The Red Sox moved up the start time of tonight's series finale against the Diamondbacks to 6pm to give fans the chance to watch the Game 7 of the NBA finals, which I think is pretty fucking cool.
What is also really fucking cool is the fact the Sox are playing good baseball again. They've won four of five and 20 of 28, including a 6-2 victory over the Diamondbacks. The most impressive thing is that the offense continues to roll scoring 6 or more runs in 5 of the last 6 game. Still, with the hole the Sox put themselves in early in the season they still have work to do. As of today, the Sox 3 games back of the Yankees and Rays.
Even with Boston's strong play they haven't been good at sweeping anyone. This could be their first sweep since winning 3 straight against Tampa Bay from May 24-26. Tonight Boston will turn to John Lackey to try to sweep the Diamondbacks, and so far this season he has been a major disappointment with a 7-3 record (which is good), but a 4.54 ERA. The good news is he is playing better of late, winning each of his last 3 starts while only allowing 8 runs over 20 innings in those starts.
Yet, I still don't buy that Lackey is over the hump. Those 3 wins in a row were against the A's, Orioles, and Phillies, none of them are very good offense teams right now. I would like to see him get some strikeouts as well. His totals have been real low this season, and I would feel a lot better about his stuff if he was racking up K's.
The Diamondbacks counter with one of my favorite pitchers, Dan Haren. His stat line looks a lot like Lackey's (7-4 4.61 ERA), and he is also hot of late winning each of his last two starts including an 8 inning effort against the Cardinals while only allowing 2 runs.
I wish I could say that I believe the Sox will win tonight, but I don't feel it.
Sox lose 6-5
Player of the Game: Chris Young
Game starts at 6:10pm on NESN.
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