Well, it finally happened yesterday: the Red Sox won a ballgame. Now can they make it two in a row?
Jed Lowrie will get his second start for the Red Sox today--the only change to the lineup that put up nine runs on the Yankees' staff yesterday:
1. Carl Crawford, LF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
4. Kevin Youkilis, 3B
5. David Ortiz, DH
6. J.D. Drew, RF
7. Jed Lowrie, SS
8. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
9. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
The Yankees also have one difference, playing Eric Chavez as the designated hitter instead of Jorge Posada.
1. Brett Gardner, LF
2. Derek Jeter, SS
3. Mark Teixeira, 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez, 3B
5. Robinson Cano, 2B
6. Nick Swisher, RF
7. Curtis Granderson, CF
8. Eric Chavez, DH
9. Russell Martin, C
The Red Sox will be looking for a bounce-back start for Clay Buchholz after he gave up four home runs (on just five hits) to the Texas Rangers. Clay, meanwhile, will be looking for the laws of physics to please stop singling him out.
The Yankees respond with Ivan Nova, one of the great unknown quantities of the Yankees' rotation. He had a very solid start to the season, allowing three runs to the Twins in six innings of work. I'm sure the Yankees will be just fine with him staying around that level all year long. Of course, the few Red Sox he has faced have a combined line of .375/.444/.438 against him--and that's including Scutaro's .667 OPS.
A win today puts the Sox just two games back of New York with 20 days left in April. That'd go a long way towards making the whole situation manageable, especially considering the alternative. So let's start a new kind of streak today...
Go Sox!