May 20th vs. Atlanta

[RedSoxRooter]

Atlanta Braves (23-7) @ Boston Red Sox (23-7)

 

http://i.a.cnn.net/si/images/baseball/mlb/players/6245.jpghttp://www.giantsequoia.com/assets/TransparentSpacer.gifhttp://i.a.cnn.net/si/images/baseball/mlb/players/6270.jpg

Tim Hudson http://www.public.iastate.edu/~aslagell/sumr212/spacer.gif Wade Miller

(4-2) 3.18 ERAhttp://www.public.iastate.edu/~aslagell/sumr212/spacer.gif(0-0) 4.22 ERAhttp://www.familymatters.tv/navbar/spacer.gif

 

 

When; where: 7:05 p.m. Friday; Fenway Park.

 

Series history: The Braves have won 22 of 33 between the teams in interleague play since 1997, and are 8-2 with a 2.39 ERA in the past 10. The Braves swept a three-game series at Boston in June 2002, their last visit to venerable Fenway.

 

Worth noting: The defending World Series champions are 12-6 since April 30 despite a 5.04 ERA. They've hit .280 and averaged 5.7 runs in that span. . . . The Red Sox are 11-5 with a 3.88 ERA at Fenway, 12-12 with a 5.33 ERA on the road. They've hit 22 homers at home and 23 on the road, while their pitchers have given up only nine homers in 144 innings at home and 29 in 204-1/3 innings on the road. . . . They are fifth in the AL in average (.274) and second in runs, but eighth in starters ERA (4.51) and next-to-last in relief ERA (5.20). . . . RHP Curt Schilling (ankle) is on the DL.

 

Starters: C Jason Varitek, 1B Kevin Millar, 2B Mark Bellhorn, 3B Bill Mueller, SS Edgar Renteria, LF Manny Ramirez, CF Johnny Damon, RF Trot Nixon, DH David Ortiz.

 

Who's hot: Nixon is 22-for-53 (.415) with four homers and 15 RBIs in his past 14 games.... Damon is second in the AL with a .400 home average and also has a team-high .395 average with runners in scoring position.... Varitek has batted .361 with two homers and a .429 on-base percentage in his past 10 games.

 

Who's not: Ramirez is 7-for-44 (.159) with three homers and 15 strikeouts in his past 14 games. . . . Millar is 3-for-24 (.125) with one RBI in seven games. . . . OF Jay Payton is 6-for-40 (.150) with one extra-base hit (double) in 16 games.

 

Friday's pitching matchup: Hudson is 2-2 with a 5.87 ERA and .330 opponents' average in his past four starts. Lefties are hitting .320 against him, and he's allowed a .406 average in the first inning. He's 3-5 with a 5.87 ERA in eight starts vs. Boston, his worst against any team in more than one decision. He went 0-2 with a 15.43 ERA in two starts against the Red Sox last season. Hudson is 1-3 with an 8.53 ERA in four starts at Fenway Park. Ortiz is 7-for-23 with a homer against him, Ramirez 8-for-24, and Damon 5-for-17. . . . Miller has no decisions in only two starts (both vs. Seattle) while allowing eight hits and three walks with 11 strikeouts in 10-2/3 innings. Lefties are 2-for-20 with eight strikeouts against him. He's 1-3 with a 6.66 ERA in five starts vs. Atlanta, his highest ERA against any team he's faced more than once. He was 0-2 with a 12.86 ERA in his last two starts against them in 2003. Chipper Jones is 7-for-14 against him; Rafael Furcal is 2-for-11 with a homer, and Andruw Jones is 4-for-12.

[Sox fan in Tex]

Series history: The Braves have won 22 of 33 between the teams in interleague play since 1997, and are 8-2 with a 2.39 ERA in the past 10. The Braves swept a three-game series at Boston in June 2002, their last visit to venerable Fenway.

 

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. Screw the numbers, bring on the Braves!

