Afternoon Red Sox Delight – 5/3

After winning their first game of the season in three tries at Tropicana Field, the Boston Red Sox will look to do something they haven’t done in a long time. And that’s not a lose a series to the Tampa Bay Rays.

The game will start at 1:38 PM this afternoon and the game will be televised on NESN. In the Tampa area, you can catch the game on FOX Sports Florida. If you’re not in the television broadcast area of the Red Sox and Rays, you can also catch the national broadcast on TBS. 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.

In order to salvage a split of the 4-game set, the Red Sox will call upon Brad Penny (ugh!) to get the job done. Penny has been far from brilliant in his brief stint with the Red Sox and could need a big outing today to salvage his job. In 4 starts this season, Penny is 2-0 with a 8.66 ERA. He has faced the Rays four times (3 starts) in his career and sports a record of 1-2 with a 5.49 ERA. In one career start at the Trop, Penny is 0-1 with a 5.40 ERA.

“Big Game” James Shields starts for Joe Maddon this afternoon. In five starts this season, Shields is 2-2 with a 3.74 ERA. In 9 career starts against the Red Sox, Shields is 2-5 with a 5.59 ERA. He’s been much better at home against the Red Sox where he is 2-1 with a 3.52 ERA five starts.

Speedster Ellsbury can run Sox to a split [RedSox.com]

David Ortiz Speaks [Projo Sox Blog]

Ortiz: ‘I will do things.’ [Extra Bases]

Here are this afternoon’s starting lineups:

And here is how the hitters have fared against this afternoon’s starting pitchers: