Early Evening Red Sox Delight – 5/26

John Lackey (L), Matt Garza (R) - AP Photos

After quality starts and wins from Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester, the Boston Red Sox will look for a three-game sweep of the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays tonight at Tropicana Field.

Tonight’s game will start at 7:10 p.m. and will be shown on NESN in the Red Sox television market. The game will be shown on Sun Sports in the Rays television market. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to the game on the 2010 Red Sox radio network.

John Lackey will look to jump on the quality start train tonight for Terry Francona. In nine starts, Lackey is 4-3 with a 5.07 ERA but has been roughed up his last two times out. He’s made one start against the Rays on Marathon Monday and took the loss after allowing eight runs in 3 1/3 innings. He has had good success against the Rays as he is 9-3 with a 3.77 ERA in 13 career starts. He is just 2-2 with a 6.75 ERA in four starts at the Trop.

Matt Garza will look to help Joe Maddon and the Rays avoid the sweep in his 10th start of 2010. In his previous nine starts, he is 5-2 with a 2.79 ERA. He’s faced the Red Sox once this season back on April 16th and picked up the win after throwing eight shutout innings. He’s made 13 career starts against the Red Sox and is 6-2 with a 2.92 ERA. He is 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA in six starts against the Red Sox at the Trop and the Rays have won all six of those games as well.

Lineups, batter/pitcher matchups, and links after the jump.

26-21		32-14
1. Marco Scutaro	SS	1. Jason Bartlett	SS
2. Dustin Pedroia	2B	2. Carl Crawford	LF
3. David Ortiz	DH	3. Ben Zobrist	RF
4. Kevin Youkilis	1B	4. Evan Longoria	3B
5. Adrian Beltre	3B	5. John Jaso	C
6. Jeremy Hermida	LF	6. Hank Blalock	DH
7. Jason Varitek	C	7. Carlos Peña	C
8. Mike Cameron	CF	8. Sean Rodriguez	CF
9. Darnell McDonald	RF	9. Reed Brignac	2B
John Lackey	SP	Matt Garza	SP