We are a mere seven days away from the Boston Red Sox opening the 2011 season on the road in Texas against the defending American League Champion Rangers. About a week ago Boston manager Terry Francona announced his five man rotation, now I got the Rangers starters from the Providence Journal and it looks like we will be seeing some good match ups.
Opening Day the 4 p.m. EST matches Jon Lester against C.J. Wilson in the battle of lefties. Lester has a career mark of 61-25 with an ERA of 3.55 in 123 starts with 6 complete games and 1 no-hitter of the Kansas City Royals. He is considered a Cy Young Award candidate this season. The Rangers counter with Wilson who is to be their ace in 2011 replacing the departed Cliff Lee as the main man in the rotation. The former closer has a career record of 27-28 with a 3.90 ERA. He has made 39 career starts all with Texas and has 3 complete games.
Saturday’s game matches tall Texan John Lackey in his second season with the Sox against right hander Colby Lewis. Lackey is 116-82 in his career with a 3.89 ERA with the Angels and the Red Sox. He has thrown 14 complete games in 266 major league starts. Lewis, who was probably the best postseason starter for Texas last year, is expected to help anchor the rotation. The 6’4” righty is 24-28 with a 5.27 career ERA. He has one complete game in 66 starts with Texas, Oakland, Washington and Detroit.
The three game set will wind up on Sunday with another native Texan, Clay Buchholz on the mound for Boston against lefty Matt Harrison. Buchholz, who threw a no-hitter in his second major league start in 2007 against Baltimore, is already 29-21 in his career with a 3.68 ERA in 62 starts; he also has thrown three complete games. Harrison is 16-10 in his career with a 5.39 ERA all with Texas. He has made 32 big league starts and has completed three of them.
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Expect Boston manager Terry Francona to use possibly a few different lineups in the first series as he may try to work veteran catcher Jason Varitek in for a game against a lefty starter. He will possibly have different lineup variations based on if the opposing starter is a lefty or a righty.
A potential lineup vs. a lefty starter is:
Scutaro
Crawford
Youkilis
Gonzalez
Pedroia
Ortiz
Drew
Varitek/Saltalamacchia
Ellsbury
A potential lineup vs. a right starter is:
Ellsbury
Pedroia
Crawford
Gonzalez
Youkilis
Ortiz
Drew
Saltalamacchia
Scutaro
The biggest advantages the Sox have in lineups is both catchers and the utility infielder all switch hit and they have a lineup made up of guys who can hit in at least three different spots in the order.
When Varitek does play this year expect most of his AB’s to come against lefty starters. The right side is his strongest side and he has hit better right handed while Saltalamacchia seems to be better suited from the left side.
I don’t know about you, but I can not wait for this season to start. Ever since they traded for Adrian Gonzalez and signed Carl Crawford the expectations have become massive. It’s finally nearly time to put the team on the field and let things play out.
Hopefully they can fight off the injuries that ruined them last season and anyone who was injured last year seems to be ready to go in 2011. Luckily they have built a lot of depth into this club again and hopefully we won’t end up with a situation like the one developing in Philadelphia where right now they have no RF, no 2B and no closer with all of them starting the season on the DL.
Enjoy the season, it has all the makings of a great one.
