MANNYHOF24

Lester vs. Uehera First pitch 1:35 Win. BOSTON -- After Saturday night's 6-4 win over the Orioles, a clubhouse visitor informed Kevin Youkilis, tongue in cheek, that with four hits in the game, he is on pace for 309 hits this season. "Yeah, I don't think that will happen," Youkilis replied. "I'll leave that to Pedey [Dustin Pedroia]." While he may be content to leave such numbers to teammate and reigning American League MVP Pedroia, there's no denying what Youkilis has meant to the Red Sox in the early part of the season. "He's been our MVP, no question," outfielder Jason Bay said. "He's on base. He's getting big hits. Whatever it is. And I think with the struggles of some guys early, to have that, he's kind of been our, for lack of a better term, our rock in the middle of the lineup, as far as going out there and getting on base and doing everything, day in and day out. And without him, really I don't know where we'd be." Youkilis entered the game hitting .425, but his four hits Saturday -- two doubles, a single and a three-run home run -- boosted his average to .467. Youkilis and Bay have been the most consistent hitters in the lineup, while the rest of the offense is just beginning to find its rhythm. Youkilis had four of his team's six RBIs on Saturday, nearly doubling his season total to nine. Youkilis is also sporting eight multihit games in the team's first 11 contents, and he enters Sunday with a .500 on-base percentage. "He's swinging it as good or better than anyone in the league," manager Terry Francona said. "He's an intelligent hitter. He's using the whole field and he's hitting with authority. Last year, he grew into one of the premier hitters in the league, and he's just picking up where he left off." Josh Beckett, who started Saturday and improved his record to 2-1, was a prime beneficiary of Youkilis' production. "He's pretty special," Beckett said. "I've played with some really good hitters, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone that's as comfortable. It doesn't matter the count, he trusts his hands so much. And that's what keeps him from swinging at those pitcher's pitches. If he's 0-2, it doesn't matter. It's not like we feel like we're out of the at-bat. He gets a lot of hits with two strikes. He battles those pitches as good as anybody I've ever seen." But, for Youkilis, he's just doing what he knows he can do. He doesn't feel any differently at the plate. He's not seeing the ball any better than he ever has. "No, I'm just probably fortunate," Youkilis said. "I got a couple of good pitches to hit, and got good results. I think a lot of time you can't base on results. I think in Spring Training I couldn't get a hit, but I was hitting the ball good, just didn't get results. So for me, I'm just having good results, and I just got to keep having good at-bats. If you have good at-bats, you give yourself a good chance to get hits." Which his teammates appreciate. "He's had both real good at bats ... and he's hit some balls extremely well," catcher Jason Varitek said. "But that's due to his ability, his bat-to-ball ability and his ability to know the strike zone." Pitching matchup BOS: LHP Jon Lester (0-2, 9.00 ERA) Lester has opened the season in a funk, being belted around for 18 hits and 11 runs in losses to the Rays and Athletics. The lefty was the victim of a five-run second inning in his performance against Oakland. In that contest, he walked none and struck out five. Perhaps facing the Orioles will cure what ails Lester. Lester is 6-0 with a 2.81 ERA in eight career starts against Baltimore. BAL: RHP Koji Uehara (2-0, 7.20 ERA) Uehara has won each of his first two starts despite not going farther than five innings in either of them. The right-hander allowed seven earned runs in his last outing, which was part of a demolition derby three-game series against the Rangers. Uehara, an extreme strike-thrower, has had problems gripping the American baseball in each of his first two big league starts. Still, the rookie is one of Baltimore's most experienced starters and will need to pile up lots of innings this season. Tidbits Five of Varitek's seven hits this season have been for extra bases. ... Pedroia was caught stealing in the fourth inning Saturday night, marking just the fourth time in his career he's been caught -- which translates into an 87.9 percent success rate. ... Bay has reached base safely in 24 straight games, going back to Sept. 12, 2008. ... Youkilis and Bay have both reached base safely in all of the Sox's games this season. ... The last time Beckett allowed four walks in a game, which he did Saturday, was April 6, 2008, in Toronto. ... The Sox's team photo day was postponed Saturday because of the pregame rain and rescheduled for Sunday

gamethread will be up shortly.

good evening to you to sir.

Nice Start by Beckett.

