The Sox won't be pulling any punches out of the gates against the Baltimore Orioles, slating their full lineup to go against Jeremy Guthrie in the first half of Monday's day-night doubleheader.
The good news is that, despite a few weaknesses caused by slumps, the Sox' lineup is on an individual level still performing fairly well when you consider the run prevention focused teams they've had to face. Kevin Youkilis is out, yes, but Mike Aviles has been teeing off on opposing pitchers of late, and if Gonzalez and Pedroia can find their swings against the mediocre pitching and defense of Baltimore, then suddenly everything will be right in the world again.
Boston Red Sox (87-65)
- Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
- Dustin Pedroia, 2B
- Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
- David Ortiz, DH
- Josh Reddick, RF
- Carl Crawford, LF
- Marco Scutaro, SS
- Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
- Mike Aviles, 3B
The Orioles' lineup, on the other hand, looks...unfinished.
Baltimore Orioles (62-89)
- Matt Angle, CF
- J.J. Hardy, SS
- Nick Markakis, RF
- Vladimir Guerrero, DH
- Matt Wieters, C
- Chris Davis, 1B
- Robert Andino, 2B
- Nolan Reimold, LF
- Josh Bell, 3B
Pitching Matchup: Kyle Weiland (0-2, 7.58 ERA) vs. Jeremy Guthrie (8-17, 4.22 ERA)
Amazingly, the Sox will somehow be on the wrong end of a matchup in this series, with the Orioles throwing the best they have against, arguably, the worst the Sox have.
Still, the numbers aren't entirely fair to Kyle Weiland, who had a good streak going through the first two innings of his last outing, but had things go terribly wrong when a broken bat forced Marco Scutaro out of the way of a ground ball, leading directly to one run and indirectly to the three-run homer from Longoria that followed. Instead of allowing one run in three-plus innings, Weiland allowed four in three. If he can pitch as well as he did last time, then he should actually give Boston a chance to win.
Unfortunately, Jeremy Guthrie might actually be able to hold the Sox down as well. He's been tremendously effective against them in three different games this year, and is on a good run of late. If his slider is on, then the only question for Baltimore might be whether or not the defense can do its job behind him.