| 10 August 2009
The Sox are home for a 4-game set with the Tigers and things can't get much worse for our local nine... or can they.
If you read this blog, you know I'm not a fan of Brad Penny, but he's going to be out No. 3 until somebody steps up and replaces him.
That means Penny... he of the 7.25 ERA in his last four starts... will try and go toe-to-toe with All-Star Edwin Jackson tonight. Jackson came to Detroit from Tampa and has plenty of experience against the Sox, but he's never won at Fenway - posting a 7.15 ERA in 5 career starts. But all of thise numbers come from his time in Tampa... now he's got 2.62 ERA and seems to have found his groove. Jackson keeps holds opponents to 2 or 3 runs almost start and with the Sox hitting (or not hitting) like they are, I wouldn't be surprised if the final score was 5 to negative 2 tonight.
The bullpen is still pretty beat up, so we need Penny to give us 6+, but he seems incapable of that so look for recent call up Fernando Cabrera to eat some innings... and look for Tito to give Daniel Bard a night off to clear his head. I miss Justin Masterson more and more each day...
Game Notes: Placido Polanco is the only Tiger with any real experience against penny and he's hitting .364 against him... but Polanco is a .304 career hitter, so that's not surprising. Miquel Cabrera is the most dangerous Tiger, now tha Magglio is in an Ortiz like rut, and he's 4 for 11 with 3 ding dongs against Penny. The rest of the Tigers don't hit for average, but Inge and Ganderson have 20+ homers this year...
The stats will tell you that Jason Bay (3-8, 1 HR) and David Ortiz (6-14, HR, 6 RBI) should be able to hit Jackson, but who know what to expect from our big guns right now. Pedroia (.311) , Lowell (.304) and Youk (.301) all enjoy therer time at home and V-Mart is 3 for 7 with a homer and 4 RBI at Fenwya this year, so maybe the Fens will wake these boys up.
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