The Red Sox finally have a series win at their back--against the Yankees, no less--and now look to build on that at the expense of the only team that's off to a worse start than they are: the Tampa Bay Rays.
Terry Francona seems to have found a lineup he likes, at least for now. With Carl Crawford looking better (lack of actual production notwithstanding), Dustin Pedroia going crazy, and Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Youkilis finally slotted into the 3-and-4 spots where they belong, hopefully this order is here to stay for a while.
- Carl Crawford, LF
- Dustin Pedroia, 2B
- Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
- Kevin Youkilis, 3B
- David Ortiz, DH
- J.D. Drew, RF
- Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
- Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
- Marco Scutaro, SS
The Rays, meanwhile, will be going...a little bit lefty-heavy, tonight.
- Sam Fuld, LF
- Jhonny Damon, DH
- Matt Joyce, RF
- Dan Johnson, 1B
- Ben Zobrist, 2B
- B.J. Upton, CF
- Felipe Lopez, 3B
- John Jaso, C
- Reid Brignac, SS
It's not a bad move, altogether, given the reasonably sized splits of Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka.
The key to success for Daisuke tonight should be to throw strikes. But, well, at some point you're just asking for the impossible. Meanwhile, the Red Sox offense will have to contend with one of the more impressive young arms in the game:
Quite frankly, this game gives me a bad feeling in my stomach, even if the Rays are 1-8. Of course, so did Beckett - Sabathia, and we all know how well that one turned out.
Go Sox!