6/23 @ Rockies

[Flynnatic10]

John Lackey (8-3)

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2009/1216/bos_a_lackey1_sw_sq_300.jpg

 

vs.

 

Ubaldo Jimenez (13-1)

http://pendletonpanther.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/t1_1011_ubaldo.jpg

 

any predictions for tonight? sorry if i did this wrong

[yeszir]

Jesus Lackey is hideous.

[Flynnatic10]

no wonder why there are no boston pictures for him

[Palodios]

Looks like a solid game thread to me.

 

I'm going to make a bold prediction and say that the Sox will score between one and two runs on Jimenez who pitches seven innings. Beltre will get one of 5 Red Sox hits. Lackey will make Francona leave him in for 120 pitches, and he'll have a strong night, and make this a battle of the bullpens.

[VA Sox Fan]

RED SOX (43-29)

 

Marco Scutaro-SS

Dustin Pedroia-2B

Victor Martinez-C

David Ortiz-1B

Adrian Beltre-3B

Daniel Nava-LF

Josh Reddick-RF

Darnell McDonald-CF

John Lackey-P

 

Lackey RHP (8-3, 4.53).

 

My short lived mojo failed last night. I'll stick to posting the line ups for a while.

 

WIN.

[redsoxrules]

Red Sox score 8 tonight

[VA Sox Fan]

More from the Globe:

 

State of the Sox: The Red Sox have won six of their last seven games and start the day 1.5 games behind the Yankees, who are at Arizona tonight.

 

Facing the best: There's a term for the kind of season the 26-year-old Jimenez is having: Insane. In 101.1 inings, he has allowed only 65 hits (three of them home runs) with 36 walks and 88 strikeouts. Lefties are hitting .206 against him and righthanders .117. With runners in scoring position, Jimenez is allowing a .147 batting average.

 

The Sox have faced Jimenez once, in Game 2 of the 2007 World Series. He went 4.2 innings that day, allowing two runs on three hits and five walks.

 

Counting that game, here is how the Red Sox hitters have fared against Jimenez:

 

Cameron 1-8

Beltre 1-4

Lowell 1-2

Drew 1-2

Ortiz 0-2

Pedroia 0-2

Youkilis 0-2

McDonald 0-2

Varitek 0-2

 

Maybe there's a chance: Jimenez skipped the game yesterday because he wasn't feeling well. And his "worst" start of the season came against an American League East team, Toronto, on June 11 (6 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 6 K). Jimenez also has a career ERA of 3.79 against the AL, compared to 3.32 against the NL.

 

Unless this guy is 1968 Bob Gibson all over again, he's bound to mix in a stinker at some point. Maybe the Sox will be the team that gets to him.

 

Lucky Lackey: The righthander has won eight games in spite of a 4.53 ERA and a 1.58 WHIP. He has been better of late, posting a 3.62 ERA in his last five starts. Lackey faced the Rockies once, in 2008, and allowed three earned runs over eight innings.

 

Other stuff: Adrian Beltre (.398/.442/.706 at Coors Field in 242 career plate appearances) has hit safely in 11 straight games after going 2 for 3 last night. ... Not only does Mike Lowell rarely play, hes 5 of his last 40 when he does going back to May 4. ... Daniel Nava has reached base safely in all nine games he has played.

[VA Sox Fan]

ROCKIES (37-33)

 

Jonathan Herrera 2B

Todd Helton 1B

Carlos Gonzalez CF

Brad Hawpe RF

Seth Smith LF

Miguel Olivo C

Ian Stewart 3B

Clint Barmes SS

Ubaldo Jimenez RHP (13-1, 1.15).

[Palodios]

Jimenez has homefield advantage, and despite playing an AL team, Lackey won't help the team as much as Youk would. They need to grind it out and take pitches to win this one.

[Youk Of The Nation]

The Red Sox will lose this game.

[italstallianion]

I'm hoping for a 1-0 win....in extras.

[Spudboy]

The Red Sox will lose this game.

 

Careful with the negativism. You'll wake the Talksox Nazis.

[Youk Of The Nation]

I just have a bad feeling about this one.

[VA Sox Fan]

I just have a bad feeling about this one.

 

I had a bad feeling last night when Victah grounded out w/ the bases loaded.

 

Hoping our bats wake up tonight.

 

Quit being so damn negative before the damn game even starts!

[redsoxrules]

I had a bad feeling last night when Victah grounded out w/ the bases loaded.

 

Hoping our bats wake up tonight.

 

Quit being so damn negative before the damn game even starts! :lol:

 

I said earlier , Red Sox score 8 tonight

[FredLynn]

Look at the bottom four in our lineup tonite. Pretty large black hole there against the best pitcher in baseball. I sure hope that our GM is on the phone right now trying to get us some high quality OF help, like David Dejesus. Up until now, Nava and McDonald have overperformed, but that won't last. We've got a tough stretch of games coming up and I would hate to see this group populate our OF for the next 20 games or so.

[Palodios]

Mcdonald is fine against lefties, but they're smart enough to use him as a platoon unless they're desperate.

 

And who's to say that Nava can't keep it up? He's hit above .300 with .900+OPS every time he's had a full season anywhere, and he starting off hitting .294 with .856 in AAA this year. I have as much faith in him as any four star prospect.

 

They can last until Ellsbury gets back, Dejesus isn't enough of an improvement to warrant the prospects.

[Spudboy]

Mcdonald is fine against lefties, but they're smart enough to use him as a platoon unless they're desperate.

 

And who's to say that Nava can't keep it up? He's hit above .300 with .900+OPS every time he's had a full season anywhere, and he starting off hitting .294 with .856 in AAA this year. I have as much faith in him as any four star prospect.

