Saturday Red Sox Mediocrity – 8/25

Jeremy Guthrie (L), Aaron Cook (R)

After rallying for a 4-3 win last night, the Boston Red Sox look for a second straight win in the second game of a four-game set with the Kansas City Royals at historic Fenway Park.

First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on NESN in the Red Sox television market. If you live in the Royals television market, you can catch the game on Fox Sports Kansas City. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to it on the Red Sox radio network.

With Josh Beckett being shipped off to the Los Angeles Dodgers along with Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Nick Punto, Aaron Cook steps in to make his 12th start of 2012. In his previous 11 starts, Cook is 3-7 with a 4.79 ERA. In his career, Cook has faced the Royals twice as a member of the Colorado Rockies and is 0-1 with a 6.52 ERA (7 ER/9.2 IP).

Jeremy Guthrie gets the ball for the Royals in his 22nd start (26th appearance) combined with his time in Colorado earlier this year. In his previous 25 appearances (21 starts), Guthrie is 5-12 with a 5.91 ERA. In six starts with the Royals since coming over in a trade, Guthrie is 2-3 with a 3.23 ERA. He has not faced the Red Sox this season and was 2-1 with a 2.82 ERA in four appearances (three starts) in 2011 as a member of the Baltimore Orioles. Guthrie has made 19 career appearances (17 starts) against the local nine and is 3-8 with a 4.50 ERA. Nine of those appearances (eight starts) have come at the Fens where he is 1-4 with a 5.88 ERA.

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

Here are today’s lineups:

55-69		60-66
1. Jarrod Dyson	CF	1. Scott Podsednik	LF
2. Alcides Escobar	SS	2. Dustin Pedroia	2B
3. Alex Gordon	LF	3. Jacoby Ellsbury	CF
4. Billy Butler	DH	4. Cody Ross	RF
5. Salvador Perez	C	5. Mauro Gomez	1B
6. Mike Moustakas	3B	6. Jarrod Saltalamacchia	C
7. Jeff Francoeur	RF	7. Ryan Lavarnway	DH
8. Eric Hosmer	1B	8. Mike Aviles	SS
9. Tony Abreu	2B	9. Pedro Ciriaco	3B
Jeremy Guthrie	SP	Aaron Cook	SP

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

Kansas City Royals @ Boston Red Sox batter/pitcher matchups

NOTES: Jose Iglesias, Che-Hsuan Lin and Junichi Tazawa have been added to roster from Triple-A Pawtucket to take the places of Punto and Gonzalez. Felix Doubront was activated from the DL to make the start tomorrow. Daniel Nava was placed on the 15-day DL with a sprained wrist.

To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

Sox pull off blockbuster trade [boston herald]

Red Sox GM Ben Cherington explains the blockbuster trade [clubhouse insider]

Report: Sox preparing roster moves in anticipation of deal [csn new england]

Who are the Red Sox getting in return? [csn new england]

Gonzalez, Punto thank Red Sox fans via Twitter [csn new england]

Red Sox chairman Tom Werner is pretty high on James Loney [csn new england]

Red Sox will make culture change with blockbuster deal [csn new england]

Evaluators analyze prospects coming to Boston [csn new england]

Ortiz not in lineup [csn new england]

Werner shares his thoughts on blockbuster [espn boston]

Edes: ‘This was all about finances’ [espn boston]