[RedSoxRooter]

Damn dead around here considering the Sox are up 4-0 with Miller throwing a no-.....

 

Shhhhhhhhh

[yeszir]

I forgot that the game was on UPN, so I assumed that it was a rainout since NESN was showing fishing shows. Whoops.

[YanksHater213]

Hahahahahhaa... I almost did the same thing...

[RedSoxRooter]

I thought 38 did the Friday night games... :dunno:

[soxie thefangirl]

yeah that's UPN. I remembered this time.

[YanksHater213]

Anyways, back to the game. Miller has been pretty good so far

[YanksHater213]

Miller is pulled after 6 and 1/3 allowing 1 run on 3 hits. Pretty damn good.

[RedSoxRooter]

SAHWEEEEEEEEEEEET. My bet works out. I'll owe no more than $20 and could win $120. Braves lose 4-3.

[yeszir]

SAHWEEEEEEEEEEEET. My bet works out. I'll owe no more than $20 and could win $120. Braves lose 4-3.

You got to watch this one on regular tv didn't you. Cool.

[RedSoxRooter]

yeth. TBS. It was actually pretty cool. The Braves announcers have switched so it was the radio guys on TBS. They talked up Fenway so well, it took the sting out of missing Remy and O-Dawg.

[soxie thefangirl]

well Foulke almost gave me yet another heart attack but amazing win. and Miller was fantastic. and yay for Billy's first homer of the season!

[schillingouttheks]

You can't help but feel a little worried about Foulke. He's lucky he didn't blow the need tonight.

[soxie thefangirl]

yeah a little worried to put it mildly.

[Sox fan in Tex]

Can someone tell me why UPN38 does some of the games? Why not just give them all to NESN whether you're in Boston or not?

[YanksHater213]

UPN does friday night games only. Ive got no idea why though

[soxie thefangirl]

UPN pisses me off. they always have some sort of weird technical difficulties. NESN should do them all.

[yeszir]

NESN should do all games widescreen like they do on Wednesdays. It's great watching baseball like that.

 

I would assume UPN finagled the rights to Friday games for monetary reasons. Sox are a big deal in New England.

[soxie thefangirl]

true.

 

I love Widescreen Wednesdays!

[RedSoxRooter]

When I was growing up in CT, it used to be that 38 did almost all the games. Then NESN came along and was a pay channel, but 38 still did a game or two a week including every Friday night. Nesn's now free (right?), but 38 still gets the Friday night games as sort of tradition.

 

It bugs me too as MLB Extra innings is only allowed to show Nesn games so they show the Friday games with Nesn's game interface and none of the 38 graphics. That means that if Remy starts talking about someones stats and they show a graphic of what the player has done, I don't see it.

 

 

And every time Remy or Orsillo do an on-air advertisment, the Nesn version cuts away to a pre-recorded ad, then cuts back to the game already in progress. Sucks. But better than nothing...

[soxie thefangirl]

NESN is still on cable so technically paid and UPN you can get in Boston without cable still. but NESN is one of the basic channels, so yeah.

[Zenny]

Shallow Thoughts by Jack Handey:

 

Dub was dominant last night.

We always manage to hit Hudson.

What the hell is wrong with Foulke?

[Sox fan in Tex]

It bugs me too as MLB Extra innings is only allowed to show Nesn games so they show the Friday games with Nesn's game interface and none of the 38 graphics. That means that if Remy starts talking about someones stats and they show a graphic of what the player has done, I don't see it.

 

Yep, I know exactly what you're talking about there. Another thing that sucks is when you have to watch another teams broadcast and they repeat about 10,000 times about the Red Sox that we're the World Series Champs. It's practically every other sentence.

[RedSoxRooter]

Another thing that sucks is when you have to watch another teams broadcast and they repeat about 10,000 times about the Red Sox that we're the World Series Champs.

THAT does not bother me one bit . Cuz it's like, so true!