Last night while the Bruins were sending fans' blood pressure through the roof and taking years off of New Englanders' lives, the Red Sox were playing some pretty good baseball.
As usual, David Ortiz was making his former team regret letting him go in 2003. For the second time in two nights, Big Papi sent the ball where an outfielder wasn't going to get it. In his two games at Target Field, Ortiz has accumulated 6 RBIs and raised his batting average from .275 to .305. In his past 10 games Ortiz is hitting .439. And to think he was the backup to Jeremy Giambi for the first two months of the the 2003 season. Assuming Grady Little made the call to go to Ortiz, "Thanks Grady".
Felix Doubront also used this trip to Minnesota as an opportunity to improve his numbers. Doubront lasted 6 1/3 and gave up only 1 run. With that he brought his ERA down another 1/2 run to 4.54. With 9 runs of offensive backing, Doubront got his second win of the season and the Red Sox their 20th.
Burke Badenhop gets an assist on keeping Doubront's ERA down as he came on in the 7th and didn't allow any inherited runners to score. After pitching a perfect inning against Texas last time out, Edward Mujica gave up two runs in the ninth.
Today's rubber game will be a matchup of righties, Clay Buchholz and Phil Hughes. Buchholz is coming off a rough start in Texas where he gave up 6 runs in 4 1/3 innings. While it wasn't good for Clay, it really didn't effect the game a whole lot since that was the game where the Red Sox were almost no-hit by Yu Darvish. I mean if you are going to have a crappy game in the regular season, you might as well do it on a night when your team has no offense.
Twins who have hit Clay well in the past are Kurt Suzuki (6 for 12) and Joe Mauer (5 for 13 with 3 doubles).
Hughes has turned his season around after starting the season with a 7.20 ERA. In his last 4 starts, the shortest of which was 6 innings against the Royals, Hughes has walked one batter, given up 2 home runs and 6 earned runs. The former Yankee has seen his fair share of the Red Sox. With 48 at bats between them Dustin Pedroia and Ortiz have hit 5 home runs and tallied 16 RBIs. Both Mike Carp and Mike Napoli are hitting .500 or better against Hughes with 1 and 2 home runs respectively. Carp will be in today's lineup in place of Sizemore.
Burke Badenhop gets an assist on keeping Doubront's ERA down as he came on in the 7th and didn't allow any inherited runners to score. After pitching a perfect inning against Texas last time out, Edward Mujica gave up two runs in the ninth.
Today's rubber game will be a matchup of righties, Clay Buchholz and Phil Hughes. Buchholz is coming off a rough start in Texas where he gave up 6 runs in 4 1/3 innings. While it wasn't good for Clay, it really didn't effect the game a whole lot since that was the game where the Red Sox were almost no-hit by Yu Darvish. I mean if you are going to have a crappy game in the regular season, you might as well do it on a night when your team has no offense.
Twins who have hit Clay well in the past are Kurt Suzuki (6 for 12) and Joe Mauer (5 for 13 with 3 doubles).
Hughes has turned his season around after starting the season with a 7.20 ERA. In his last 4 starts, the shortest of which was 6 innings against the Royals, Hughes has walked one batter, given up 2 home runs and 6 earned runs. The former Yankee has seen his fair share of the Red Sox. With 48 at bats between them Dustin Pedroia and Ortiz have hit 5 home runs and tallied 16 RBIs. Both Mike Carp and Mike Napoli are hitting .500 or better against Hughes with 1 and 2 home runs respectively. Carp will be in today's lineup in place of Sizemore.
Red Sox Lineup
- Pedroia, 2B
- Bogaerts, SS
- Ortiz, DH
- Napoli, 1B
- Gomes, RF
- Carp, LF
- Ross, C
- Middlebrooks, 3B
- Bradley Jr., CF
If you like what you've read here, share with your friends and follow @BOSsportschick on twitter.
RSS Feed
