Tonight the Boston Red Sox look to take a 2-0 advantage in their best-of-5 American League Division Series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Red Sox come in having won their last 10 playoff games against the Angels and will look to Daisuke Matsuzaka to do that.
Dice-K has made just one regular season start against the Halos and is 0-1 with a 10.80 ERA. He gave up 6 runs in 5 innings of work to take the loss back on July 28th. He has made 1 start against the Angels in the 2007 ALDS and he received a no decision then. He gave up 3 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks while striking out 3 in a game that was won on a Manny Ramirez walk-off home run.
Mike Scioscia tapped Ervin Santana to start Game 2 for the Angels. He has made 4 starts against the Red Sox in his career and is 1-2 with a 5.73 ERA. He has not faced the Red Sox this season.
There are a couple of changes to the Red Sox lineup (available after the jump). Mike Lowell and Jed Lowrie will start the night on the bench while Alex Cora will start at shortstop and Mark Kotsay gets the nod at first base with Kevin Youkilis moving over to third base.
“It was hard because of who he is,” Francona said. “Under a lot of circumstances, we’d just throw Mikey Lowell out there. I thought in this case, I needed to step in and kind of be the manager. And that was a hard one for me.
“I think it’s my responsibility to keep our team going in the right direction. I think this is the right thing to do. We’re not going to do this every game, either. I think it was the right move to make tonight.”
Francona, while trying to give away any strategy, said Lowell could pinch hit but will not be asked to play the field. “We’re not going to hurt him,” Francona said. “There might be a situation where we could hit him, if there’s not a force.”
-Francona had an inkling he would start Alex Cora over Jed Lowrie tonight even before the series began. Francona preferred Cora over Lowrie even before he knew their stats against Ervin Santana. He felt Cora matched up better against the style of pitching employed by Santana than Lowrie. When Francona looked at the numbers that Cora is 2 for 3 against Santana with a double and a triple, it simply heightened his comfort with the move.
“I kind of thought this would be a good time,” Francona said. “I hope it proves to be a really good move.”
And oh by the way, Josh Beckett is a go for Sunday’s Game 3.
Josh Beckett will start Game 3 without question. “He’s pitching,” Francona said. Francona was extremely satisfied with Beckett’s 67-pitch side session in the bullpen yesterday. While watching him yesterday from a distance, he liked Beckett’s body language and could hear the catcher’s mitt pop.
“That ball was loud,” Francona said.
Afterward, John Farrell told Francona, “This is not a guy that’s hurt.”
This was the plan all along. The Red Sox, Francona said, could have tried to pitch Beckett tonight. But they wanted to give him a full week of normal preparation so he could go into the game with his best stuff. That’s exactly what happened, Francona said.
Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe previews tonight’s game.
Dustin Pedroia has noticed that teams are starting to pitch around him. That’s a scary thought since Big Papi bats after him.
Adam Kilgore of the Boston Globe takes a look at Ervin Santana by the numbers.
Jim Rice takes a look at tonight’s game.
Jim Rice talks about his relationship with Johnny Pesky.
Jason Bay picked up an award from the Pittsburgh beat writers.
Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe held a chat today over at Boston.com.
1-0
1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Kevin Youkilis, 3B
5. J.D. Drew, RF
6. Jason Bay, LF
7. Mark Kotsay, 1B
8. Jason Varitek, C
9. Alex Cora, SS
– Daisuke Matsuzaka, SP
0-1
1. Chone Figgins, 3B
2. Garret Anderson, LF
3. Mark Teixeira, IB
4. Vladimir Guerrero, DH
5. Torii Hunter, CF
6. Juan Rivera, RF
7. Howie Kendrick, 2B
8. Jeff Mathis, C
9. Erick Aybar, SS
– Ervin Santana, SP
And here is how the hitters have fared in the regular season in their careers against tonight’s starting pitchers.
