Fourth of July Red Sox Delight

Aaron Cook (L), A.J. Griffin (R)

After falling 3-2 last night in a walkoff loss, the Boston Red Sox look to salvage the finale of a three-game set with the Oakland A’s at O.co Coliseum.

First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. and will be broadcast on NESN in the Red Sox television market. If you live in the Athletics television market, you can catch the game on CSN California. And if you don’t live in either market you’re in luck as well as the MLB Network will be broadcasting the game as well (not in Red Sox or Athletics television markets). If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to it on the Red Sox radio network.

After a dominating performance his last time out, Aaron Cook looks to repeat that in his fourth start of 2012. In his previous three starts, Cook is 2-1 with a 4.32 ERA. He’s made two career starts against the Athletics and is 1-0 with a 1.13 ERA. He picked up the win after allowing one run in eight innings of work in his only road start against the A’s.

A.J. Griffin will make just his third big league start for the A’s this afternoon. In his previous two starts, Griffin has no record with a 1.50 ERA (2 ER/12 IP). This will be his first career start against the Red Sox.

Click on the read more button below to see today’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the overnight and day if you’re on the home page.

Here are today’s lineups:

42-39		40-42
1. Daniel Nava	LF	1. Coco Crisp	CF
2. Ryan Kalish	CF	2. Jemile Weeks	2B
3. David Ortiz	DH	3. Josh Reddick	RF
4. Jarrod Saltalamacchia	C	4. Yoenis Cespedes	LF
5. Adrian Gonzalez	1B	5. Seth Smith	DH
6. Mauro Gomez	3B	6. Brandon Moss	1B
7. Cody Ross	RF	7. Derek Norris	C
8. Mike Aviles	SS	8. Brandon Inge	3B
9. Nick Punto	2B	9. Cliff Pennington	SS
Aaron Cook	SP	A.J. Griffin	SP

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

Boston Red Sox @ Oakland Athletics batter/pitcher matchups

NOTES: Justin Germano has been called up from Triple-A Pawtucket. To make room on the 25-man roster, Clayton Mortensen was optioned to the PawSox. Germano takes the place of Darnell McDonald, who was designated for assignment last week, on the 40-man roster. DMac just tweeted that he has been picked up by the Yankees (BOOOOO!).

REFRESH OR CHECK BACK OFTEN AS MORE LINKS WILL BE ADDED BEFORE GAMETIME IF/WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE AND WILL BE BOLDED

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Sox tumble in the ninth [boston globe]

Going over what-to-do list [boston globe]

Rehabbing Crawford down, but not out [boston globe]

Matsuzaka back on DL [boston globe]

Alfredo Aceves, Sox falter [boston herald]

Dustin Pedroia: Sox still title-driven [boston herald]

Ryan Kalish’s energy doesn’t pay off in loss [boston herald]

Book on Bobby Jenks closes [boston herald]

Felix Doubront needs to stick with sinker [boston herald]

Pedroia out due to another thumb injury [rob bradford – weei.com]