supremacy. Jon Lester broke the record for single-season strikeouts by a lefthander and the bats came alive, scoring the eight-pack of runs.

The offensive exploits last night came in large part to home runs from J.D. Drew, Kevin Youkilis, and Jason Bay. Bay hit his 30th dinger in the game making this season the fourth that he’s reached that plateau in his seven-year-career.

The Boston bats will face a hurler that they have quite a bit of familiarity with in Matt Garza. Tonight’s start is his fourth this season against the Red Sox.

Here’s how the Red Sox hitters have fared against Garza in his career:

Jacoby Ellsbury (28 plate appearances) .346 BA/.396 OBP/.346 SLG 

Dustin Pedroia (27) .192/.222/.346

David Ortiz (23) .111/.304/.444 (2 HR. 3RBI, 9 K, 5 BB)

Kevin Youkilis (22) .222/.364/.444

Mike Lowell (20) .150/.150/.300

J.D. Drew (19) .125/.211/.375 (HR, 3 RBI)

Victor Martinez (15) .231/.267/.308

Jason Varitek (14) .154/.214/.231

Joey Gathright (12) .091/.091/.091

Jason Bay (9) .222/.222/.556 (3B, RBI)

Nick Green (6) .400/.500/.400

Brian Anderson (5) .400/.400/.400

Casey Kotchman (3) .500/.667/.500

Alex Gonzalez (2) .000/.000/.000

George Kottaras (2) .000/.000/.000

Garza has not faced Rocco Baldelli and Chris Woodward.

RAYS VS. JOSH BECKETT

After a record-breaking performance from Jon Lester last night, the Red Sox give the ball to their ace, Josh Beckett. Beckett’s last start was a lackluster one against the Toronto Blue Jays, as he gave up five runs, five hits and five walks on Friday night. The five walks were a season-high for Beckett.

Home runs have seemingly come cheaper by the dozen for Beckett, as he’s served up 12 of them in his last four outings. The 2003 World Series MVP will take the hill against a lineup he’s faced a ton over the last few years.

Here’s how the Rays bats have fared against Beckett in the past:

Pat Burrell (49) .205/.286/.205 (3 RBI, 11 K)

Akinori Iwamura (33) .310/.394/.410

Carl Crawford (32) .333/.344./.400

Jason Bartlett (26) ..292/.308/.375

Dioner Navarro  (26) 120/.154/.120

Carlos Pena (25) .136/.240/.318 (HR, 3 BB, 13 K)

Evan Longoria (21) .250/.286/.500 (2 2B, HR, 5 RBI)

Gabe Gross (20) .059/.200/.235

B.J. Upton (18) .333/.333/.500

Gregg Zaun (15) .133/.133/.267

Willy Aybar (6) .667/.667/1.167 (2B, 3B)

Fernando Perez (3) .000/.000/.000

Shawn Riggans (3) .000/.000/.000

Ben Zobrist (3) .000/.333/.000

Beckett has yet to face Gabe Kapler

Red Sox manager Terry Francona joined the Dale and Holley show today. They talked to the Red Sox skipper about Jacoby Ellsbury’s defensive wizardry last night, the bullpen, and Tim Wakefield’s health.

(Click here for the full audio)

Here are some of the highlights:

On Jonathan Papelbon’s six-out save last night: “We went out in the eighth, we had Oki in the game and had Pap up and Bard. We had a rested bullpen. We had Bard up just in case something happened quickly…Each hit seemed to be hit a little softer. I didn’t want to bring Bard into a bases-loaded situation. (Papelbon) can get out of this and if this taxes him we’ll bring in someone else.”

On the depth of the bullpen: “You want the best pitchers to pitch in the big situations. You can’t warm up your closer in like the sixth inning. That’s where having a deep bullpen works. A kid like Bard is every bit as good. Wagner gives us a power arm from the left. Delcarmen and Saito can get lefties out, too.”

On the new defensive statistical rankings, which sometimes portray Ellsbury as below averge: “That’s an interesting concept, That’s an evolving part of the game. It’s hard to have it perfect. Fenway’s infield is so much slower than a Texas, Minnesota or here [Tampa]. What we’re trying to do is not have your eyes decieve you. I think Jake’s done a great job.”

