| 15 April 2009
This will be a quick one today...
Once again the Red Sox will be looking to Tim Wakefield to eat some innings after losing in 12 innings last night. Francona smartly pulled Jonathan Papelbon after one inning (16 pitches) last night, but Masterson (4.0 IP), Ramirez (1.1), Delcarmen (1.2), Okajima (2.0) and Lopez (3 straight games) are all likely to be unavailable today.
That means Wake is going to have to knuckle his way through at least 7 innings in the hopes that Saito (off yesterday) and Papelbon can close out the game. Thankfully, that is what "Timmy's do the bestest." Wake gave the Sox 7 or more innings in 13 starts last year, so, unless he implodes like Dice-K did last night, he should be able to get into the 6th today.
Wakefield is 9-6 with a 4.17 ERA in 26 career starts against Oakland, but he lost both starts against the A's in 2008, posting a 6.35 ERA on 12 hits and 7 walks in 11+ innings. In his first start of 2009, Wake allowed 3 runs on 6 hits and 5 walks in a 3-6 loss to the Angels... let's hope the knuckle ball is dancing better today.
The A's will counter with pitching phenom Brett Anderson. Joining Oakland's rotation after making only six previous starts above Single-A, Anderson (0-1, 7.50) gave up five runs in six innings of a 5-4 loss to Seattle, yielding all the runs in the second inning as the Mariners strung together five hits.
"It looked worse than it was, but I still have to eliminate the big inning," Anderson said. "It got a little out of hand."
Notes: Jason Giambi it hitting just .143 against Wake, but he does have 4 homers in 92 at-bats ... Mark Ellis is 8 for 20 (.400) against Wakefield ... Rocco Baldelli could see action today due to the lefty starter - he's a career .296 hitter against southpaws and 3 for 10 against lefties in 2009 ... Youk (.692), Drew (.375) and Bay (.364) are all hitting lefties well, so it may be Ellsbury (.297 career BA vs LH) that sits this one out today... but he didn't play on Monday, so it could be Drew instead (.261 vs LH).
The weather forcast calls for more wind today (10-15 MPH gusts) but it will be warmer than it was last night - around 60 degrees.
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