| 16 August 2010
Clay Buchholz (13-5, 2.49) takes the mound tomorrow for Game 1 of huge 10-game home-stand. The Red Sox have a chance to close the gap on the Rays in the AL wild card race before they head to Tampa next weekend. Over the next 10 days the Sox will either keep pace or fall out of the running, and it starts with Buchholz and the Halos.
Buchhy is 3-2 with a 5.16 ERA in 5 career starts against LA, but the last time he faced them, on July 26, he held them to 1 run on 5 hits through 7 innings and earned the win. Since then Buchholz has been on fire. He's 3-0 with 1.50 ERA in his last four starts and he's gone 7+ in each of those games. Clay is 5-3 with a 2.81 ERA at home this year, so I expect the trend to continue.
The Angels will be countering with their ace, Jared Weaver (11-7, 2.87). Weaver leads the majors with 182 Ks and ranks 7th in ERA, but the Angels haven't given him much run support. They've managed just 3.5 runs per game in Weaver's last 14 starts. Example? His last start against Boston: 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 8 K, Loss.
Weaver is 2-3 with a 3.81 ERA in 9 starts against the Red Sox. He's been far less effective in the road (6-5, 4.11) than he has been at home (5-2, 1.65) and he's not a fan of Fenway Park (1-1, GS, 7.06 ERA, .333 BAA). If Buchhy bring the A-game and the Pedroia sparks the offense, the Sox should win this game.
Key Matchups
David Ortiz is 7 for 23 (.303) with a double, 2 homers and 9 RBI against Weaver. FYI - Pedroia is 3 for 13 (.231) with 2 doubles, but he's a career .325 hitter at the Fens.
Bobby Abreu is just 2 for 11 (.182) against Buchhy, but both hits were ding dongs and he's hitting .524 with 3 doubles, 2 homers and 20 total bases over the past 7 days - as the new leadoff man for LA. He also owns a .282 career BA against Boston and a .289 BA at Fenway.
Factoid: The Red Sox are 7-0 against the Angels this season.The Sox have outscored the Halos 53-24 in those games.
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