Rays @ Red Sox Preview

Things have turned around quickly for the Red Sox. Their starting pitching looks better, they are hitting the cover off the ball, and even their bullpen has been good. All these things have lead them to a 3 game winning streak against the Rays, who they play again today.

This is one of the stranger games of the year. Every in Mass is in Boston today, it's a Monday day game, and it starts at 11am. On top of that the Red Sox are dealing with Bobby V calling out Youk, who isn't in the lineup today (more on that in a later post).

Boston has Bard on the hill. He was decent in his first game, in which he gave up 5 runs over 5 inning, but actually didn't pitch all that bad. In 18 innings of relief work against the Rays Bard has only let up 2 runs. I don't know how much you can read into that, but it's impressive.

Going against Bard is Shields, who has not been good when having to play in Fenway. Shields is 1-9 with a 6.75 ERA in 10 starts. Boston needs to get on him early, because he is a guy who can go deep into games. I think they do and win again today.

Red Sox win 7-6
Player of the Game: Ortiz
Game starts at 11:05am