Josh Baseball is back tonight for the Boston Red Sox.
Tonight the Boston Red Sox kick off a 3-game road trip against the Texas Rangers in the heart of Texas. So far this season the Red Sox are 7-0 against the Rangers with all of those games at the Fens.
The Red Sox will start their own Texan in Josh Beckett who was activated from the disabled list before the game. Beckett’s last start came back on August 17th when he was lit up like the Rockefeller Christmas tree by the Toronto Blue Jays. He has faced the Rangers 3 times in his career and is 1-1 with a 4.67 ERA. He has not faced them yet this season. He will be limited to about 70 pitches tonight.
Rangers skipper Ron Washington counters with Kevin Millwood on the bump. Millwood has faced the Red Sox 11 times in his career and is 4-3 with a 4.05 ERA. He has a no decision against the Red Sox this season when he gave up 2 runs in 6 innings back on April 20th.
In addition to Beckett, the Red Sox also activated Sean Casey and Mike Lowell from the disabled list. They also announced that Bartolo Colon will start Game 4 tomorrow night for the PawSox in their battle with the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees in the International League playoffs.
Kevin Youkilis is not with the team tonight as he is attending to a personal matter back in Boston. He is expected to rejoin the team tomorrow night.
Steven Krasner has updates on the injury status of J.D. Drew and David Aardsma.
Newcomer on the beat Adam Kilgore tells us that the MVP field may have one less person now that Carlos Quentin of the White Sox could miss the rest of the season.
Rob Bradford says he’d take Dustin Pedroia over Alex Rodriguez any day of the week. I agree with him on that sentiment.
The Red Sox chances of the postseason right now stand at 98.5% according to Baseball Prospectus.
Lineups and batter/pitcher matchups after the jump.
82-57
1. Jacoby Ellsbury, RF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Mark Kotsay, 1B
5. Jason Bay, LF
6. Mike Lowell, 3B
7. Jed Lowrie, SS
8. Jason Varitek, C
9. Coco Crisp, CF
– Josh Beckett, SP
69-72
1. Joaquin Arias, 2B
2. Michael Young, SS
3. Josh Hamilton, CF
4. Milton Bradley, DH
5. Hank Blalock, 1B
6. Marlon Byrd, LF
7. Nelson Cruz, RF
8. Gerald Laird, C
9. Chris Davis, 3B
– Kevin Millwood, SP
And here is how the hitters have fared against tonight’s starting pitchers.
