How we see it goin' down: Rangers - Sox series

First Pitch: Monday 7:10, Tuesday 7:10, Wednesday 1:35

Arms: Monday: Yu Darvish, RHP (11-7, 4.38 ERA) vs. Aaron Cook, RHP (2-5, 5.24 ERA)

Tuesday: Ryan Dempster, RHP (0-0, 15.43 ERA) vs. Jon Lester, LHP (5-9, 5.36 ERA)

Wednesday: Matt Harrison, LHP (13-6, 3.17 ERA) vs. Josh Beckett , RHP (5-9, 4.54 ERA)

                                             Yard: Fenway Park   Watch it: NESN   Hear it:  WEEI The Matchup

 

Record: 63-44 (1st AL West) Record: 54-55 (4th AL East) On road: 29-23
At home: 28-32
Streak: Lost 1
Streak: Won 1
    Leaders at the plate
 Leaders at the plate
Average: Gentry (.328)
Average: Ciriaco (.338)
Homers: Hamilton (29)
Homers: Saltalamacchia (20)
RBI: Hamilton (90)
RBI: Gonzalez (66)
Leaders on the mound
Leaders on the mound Wins: Harrison (13)
Wins: Doubront (10)
ERA: Harrison (3.17) | Ross (1.68)
ERA: Buchholz (4.48) | Breslow (0.00)
K's: Darvish (145)
K's: Doubront (115)
Last time

The Red Sox dropped 2 out of 3 in Texas exactly 2 weeks ago. The Sox got a great pitching performance from Buchholz in game 2 that lead to the only win of the series. The Sox sucked for the rest of the series.

This time

Laser Show: Adrian Gonzalez

Almost a guaranteed thing since the All-Star break. If the Sox are going to put up a fight in this series, they are going to need a huge contribution from Gonzalez.
Pitch Around: Adrian Beltre & Josh Hamilton

They didn't put up big numbers a couple of weeks ago, but that means nothing. Adrian is going to abuse the Green Monster and Josh Hamilton will torment right field, and possibly the wall. I hate when either of these two are at the plate.

Don't Fall Behind: Yu Darvish

The Red Sox have never seen him. Translation...He will dominate the Sox. Since coming to the MLB from Japan, he has not let the Rangers down. He can be beat and has been by teams like Cleveland and  Seattle (twice), so there is hope for the Red Sox. Darvish is in the top 10 in strikeouts with 145, averaging 10.2 per 9 innings, but does walk a lot of batters. Darvish is 4th in the majors in walks with 70 (5 per 9 innings). So the Sox have a chance to jump on his mistakes and mis-located pitches, as long as they don't strikeout while trying.

How we see it goin' down

There is no reason to believe that the Sox will win more than 1 game this series and that is a stretch. We don't know what we are going to get from Lester and Beckett and Cook has been stinkin' up the joint lately. One game might be a shootout and I'll give that one to the Sox.