Minnesota Twins(11-18) @ Boston Red Sox (14-17)
Scott Baker(1-2, 3.16) @ Tim Wakefield (0-0, 4.08 )
7:10 PM EDT |Fenway Park (Boston, MA.)
TV: NESN RADIO: WEEI 850, WWZN 1510
INJURY REPORT
Minnesota: Tsuyoshi Nishioka, broken leg (Placed on the 15 day DL April 7th); Joe Mauer, bilateral leg weakness (Placed on the DL April 14th); Jason Repko, right quad strain (Placed on the 15 day DL May 2nd); Jim Thome, oblique strain (Placed on the 15 day DL May 3rd, retroactive to May 1st); Kevin Slowey, shoulder strain (Placed ont he 15 day DL April 9th); Delmon Young, rib soreness (Placed on the 15 day DL April 27th, retroactive to to April 19th)
Boston: Dan Wheeler, strained calf (Placed on the 15 day DL May 5th); Bobby Jenks, bicep soreness (Placed on 15 day DL May 5th, retroactive to May 2nd)
GAME NOTES
The Red Sox continue their longest home stand of the year as the injury ravaged Minnesota Twins come to town Friday night. Minnesota has struggled to an 11-18 start without the face of the franchise, Joe Mauer, and other key players like Jim Thome and Delmon Young. Tim Wakefield gets his second start of the season in place of Daisuke Matsuzaka who had to pitch out of the bullpen in Wednesday’s thirteen inning loss to the Angels. Wakefield pitched well in his last start against Seattle, going 5 2/3 innings and only giving up one run and three hits while striking out three. Scott Baker gets the start for the Twins. Baker has pitched well this season, and has been victim to some hard luck losses. He comes off a 6 1/3 inning performance against Kansas City in which he gave up 2 runs and struck out 2. Scott Atchinson was sent back down to Pawtucket this morning after pitching 3 2/3 innings in yesterday’s blow out. He is replaced by Alfredo Aceves, who will be available out of the pen tonight. The Twins may be the only team in the majors who have had a more disappointing start to the season than Boston. The Sox look to keep it that way tonight.
Lineups
Twins
- Denard Span, CF
- Trevor Plouffe, SS
- Justin Morneau, 1B
- Jason Kubel, DH
- Michael Cuddyer, RF
- Danny Valencia, 3B
- Ben Revere, LF
- Drew Butera, C
- Alexi Casilla, 2B
Red Sox
- Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
- Dustin Pedroia, 2B
- Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
- Kevin Youkilis, 3B
- David Ortiz, DH
- J.D. Drew, RF
- Jed Lowrie, SS
- Carl Crawford, LF
- Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
Stats
-Carl Crawford’s line hitting leadoff (32 AB’s):.094/.121/.125, compared to eighth (36 AB’s): .278/.316/.389
-The Twins have scored three runs or less in seven straight games, and have not won more than two games in a row all season.
-Wakefield is 14-6 with a 4.31 ERA in 27 appearances against Minnesota.
-Minnesota has lost seven straight games at Fenway, dating back to 2009.
-J.D. Drew and Crawford have the best numbers against Baker, hitting .444/.444/.667 in nine Ab’s and .429/.500/.786 in fourteen AB’s respectively.
-Minnesota ranks last in the majors in runs (89), On Base Percentage (.292), and Slugging Percentage (.323.)
-Adrian Gonzalez is now the only player on the roster that has started every game.