After an off day on Monday, the Boston Red Sox return to action in our nation’s capital as they will take on the Washington Nationals for three games. The Nationals come into the series having won 4 of their last 5 games (two wins each over Yankees and Blue Jays) while the Red Sox have won 7 of their last 10 games.
This is the first regular season visit for the Red Sox to Washington, D.C. since they were at RFK back in September of 1971. The Red Sox played a pair of exhibition games at RFK, April 4-5, 1992, winning over BAL (4-3) and PHI (9-3), respectively. With the Red Sox appearance tonight, the only teams that haven’t appeared at Nationals Park are the Royals, White Sox and Twins.
The game tonight will start at 7:05 PM EDT and will be televised in the Red Sox television market on NESN. If you live in the Nationals television market, you can catch the game on MASN. And if the television isn’t your cup of tea, you can catch the game on one of the many affiliates of the Red Sox Radio Network.
With his name pretty much out of the trade rumors for now, Brad Penny makes his 14th start of the season. On the season, Penny is 6-2 with a 4.94 ERA and has pitched well as of late for the Red Sox. In 20 starts against the Montreal/Washington franchise, Penny is 12-5, 2.54 ERA. On the road against the Mon/Was franchise, Penny is 6-3, 2.00 ERA in 10 starts. Since the franchise moved to Washington, Penny is 1-1 with a 4.42 ERA in 3 starts.
John Lannan makes his 15th start of the season for the Nationals. So far this season, he is 4-5 with a 3.38 ERA. He has never faced the Red Sox in his brief MLB career and is 2-2 with a 2.94 ERA in 5 career interleague starts.
Some members of the Red Sox need your help as the American League All-Star balloting winds down. So go vote Red Sox. And my friend Kristen would really appreciate it if you could vote for the Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman at third base and Adam Dunn in the outfield in the NL voting.
And if you missed Amanda Bruno’s first post here at SOX & Dawgs be sure to check it out. Amanda will be stopping by here from time to time to offer her thoughts on the Red Sox and other things as well.
Lucchino on Boras, Strasburg [Extra Bases]
The Portland Prospect Pool Runs Deep [Full Count]
Holiday in June: A Day in the Life of the Red Sox Draft [Alex Speier - WEEI.com]
Still living the broadcast dream [Don Orsillo - NESN.com]
Opposing Thoughts: Nats not as bad as record shows [NESN.com]
Smoltz can only improve already solid Sox staff [NESN.com]
Here are the lineups for tonight’s game:
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| 1. Dustin Pedroia | 2B | 1. Cristian Guzman | SS |
| 2. J.D, Drew | DH | 2. Nick Johnson | 1B |
| 3. Kevin Youkilis | 1B | 3. Ryan Zimmermann | 3B |
| 4. Jason Bay | LF | 4. Adam Dunn | LF |
| 5. Mike Lowell | 3B | 5. Josh Willingham | RF |
| 6. Jason Varitek | C | 6. Josh Bard | C |
| 7. Jacoby Ellsbury | CF | 7. Willie Harris | CF |
| 8. Nick Green | SS | 8. Anderson Hernandez | 2B |
| 9. Brad Penny | P | 9. John Lannan | P |
| Brad Penny | SP | John Lannan | SP |
42-27
20-47And here is how the hitters have fared against this tonight’s starting pitchers:
Penny has been pitching well as of late, and with Nick Green stepping up his defense, things are starting to fall back into place.
With Green playing well right now, they don’t have to rush Lowrie at all on his rehab assignment. Plus I’m sure it gives them a little more time to move Lugo because of that as well.