The Sox are in a good position to make the playoffs for the 3rd straight time, which is kind of amazing when you look at a rotation that lost Smoltz, Penny, Wake (for some time), and Dice-K. Well tonight they at least get one of those guys back....Dice-K.
Daisuke Matsuzaka will make his first major league appearance in nearly three months. The Sox hope he can play a lot better then he did earlier in the season when he went 1-5 with an 8.23 ERA. DP and I have been saying it for a while now...How Dice-K does for the rest of the season will determine how far the Sox are going this year. It is obvious the Sox have 3 pitchers set for the playoffs in Beckett, Lester, and Buchholz. Wake could be there, but I just don't trust his back. The Sox really need Dice-K to setup and be that guy who was 18-3 last year.
The Angels are cruising to the playoffs, but they have some questions of their own. Lackey has been up and down all season, but he seems like he is starting to get it together going 2-0 with a 0.35 ERA in his last 3 starts, throwing at least 8 innings each time. Boston needs to show that they can light up good starting pitchers before the playoffs and tonight would be a good time to showcase that.
***UPDATE***
Kind of an odd lineup tonight as Youk and V-Mart start the night on the bench. Before you flip out this is not because Francona is resting them. V-Mart had to go back to Cleveland for a family matter, and Youk was believed to be in the hospital for kidney stones (OUCH!!!!!!!), but now they are saying it is back spasms. Here is a look at the rest of the lineup...
1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. J.D. Drew, RF
4. Jason Bay, LF
5. David Ortiz, DH
6. Mike Lowell, 3B
7. Casey Kotchman, 1B
8. Jason Varitek, C
9. Alex Gonzalez, SS
Game starts at 7:10pm on NESN.
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