| 08 May 2009
The Rays are hot. They've won 6 of their last 8 including 3 of 4 against the Sox and a 20-game sweep of the Yankees.
They were 8-14 before they wiped the floor with us in The Trop and that series appears to have snapped them out their funk.
Now they're here in Boston and we've got a rematch from last series that will include all the big guns. Brad Penny faces "Big Lame James" tonight... then Lester squares off with Sox-killer Scott Kazmir... and then we wrap thing us with a bunch of spitting and yelling with Beckett and Garza sharing the rubber.
It's only May 8th, but this series is important, maybe even more so for the Red Sox.
The Al East is a riddle right now with the Blue Jays in first and the Yankees floundering, but come September, the Red Sox and Rays are still expected to be duking it out for a playoff spot. With six games already in the books, the Rays lead the head-to-head series 5-2 and with the next match-up not scheduled until August, a sweep this weekend would lock things up at 5-5 and give the Sox a chance to put some distance between them and the Rays.
But the Sox will have their work cut out for them. Kevin Youkilis is not ready to return to action and Jacoby Ellsbury and David Ortiz are still nursing injuries. That means Jeff Bailey and Rocco Baldelli could play crucial roles this weekend.
But it all starts with Brad Penny tonight. Penny had his best outing of 2009, holding the Rays to 3 runs over 6 innings while fanning 8 in his last start. But Carl Crawford ran wild on Penny, thanks to his slow motion to the plate. The key to tonight's game could be keeping Crawford off the bases...
Flip-side, the Sox will be battling Shields, who held them to 2 runs over 7 innings in his last start. Not bad, but here's a secret: Shields is 0-4 with a 9.56 ERA and a .365 BAA in four career starts at Fenway Park.
Bottom Line: The scales appear to be tipped in the Rays' favor right now... but I've got a hunch that a certain scrappy second baseman is going to have a big game tonight.
Okay, it's not so much a hunch as it is a stat line that looks like this: 7 for 16 (.438) with a homer in his career against Shields and a .340 career BA at Fenway Park.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