On the last-minute adjustments Ellsbury made before that play: “It’s huge. Those are things that go unnoticed. There’s a lot of thought that goes into it. Coco was as good as you could be with that. If (Ellsbury) was anywhere but where he was then that ball goes into the gap as a triple.”

On the defensive set-up that afforded that Ellsbury web gem: “It’s not a no-doubles. We have a couple different versions of that. We have one that’s a little deeper. I thought Jacoby made a great play. He doesn’t go on that play with commitement, he doesn’t make that play.”

On the addition of Billy Wagner: “It gives us that second lefty where we don’t have to get Oki up. This guy’s coming off of Tommy John surgery. We’ll just pick spots. You don’t have to match him up against guys because he’s been a closer for so long.”

On whether it was surprising that Wagner was available in a waiver deal: “Not really. I think those types of moves become available when teams fall out of contention. They change their direction.”

On that decision for the six-out save: “We know what we want to do. We did something we weren’t thrilled about. But you put your team in the best position possible. For the most part we think it through. Certainly we’re not perfect. John Farrell and I talk a lot and we know what we want to do.”

On the recent struggles of Josh Beckett and Carlos Pena’s power potential: “Sometimes when JB’s struggling he’s firm. Sometimes he wants to squeeze it. If 95 isn’t good enough, then 98 should be.It straightens out, he leaves it over the middle and it gets whacked. Fortunateley for us, he’s been able to take stock of his last couple outings. He’s had some really good sessions. I’d be totally surprised if he doesn’t have a good outing. I know Beckett will be fine. I hope it will be tonight. It’s nothing physical.

This linuep has something to say about it. I think we’re thinking about putting a shift on Pena. Maybe we’ll be putting someone on one of those catwalks.”

On Matt Garza’s success against the Red Sox: “He stepped it up against us like you couldn’t believe. There’s a way to beat him but then you see what he does to us. We’ve got to figure out how other teams have been able to beat him.”

On the current state of Tampa Bay Rays affairs: “I don’t think there really is (a significant difference from last year). They’re scoring a ton of runs have a good bullpen and they run a ton. Some of it is confidence of comeback wins. There’s a lot of things combined. And our division too. They’re playing us and the Yankees.”

On the odd call from umpire Joe West warning Papelbon for pace of play: “I figured I’m better off letting Joe have his fun. I just zipped it and watched.”

On Paul Byrd beating Halladay on Sunday: “I think there’s always the hope. That was kind of the ultimate. We’ve got a guy who was home a month ago coaching his kid’s team getting a win for us.”

On Tim Wakefield’s health: “He’s minimally better. I guess that’s better than being minimally worse. He rode the bike. We’ll monitor him again today. He can pitch, he just can’t cover first or bend down.”

On Bill Belichick’s reaction to the recent retirement of Patriots lineback Tedy Bruschi and if he’s had any players who were pleasures to coach: “I did watch that and it was very touching, You could see the emotions that Bill had. There’s a lot of players that you feel that way about. It just doesn’t get on television. For some reason those guys don’t make it to the major leagues. You could tell that Tedy was special. People in New England alreay knew it.”

On meeting the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and this year’s opening day first pitch experience: “Wasn’t that something? Because of the job I have, I’ve been afforded some neat oppotunites. I got to watch him throw the first pitch. I got a picture signed by him and a card that was signed by him. I later learned that that’s something he was famous for. In this job, I’m lucky I’ve met some amazing people.”

On tonight’s lineup changes: “We’ve got Youk at 3rd, Victor at first, and Tek catching.”

All it took was a handshake and a promise for one of New England’s most storied partnerships to get its start.

That handshake was between the Lou Perini and Tom Yawkey. In March 1953, both men were the owners of the Braves and Red Sox, Boston’s two baseball franchises.

The promise struck between the two owners forged America’s longest running relationship between a professional sports team and a charity. Since the day the Braves left town 56 years ago, the Jimmy Fund and the Boston Red Sox teamed up for over half-a-century to put an end to cancer.

Today marks the eighth annual WEEI/NESN Radio-Telethon. Throughout the next two days, many heartbreaking and heartwarming stories will be told about some remarkable experiences with the tireless work at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund.

After what has boiled down to a 56-year marriage between a baseball team and a charity, there is bound to be a story or two woven into the fabric of Red Sox Nation.

