Afternoon Red Sox Delight – 4/15

The Boston Red Sox and the Oakland A’s are set to do battle this afternoon at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum at 3:37 PM in the final game of a 3-game set. The A’s have won the first two games and the Red Sox will be looking to leave the Bay area with just their third win of the year.

The game will be broadcast on NESN and is also available on MLB.tv if you live out of the Boston market and are a subscriber. The game can also be heard on the Red Sox Radio Network and if you’re a member of Red Sox Nation, you can listen to the game on MLB Gameday Audio.

Tim Wakefield will try to get the ship sailing in the right direction as he gets the ball today from manager Terry Francona. Wakefield has faced the A’s 37 times in his career (26 starts) and is 9-6 with a 4.17 ERA. In 16 games (14 starts) in Oakland, he is 5-4 with a 6.00 ERA.

The A’s will counter with yet another young lefty in Brett Anderson. This is just his second MLB start. In his first start against Seattle, Anderson gave up 5 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings of work.

The big news of the day is that Daisuke Matsuzaka has been placed on the 15-day DL due to a tired shoulder. He has been replaced on the 25-man roster by Hunter Jones, who was called up from Pawtucket. According to Francona, there is no injury in his shoulder and the issue with the tired shoulder stems from Dice-K’s participation in the WBC.

Matsuzaka goes to DL, Jones recalled [Extra Bases]

Francona on Dice-K, Beckett [Extra Bases]

Dice-K placed on DL [Projo Sox Blog]

Buchholz tweaks hamstring [Projo Sox Blog]

Baldelli experiencing soreness in leg [Projo Sox Blog]

And here is how the hitters have fared against today’s starting pitchers. No one on the Red Sox has faced Anderson. Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference.