Last night's Red Sox game had a little bit of everything for the fans. Depending on which team you were rooting for, it was either all good or all bad. Since I'm a Red Sox fan, it was all good in my eyes. If we could get most of last night's good stuff to carry over to today's game, that would be great.
Obviously, the one thing we could do without tonight is the pine tar drama. The things I would like to see for a second night are early runs, errors by the Yankees and a high quality start by the Red Sox starting pitcher. Tonight will be a battle of the lefties as Felix Doubront goes up against C.C. Sabathia. It will also be Shane Victorino's first regular season game with the big boys this season.
While neither pitcher currently has good overall numbers, they both are coming off some quality starts. Doubront's 5.48 ERA is not a true reflection of how he has pitched this season. If you remove his blowup start from April 8th when he lasted only 2.2 innings against the Rangers, his ERA drops to a very respectable 3.86. If you go one step further and just look at his last two starts his ERA is 3.38.
Obviously, those other starts did happen and are included in his full body of work, but it makes most sense to look at what he's done for us lately. And lately, he's gone 6 2/3 innings and given up 3 runs against the Orioles and 2 runs against the Yankees. So recently, Doubront has pitched well for the Red Sox and well against the Yankees. Let's hope for more of the same tonight.
Sabathia has also had 2 good starts in a row. One came against the Reds Sox where he went 7 innings giving up 6 hits and 4 runs. Since then he has had one more start where he went 7 innings and gave up 1 run. The one troubling trend for Sabathia this season is that 43% of the hits he has given up have been for extra bases.
Neither team has a player that "owns" the opposing pitcher. Two good matchups to watch will be Sabathia vs. Gomes and Sizemore. Both players have 2 homeruns against Sabathia with their most recent ones coming this spring. Gomes is 11/40 against Sabathia with 10 strikeouts. It's a good thing it is David Ross' turn to catch, as he has hit Sabathia pretty well over the past 3 years while A.J. Pierzynski hasn't faced him since 2011.
Last time out against Doubront, Carlos Beltran went 3 for 4 with a double and homerun. Alfonso Soriano and Mark Teixeira have both hit 2 homers off Doubront in their careers.
According to weather.com it looks like the wind will die down as the game progresses. Regardless, NW winds of 19 mph to start the game will definitely have an effect on the game.
Obviously, those other starts did happen and are included in his full body of work, but it makes most sense to look at what he's done for us lately. And lately, he's gone 6 2/3 innings and given up 3 runs against the Orioles and 2 runs against the Yankees. So recently, Doubront has pitched well for the Red Sox and well against the Yankees. Let's hope for more of the same tonight.
Sabathia has also had 2 good starts in a row. One came against the Reds Sox where he went 7 innings giving up 6 hits and 4 runs. Since then he has had one more start where he went 7 innings and gave up 1 run. The one troubling trend for Sabathia this season is that 43% of the hits he has given up have been for extra bases.
Neither team has a player that "owns" the opposing pitcher. Two good matchups to watch will be Sabathia vs. Gomes and Sizemore. Both players have 2 homeruns against Sabathia with their most recent ones coming this spring. Gomes is 11/40 against Sabathia with 10 strikeouts. It's a good thing it is David Ross' turn to catch, as he has hit Sabathia pretty well over the past 3 years while A.J. Pierzynski hasn't faced him since 2011.
Last time out against Doubront, Carlos Beltran went 3 for 4 with a double and homerun. Alfonso Soriano and Mark Teixeira have both hit 2 homers off Doubront in their careers.
According to weather.com it looks like the wind will die down as the game progresses. Regardless, NW winds of 19 mph to start the game will definitely have an effect on the game.
Tonight's Red Sox Lineup
- Pedroia, 2B
- Victorino, RF
- Ortiz, DH
- Napoli, 1B
- Gomes, LF
- Bogaerts, SS
- Holt, 3B
- Ross, C
- Bradley Jr., CF
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