Read the rest of this entry »

RED SOX HITTERS VS. GAVIN FLOYD

So far this week, the Red Sox have taken the first two of a four-game series against the White Sox. Last night was a true team comeback effort. Jason Bay took Scott Linebrink deep in the eighth-inning to break a 3-3 tie and lead the Red Sox to their second victory in consecutive nights.

Tonight at the Fens, the Red Sox will face Chicago starter Gavin Floyd. Floyd comes into tonight’s game with a 10-8 record and a 3.98 ERA.

This is the Windy City righthander’s third start and fourth appearance against the Red Sox. Floyd is 2-0 lifetime with a 5.74 ERA in those past appearances.

Here’s how the Red Sox bats have fared against Floyd in the past:

Victor Martinez (16 plate appearances) .333 BA/.375 OBP/.400 SLG.

Jason Bay (13) .200/.385/.300

J.D. Drew (10) .286/.500/1.000 (3B, HR, 4 RBI)

Mike Lowell (8) .143/.250/.571 (HR, 3 RBI)

David Ortiz (8) .375/.375/.750 (HR, RBI)

Dustin Pedroia (8) .250/.250/.375

Jacoby Ellsbury (7) .400/.571/.600

Casey Kotchman (4) .333/.500/.333

Alex Gonzalez (2) .000/.000/.000

Nick Green (2) .000/.000/.000

Jason Varitek (2) .000/.000/.000

Kevin Youkilis (2) .500/.500/2.000 (HR, 3 RBI)

Floyd has yet to face Rocco Baldelli.

WHITE SOX VS. TIM WAKEFIELD

With tonight’s start, Tim Wakefield makes his return to the Red Sox rotation for the first time in a month. The All-Star knuckleballer has come back from a related tandem of back and then calf injuries.

Up until his stint on the D.L., this season had been a wildly successful one for Wakefield as he comes into tonight’s game wielding an 11-3 record and 4.31 ERA. Wakefield has a 7-11 record and a 5.11 lifetime ERA against President Barack Obama’s beloved South Siders.

Here’s how the White Sox hitters have fared against Wakefield:

Jim Thome (58) .154/.224/.385

Alexis Rios (47) .222/.255/.489

Jermaine Dye (45) .214/.267/.381

Paul Konerko (34) .214/.324/.464

A.J. Pierzynski (26) .292/.346/.458

Mark Kotsay (18) .222/.222/.556

Scott Podsednik (4) .000/.000/.000

Ramon Castro (3) .333/.333/1.333

Carlos Quentin (3) .667/.667/1.000

Alexei Ramirez (2) .000/.000/.000

Wakefield has yet to face Gordon Beckham, Brent Lillibridge, and Jayson Nix.

After last night’s 6-3 win over the Chicago White Sox, Terry Francona was a guest on today’s Dale and Holley show. Click here for full audio.

Here are some of the highlights:

On stealing bases in Fenway Park: “Regardless of where we’re playing you’re trying to strike a balance with a stolen base, one things that’s changed is that Fenway had a reputation that you can’t throw a lefty. we try to set him free when it’s to our advnatage. That’s more important than just letting him go.”

On record-breaking base stealer Jacoby Ellsbury’s speed and discretion when it comes to swiping bags: “That’s a very mature way to look at it. He could probably walk into third. If he can’t score on a base hit we’re in trouble. There are times when we don’t want to take the bats out of people’s hands.”

On his theory as to why baseball speedsters aren’t stealing bases into the 90′s and triple digits like they used to: “I don’t know. There’s certainly some guys with the speed that can do something like that. As baseball evolves teams are more aware of stolen bases. At what cost are you preventing it? But there are a lot of ways to stop guys from stealing.”

On what Billy Wagner will provide the Red Sox bullpen: “It gives us a second left-hander. What he’s done has been kind of miraculous. It’s easy enough to get Oki up in tough situations. Which is about nine out of every 10 times. It gives us that second lefty with a power arm.”

On his reaction to Papelbon’s comments about the team possibly acquiring Wagner: “I yelled at him, because I thought he was saying some stupid things in the paper. The way he said was never meant to be derogatory. The national media takes it and runs with it. We put out some fires that weren’t there. Which was a waste of my time. Pap is thrilled to have him here.”

