The Red Sox will give Conor Jackson the start in right field Sunday afternoon, even if nobody is really sure why.
Having gone 4-for-4 in the Sox' blowout against the Rangers has apparently not earned Josh Reddick a second straight start, presumably because of the lefty on the mound. What is interesting is that Conor Jackson may have taken over the starting RF job in games against southpaws from Darnell McDonald. This is odd because, while Jackson does have better numbers on the year than the woeful McDonald, his numbers against lefties are actually worse.
The purpose of the trade continues to perplex.
Boston Red Sox (84-54)
- Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
- Dustin Pedroia, 2B
- Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
- Kevin Youkilis, 3B
- David Ortiz, DH
- Conor Jackson, RF
- Carl Crawford, LF
- Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
- Marco Scutaro, SS
The Rangers will feature a few "new" faces today:
Texas Rangers (79-61)
- Ian Kinsler, 2B
- Elvis Andrus, SS
- Josh Hamilton, LF
- Michael Young, 3B
- Adrian Beltre, DH
- David Murphy, RF
- Mike Napoli, C
- Mitch Moreland, 1B
- Endy Chavez, CF
Pitching Matchup: John Lackey (12-10, 5.94 ERA) vs. Matt Harrison (10-9, 3.54 ERA)
It's been a while since John Lackey has really had a disaster outing, but he also went through all of August without a single start in which he allowed fewer than three runs. Is he keeping the Sox in games? Yes, and in many ways that's the most important thing, but he's still not winning any for them, which is what the team has always been hoping for and really expecting of him. Two starts ago he went 6.2 innings against the Rangers, giving up four earned runs in the process, which given the way this series has gone should be enough to win.
That will be especially true if Matt Harrison repeats his last performance against the Red Sox, allowing seven runs to come across in just five innings. The Sox kind of exposed the young lefty, who had been beating up on mediocre offenses, and with Kevin Youkilis back in the lineup (albeit without a hit so far), hopefully it will just prove an even more unwinnable situation.