Seattle Mariners (11-15) @ Boston Red Sox (11-13)
Jason Vargas (0-2, 5.53) vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka(2-2, 4.09)
7:10 PM EDT | Fenway Park (Boston, Massachusetts)
TV: NESN RADIO: WEEI 850, SBN 1510
INJURY REPORT
Seattle: David Aardsma, torn hip labrum (placed on 15-day DL 3/30, retroactive to 3/22); Franklin Gutierrez, irritable bowel syndrome (placed on 15-day DL 3/30, retroactive to 3/22)
Boston: NONE
GAME NOTES
It seems the Red Sox have found their leadoff hitter. There was not much of a controversy at the beginning of the season who it should be (unless you wanted Crawford, which I did not), just a question of whether he would perform up to the job. Crawford, JD Drew, Jed Lowrie have all been inserted into the spot, if only temporarily. When the Red Sox departed for Oakland, Jacoby Ellsbury was hitting at a paltry .200; that dropped to .182 after the 2 games in Oakland. Since then, Ellsbury has raised his batting average to .264, mostly on the heels of two 3-for-5 performances the last two nights in Baltimore. His OBP currently sits at .326, still not quite what you want out of the leadoff hitter, but like his batting average it has been climbing, so I’ll withhold judgement for now.
LINEUPS
Seattle
Ichiro RF
Figgins 3B
Bradley LF
Olivo C
Smoak 1B
Cust DH
Kennedy 2B
Saunders CF
Ryan SS
Boston
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Youkilis 3B
Ortiz DH
Lowrie SS
Cameron RF
Varitek C
McDonald LF
PLAYER OF THE DAY
As I’ve been reminded on Twitter-verse today, on this day in 1986, coincidentally against the Seattle Mariners, Roger Clemens struck out 20 batters in one of the most dominatly pitched in baseball history. Rich Gedman was his catcher that day. I am too young to remember Gedman but since he did not play in the 1910s or 1920s like many of my players of the day, I’m sure many of you do. Gedman began his career in 1980 with the Red Sox and stayed in Boston until 1990 at which point he moved on to play for Houston and St. Louis. Gedman had an interesting beginning to his career; his first major league at-bat came as a pinch-hitting appearance for Carl Yasztremski. When Carlton Fisk was imfamously not resigned following the 1981 season, Gedman took over the catching duties with Gary Allenson. A native of Worcester, Gedman played in 1033 games in his career, hitting .252/.304/.286 with 88 HRs and 382 RBIs.