On what Papelbon meant with his comments about Wagner this weekend: “He though he was still on the DL, He was not hammering him. He didn’t intend it to come out that way.”

On what moves have and will happen to make room for Wagner on the roster: “We already announced that we designated Gonzalez last night, that gets Wake on tonight, We’ll have to get Wagner on tomorrow.”

On comparing Wagner’s acquistion to that of Eric Gagne two seasons ago: “No, when we got Gagne we were looking for a true setup guy. Getting Billy Wagner, we think our bullpen is pretty good, getting that second lefty, we think it can be even better. He needs to be treated with caution. There’s going to be a lot of ways we can keep our eye on him. I assured him that we won’t hurt him.”

On Victor Martinez’s impact: “I think it’s worked out really really well. We knew what we were getting. He’s a leader, and elite switch hitter. He brings an enormous amount of enthusiasm everyday. That’ll grow here as he grows here.

On the impact Casey Kotchman has had on this team: “We got a guy who’s a pretty good player who’s taken a different role and it’s worked for the better.”

On how the team has reacted to recent lineup shifting: “I think I owe these guys, that there needs to be a reason as to why they’re not playing. I owe that to them. We’ve asked them to be co-operative and put the ballclub first. I’m proud of them.”

On where on the field is Victor Martinez best suited: “I’m not quite sure how to answer that. In Cleveland he was catching about half of the time. When you have a catcher who has the ability to hit .300 and drive in 100 runs, with his bat that makes him more dangerous.”

On Jason Varitek catching Jon Lester and Josh Beckett: “I think the comfort level is fine. We try to put our team in the best position to win. I’m comfortable with Tek catching those guys. It may not be our best offensive lineup, but it’s a lineup I’m comfortable with.”

On Victor Martinez catching knuckleballer Tim Wakefield tonight: “Victor has had fun with it. We took the knuckleball machine on the road trip, The thing from our standpoint is that it’s not April 7th, meaning we don’t have a whole season to have to deal with this. If he has to corral a few balls,  maybe he’ll get four hits at the plate.”

On keeping David Ortiz out of the lineup on Sunday despite having pretty good numbers against CC Sabathia: “We had to make a choice and David does have good numbers against CC. Most of them were way back when CC struggled against lefties. He’s had much more success against lefties. Mikey’s [Lowell]  coming off a game 3-for-4 with a homer. I think Mikey hit a home run. I don’t have a problem with what we did. If they let us play 10 guys I would’ve.”

On keeping players out of the lineup: “I need to have a reason, not for him but for myself. Sometimes you look at numbers, and they tell you something. But you want to make sure you don’t make a mistake.”

On if players are jockeying for playing time: “I don’t think there’s a competition for playing time. We’re going to play who we think will help us win. We are still. Whoever’s playing, we want to win. I think this is going to work and work well.”

On tonight’s lineup changes: “We’ve got Kotchman at first, Drew in right, Victor catching. We’ve got a pretty deep lineup tonight.”

On Tim Wakefield’s first post-DL start tonight: “We’re going to watch his gait. They have guys like Podsednik who will test it (by bunting). We’ll keep a close eye on it.”

RED SOX VS. FREDDY GARCIA

The Red Sox bats have seemingly come back to life after a rousing 12-8 win over the White Sox last night. Boston powered its way past Chicago thanks in large part to home runs from Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew.

Tonight, the Red Sox face another of Chicago’s veteran right-handers in Freddy Garcia. The Venezuelan-born hurler is making his second start of the 2009 season for the Pale Hose.

In his last outing Garcia had a rough go of it against the Royals. Garcia went just 4.1 innings, giving up five earned runs in a 5-4 loss.

Garcia will face a lineup that is much more offensively potent than that of the Kansas City Royals tonight. Here’s how the Red Sox have fared in the past against Garcia:

Victor Martinez (30 plate appearances) .200 BA/.400 OBP/.478 SLG (2 HR, 5 RBI, 6 BB)

Jason Varitek (28) .296/.321/.481 (HR, 4 RBI)

David Ortiz (22) .200/.273/.450 (HR, 3 RBI, 6 SO)

Rocco Baldelli (10) .222/.300/.222

Nick Green (6) .167/.167/.167

Kevin Youkilis (6) .000/.000/.000

Casey Kotchman (5) .000/.200/.000

J.D. Drew (4) .250/.250/.250

Jason Bay (3) .000/.300/.000

Mike Lowell (3) .333/.333/.667 (2B, 2 RBI)

Alex Gonzalez (2) .000/.000/.000

Garcia has yet to face Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia. Garcia is 6-2 with a 4.78 ERA lifetime against the Red Sox and 3-1  for his career at Fenway Park.

WHITE SOX VS. JON LESTER

The Red Sox will counter with lefthander Jon Lester tonight. Lester comes into tonight’s matchup wielding a 10-7 record and a 3.58 ERA.

Lester is currently third in the American League with 181 strikeouts thus far this season. Lester trails only Detroit’s Justin Verlander (211) and Kansas City’s Zach Greinke (182) in that regard.

Lester will be facing a lineup he has very little familiarity with. In just two career starts against President Obama’s favorite ballclub, the southpaw is 1-1 with a 4.15 ERA.

Here’s how the White Sox have fared against Lester in the past:

Alex Rios (25) .300/.440/.429 (2 2B, 3 RBI, 4 SO)

Jermaine Dye (6) .000/.000/.000

Paul Konerko (6) .200/.333/.200

A.J. Pierzynski (4) .333/.250/.333

Carlos Quentin (3) .000/.667/.000

Alexei Ramirez (3) .333/.333/.333

Jim Thome (3) .667/.667/.667 (2 H)

Mark Kotsay (2) 1.000/1.000/1.000 (2 H)

Lester has yet to face Gordon Beckham, Ramon Castro, Brent Lillibridge, Jayson Nix, and Scott Podsednik.

After last night’s fiery fling at the Fens, the Red Sox still have two more games to play against the Detroit Tigers. The Red Sox bats came alive after the fracas as the team received a trio of home runs courtesy of Jason Bay and Mike Lowell last night.

Tonight’s scheduled starter for the Tigers, Armando Galarraga, left last night’s game for the team hotel after feeling a little under the weather. The Tigers hurler will look for a remedy for his 6-10 record and 5.23 ERA against a recently potent Red Sox offense.

Here’s how the Red Sox have fared against Galarraga in the past:

Victor Martinez (13 plate appearances) .111 BA/.308 OBP/.111 SLG.

Casey Kotchman (9) .286/.444/.714 (1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB)

Jacoby Ellsbury (6) .333/.333/.333

Mike Lowell (6) .333/.333/.333

David Ortiz (6) .333/.333./.500

Kevin Youkilis (6) .600/.667/1.800 (2 HR, 3 RBI)

J.D. Drew (5) .200/.200/.800 (1 HR, 2 RBI)

Jason Varitek (5) .000/.200/.000 (BB, 2 K)

Jason Bay (3) .000/.300/.000

Nick Green (3) .333/.333/.667

Dustin Pedroia (3) .333/.333/.333

Galarraga has yet to face Chris Woodward and Josh Reddick.

In additon to the fighting and hitting heroics last night, the Red Sox saw rookie righthander Junichi Tazawa have great success against a very good offensive lineup from the Motor City. Tonight the Red Sox hand the ball over to their ace, Josh Beckett.

Beckett has been close to impossible for opposing hitters to figure out after a rough first month of the season. Despite pitching brilliantly on Friday night, tossing seven innings of shutout baseball, he garnered a no-decision in the 15-inning fiasco in the Bronx.

Here’s how the Tiger hitters have historically fared against Beckett:

Placido Polanco (26) .190/.346/.238

Adam Everett (12) .250/.250/.583 (HR, RBI)

Curtis Granderson (11) .182/.182/.384 (3B, 7 K)

Brandon Inge (9) .333/.333/.556

Magglio Ordonez (9) .143/.333/.143

Gerald Laird (7) .167/.286/.167

Miguel Cabrera (6) .000/.000/.000

Carlos Guillen (6) .200/.333/.200

Clete Thomas (4) .000/.000/.000

Ramon Santiago (3) .333/.333/.333

Marcus Thames (3) .333/.333/.333

Beckett has yet to face Alex Avila and Ryan Raburn.