Beckett vs. Eaton(scrub) Win. All of a sudden, Boston's offense has shown signs of life -- and the ability to put together a big inning. And the timing couldn't be better. Following their six-run eighth inning on Wednesday, which broke open a 2-0 game in Oakland, the Red Sox scored four in the second and three in the fifth on Friday, erasing a 7-0 deficit against Baltimore ace Jeremy Guthrie en route to a 10-8 win in the series opener. "Every time someone asks me if I see a sign or if we're hot, it always goes the other way. After all was said and done, we hit ourselves back into the game," manager Terry Francona said, leaving room for improvement. "And then we leave the bases loaded when we had a chance to separate it a little bit." Even with David Ortiz struggling, with three strikeouts on Friday and a .158 average, the Red Sox have scored 10 runs in their last 12 innings. They have set back-to-back season highs for runs after scoring just 29 over their first eight games. "It'll take time," said Jason Varitek. "Obviously, everybody's not swinging the bat great yet, but some people are swinging the bat well. I think, through the process, different people will, and it will lengthen our lineup." The length was right in the middle on Friday night, when J.D. Drew walked three times, tripled and homered while Jason Bay homered, scored twice and drove in three. "I think most guys haven't really soaked it up yet," Bay said. "I think that's a potential season-changing win." Pitching matchup BOS: RHP Josh Beckett (1-1, 3.46 ERA) After pitching a gem on Opening Day, Beckett had mixed results in his last start, giving up eight hits and four runs over six innings in a loss to the Angels. He threw 103 pitches in that game, 61 for strikes. This will be his 10th career start against the Orioles. In the previous nine, he is 4-2 with a 3.73 ERA. He has five walks and 15 strikeouts over his first two starts. BAL: RHP Adam Eaton (0-1, 9.00 ERA) Eaton was lit up for eight hits and four earned runs in his season debut, which came on an unwieldy 10 days' rest. He is taking his usual rotation turn in Boston, and he hopes to rebound from some encouraging work toward the end of his debut. He allowed all four runs in the second inning of his first start but fired two scoreless innings after that. The veteran was spent by that point, though, and was unable to pitch deeper into the game. Tidbits Boston's comeback on Friday night was the club's biggest in the regular season since climbing out of a seven-run hole on Sept. 11, 2007, to beat Tampa Bay, 16-10. The Sox trailed that game by seven runs in the middle of the fourth. ... Manny Delcarmen tossed 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief and hasn't allowed a run over his last 19 1/3 innings over 13 games dating back to Sept. 7. ... Bay has reached base safely in all 10 games this season

Looks like I get to make another gamethread bitches.

BOS: RHP Brad Penny (1-0, 4.50 ERA) Penny had a successful debut for the Red Sox, scattering five hits and three runs over six innings against the Angels on Saturday. He walked two in that game. This will be his second career start at Fenway Park, and first since 2003. Pitching for the Marlins at the time, Penny took the loss, giving up nine hits and nine runs over five innings. This will be Penny's first career start against the Orioles. BAL: RHP Jeremy Guthrie (2-0, 2.25 ERA) Guthrie threw six shutout innings in his start Saturday vs. the Rays and is 2-0 for the first time in his brief career. The right-hander has completed six innings in each of his past two starts, while Baltimore's other pitchers have yet to go that far. Guthrie has held opponents to a .261 batting average this year and has seemingly seen his hard-luck trend from last season reverse itself. Tidbits Jason Bay has reached base in all nine games, and 22 successive dating back to Sept. 22, 2008. ... Jacoby Ellsbury has played 182 consecutive errorless games in the outfield, a Red Sox record. ... Kevin Youkilis is hitting .472 in his first 36 at-bats. ... Bay, Mike Lowell, J.D. Drew and Youkilis all have two homers to tie for the team lead. Courtesy Ian Browne

What? Canada sucks.

I wasn't arguing playoff success, but ill take 3 good starts out of every 4. When healthy he was more consistent then Josh Beckett last year.

I owned you with Wakefield stats that you couldn't combat in yesterdays gamethread, bitch.

Wait, do you pay for MLB.tv then to watch the Red Sox?

Penny vs. Guthrie First pitch 7:10 Had to make this early, not sure if I was going to have a chance to tomorrow. Win.

No doubt. We may not have Manny anymore, but his mojo is still with us.

Let's hope we can go home and sweep the O's and get on a tear.

God, look at the stats objectively.

Wake has given the Red Sox exactly what they needed today. He has been so f***ing huge today.

Well there it goes.

perfect game was gone when Lowell made the error.

Damn Coco, why u gotta be so mean?

Just to follow up my what i was saying, in 2006 Wake had a ERA of 4.16 on September 13, and in 07 he had an ERA of 4.15 on August 25th. So yeah, essentially when he is healthy over the last four years he gives up about 4.15 runs per 9 innings, which any team would take.

2007 he pitched injured for a period which really jacked up his ERA, pretty much the same with 2006. His ERA's in those season are completely misleading as to how he pitched most of the season.

Honestly, the way this team is going, whatever happens with the Wake we are probably going to win, and thats huge.

JD f***ING DREW