 

They can last until Ellsbury gets back, Dejesus isn't enough of an improvement to warrant the prospects.

 

Spudboy fully agrees with this post.

 

The Sox need a pen arm.

 

Another OF ? That's crazy business. Drew will be back (hopefully soon) and Ellsbury should be back by mid July. As long as he regains his timing at the plate, the outfield is set.

 

Cameron does not worry me as I've reconciled that he will be limited the rest of the way.

 

I think McDonald has earned a shot at a full season and I am also intrigued by Nava. It may be wishful thinking, but theses guys can get it done. I've seen much worse out there.

 

Hermida is a Dud.

[Dipre]

What's up with the blatant baiting so early in the Game thread?

 

Anyways, looks to be a quality matchup.

[FredLynn]

Mcdonald is fine against lefties, but they're smart enough to use him as a platoon unless they're desperate.

 

And who's to say that Nava can't keep it up? He's hit above .300 with .900+OPS every time he's had a full season anywhere, and he starting off hitting .294 with .856 in AAA this year. I have as much faith in him as any four star prospect.

 

They can last until Ellsbury gets back, Dejesus isn't enough of an improvement to warrant the prospects.

 

Darnell McDonald has done great so far; no doubt about it. He is a career minor league player whose career BA is .251 in the majors with an OPS of .659. More than likely he will begin to regress towards his career stats. Daniel Nava is a great prospect, but still just a prospect-one who would benefit by some seasoning in the minor leagues. He went from A to AA in 09 and from AAA to the majors in 2010. Too much too fast to expect from this kid. The ODDS are that he too will regress if he is not given time in the minors that he needs to develop. As SPUD said, Hermida is a flop; and Cameron is playing hurt and in doing so is hurting the team. Drew has been productive but has a history of frequent injuries and not being willing to play through them. Who knows when Ellsbury will be back..my guess is August.

Sure we need bullpen help; that in no way precludes our need for an excellent OF too.

[Palodios]

The Sox need a pen arm.

 

You know, that's what I thought too, but I get the feeling they're going to try to make do with what they have. Okajima appears to be stabilizing, Atchison has turned into an acceptable longman, and Delcarmen doesn't appear to be having back problems anymore. I also think they're expecting that either Robert Manuel or Dustin Richardson will start contributing eventually. Obviously, come July if none of their prospects pan out, they'll need someone else, but I'm wondering if they're just thinking about holding onto their chips.

[Spudboy]

Darnell McDonald has done great so far; no doubt about it. He is a career minor league player whose career BA is .251 in the majors with an OPS of .659. More than likely he will begin to regress towards his career stats. Daniel Nava is a great prospect, but still just a prospect-one who would benefit by some seasoning in the minor leagues. He went from A to AA in 09 and from AAA to the majors in 2010. Too much too fast to expect from this kid. The ODDS are that he too will regress if he is not given time in the minors that he needs to develop. As SPUD said, Hermida is a flop; and Cameron is playing hurt and in doing so is hurting the team. Drew has been productive but has a history of frequent injuries and not being willing to play through them. Who knows when Ellsbury will be back..my guess is August.

Sure we need bullpen help; that in no way precludes our need for an excellent OF too.

 

Great post.

 

Too bad you said something other than complementary about Drew.

 

Good luck with that around here.

[FredLynn]

Great post.

 

Too bad you said something other than complementary about Drew.

 

Good luck with that around here.

 

JD has been just great when he plays...very productive and a solid defensive RF. I have no problem with him. He does seem to be injury prone though.

[Palodios]

The reason Nava moved up so fast was that he was a lot older and developed than a lot of the guys in A/AA because of his time in the independent league. Strasburg didn't need a ton of time, and he's a lot younger. And not everyone here is in love with Drew.

[Spudboy]

JD has been just great when he plays...very productive and a solid defensive RF. I have no problem with him. He does seem to be injury prone though.

 

I'm having a deja vu moment here. I've siad the same things and have seen three pages of s*** storm that resulted.

 

Word to the wise. Don't mention Beltre. Unless you are willing to bag lap.

[FredLynn]

The reason Nava moved up so fast was that he was a lot older and developed than a lot of the guys in A/AA because of his time in the independent league. Strasburg didn't need a ton of time' date=' and he's a lot younger. And not everyone here is in love with Drew.[/quote']

 

He spent one year in the "Golden Baseball League" and one in the "California League". Then on to A ball. Not really sure if those two independent leagues provide the same level of teaching as the RS minor leagues. Its still pretty fast. Hey-I hope he hits the hell out of the ball for the Sox. Just think he could benefit by a year at Pawtucket.

As for Drew, I think his statistics have been very good. He has the personality of drywall, so people are influenced sometimes by that. If he could play 140 games for the Sox we would be much better for it.

[FredLynn]

I'm having a deja vu moment here. I've siad the same things and have seen three pages of s*** storm that resulted.

 

Word to the wise. Don't mention Beltre. Unless you are willing to bag lap.

 

I am going to have to plead "Newbie" then Spud...and hope that this is a board where evidenced based opinions of all posters are respected, if debated.

[FredLynn]

By the way: its 3-0 Padres.

[Spudboy]

I don't think he's the second coming of Bob Gibson, but this kid has some stuff.

[jacksonianmarch]

I am going to have to plead "Newbie" then Spud...and hope that this is a board where evidenced based opinions of all posters are respected' date=' if debated.[/quote']

 

Everyone gets a chance here, some more than others. There is one on the site who will pick a fight with you over a misplaced comma, but the rest are cool