Minnesota Twins(12-20) @ Boston Red Sox (16-18)
Nick Blackburn(2-4, 4.41) @ Josh Beckett (2-1, 2.35 )
7:10 PM EDT |Fenway Park (Boston, MA.)
TV: NESN, ESPN RADIO: WEEI 850, WWZN 1510
INJURY REPORT
Minnesota: Trevor Plouffe, strained left hamstring (Day-to-day, left Sunday’s game in the eighth inning); 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 on the 15 day DL April 9th); Delmon Young, rib soreness (Placed on the 15 day DL April 27th, retroactive to to April 19th)
Boston: Marco Scutaro, strained left oblique (Placed on the DL May 8th)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 finish up an eleven game home stand, and hope to make it a winning one tonight against the Minnesota Twins. After dropping two of three to Seattle, and splitting a four game set with the Angels, the Sox have the chance to take three of four from Minnesota tonight to end their home stand with a 6-5 record. Josh Beckett starts for the Sox, one start removed from an early exit due to a long rain delay. Beckett pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings before the tarp came out. He looks to continue his dominant season, and pick up his third win. Nick Blackburn gets the nod from Minnesota, pitching in place of Francisco Liriano, who came down with flu like symptoms after tossing a no-hitter in his last start. Before his last start against Chicago, Blackburn was coming off an 0-3 stretch, in which he gave up at least 5 runs in every start. He turned it around in Chicago, pitching 6 2/3 innings, only giving up four hits and one run. The Sox have a chance to pick up some games in the division this week with series against Toronto and New York, but tonight they have to focus on besting Minnesota and leaving Fenway with a winning record on this home stand.
Lineups
Twins
- Denard Span, CF
- Matt Tolbert, SS
- Jason Kubel, DH
- Justin Morneau 1B
- Danny Valencia, 3B
- Michael Cuddyer, RF
- Ben Revere, LF
- Rene Rivera, C
- Luke Hughes, 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
- Jason Varitek, C
Stats
-Dustin Pedroia is mired in a eight of sixty-one slump. He has good numbers against Blackburn: .400/.455/.500 in ten at bats.
-Blackburn is 2-0 with a 3.20 ERA in three career starts against Boston.
-BABIP against Beckett: .191
-Jed Lowrie is hitting .229 over his last 48 plate appearances.
-Beckett’s K/9 is actually down this year at 8.22. His career average is 8.51.
-Darnell McDonald has had 5 at bats since April 21st.
-Beckett has only thrown 10 1/3 innings in the last 17 days.
Enjoy the game everyone. Feel free to give your two cents in the comment section, we’d love to hear your opinions.