Well, I was kind of hoping that the rain would stick around a little longer and we might get a night off from the Red Sox. Last night's game was pretty much a disaster for all those involved. Luckily, I spent most of the night watching the Bruins dominate the Red Wings to go up 2-1.
Tonight has the potential of being another disastrous evening for the Red Sox as a struggling John Lackey takes the mound against a soaring Michael Pineda. As a fan I am much more confident in Lackey having a good start than I am in the Red Sox bats scoring a lot of runs against Pineda.
Tonight will be Lackey's 4th start of the season. His season started out well as he only gave up 2 earned runs in his first two starts. In his 3rd and 4th starts the floodgates opened as he gave up 12 runs and didn't make it through the 6th in either game. One of those bad starts came against the Yankees where he went 5 2/3 and gave up 10 hits, 4 of which were homeruns.
Currently Lackey has a 5.25 ERA and a 2-2 record. He appears to be having a lot more trouble with righties and getting outs once the count gets to 2-1. Regardless of these recent struggles, I have a feeling Lackey will be on tonight. Hopefully, he has better luck getting out Ellsbury and McCann tonight as they both lit him up last time out.
While I would love to see Pineda have an off night and completely implode on the mound, I'm expecting more of the same. He appears to be one of those guys that when "he is right, he is right and when he is wrong is wrong". While Red Sox teams of the past were great at getting to guys, I'm not really feeling it from this team right now. Maybe I'll be wrong and this will be the game where the bats are awake early in the game and not after they shut down the beer lines.
Last time we faced Pineda, Daniel Nava was the one player who had remote success when he hit a late inning home run off of him. Of course Nava will not be in tonight's lineup because he was optioned to the PawSox in exchange for some pitching depth (RHP Alex Wilson).
Pineda currently has no visible hiccups in his game other than when his pitch count gets up there. Even still, players are not hitting him well late in the game. Pineda has been really tough on whoever bats second this season. In his three starts he has yet to yield a hit, walk or RBI to whoever is batting second. Hopefully, Pedroia can change all that tonight.
While it won't happen, I think it would be hilarious if all the players wrote on their throwing hands with sharpie to make it look like the magic dirt Pineda had on his hand last time.
Currently Lackey has a 5.25 ERA and a 2-2 record. He appears to be having a lot more trouble with righties and getting outs once the count gets to 2-1. Regardless of these recent struggles, I have a feeling Lackey will be on tonight. Hopefully, he has better luck getting out Ellsbury and McCann tonight as they both lit him up last time out.
While I would love to see Pineda have an off night and completely implode on the mound, I'm expecting more of the same. He appears to be one of those guys that when "he is right, he is right and when he is wrong is wrong". While Red Sox teams of the past were great at getting to guys, I'm not really feeling it from this team right now. Maybe I'll be wrong and this will be the game where the bats are awake early in the game and not after they shut down the beer lines.
Last time we faced Pineda, Daniel Nava was the one player who had remote success when he hit a late inning home run off of him. Of course Nava will not be in tonight's lineup because he was optioned to the PawSox in exchange for some pitching depth (RHP Alex Wilson).
Pineda currently has no visible hiccups in his game other than when his pitch count gets up there. Even still, players are not hitting him well late in the game. Pineda has been really tough on whoever bats second this season. In his three starts he has yet to yield a hit, walk or RBI to whoever is batting second. Hopefully, Pedroia can change all that tonight.
While it won't happen, I think it would be hilarious if all the players wrote on their throwing hands with sharpie to make it look like the magic dirt Pineda had on his hand last time.
Tonight's Red Sox Lineup
- Sizemore, RF
- Pedroia, 2B
- Ortiz, DH
- Napoli, 1B
- Carp, LF
- Pierzynski, C
- Bogaerts, SS
- Holt, 3B
- Bradley Jr., CF
If you like what you've read here, share with your friends and follow @BOSsportschick on twitter.
RSS Feed
