The Red Sox are up against a tough test in their first game back from the break as David Price will take the mound against the lefty-heavy Sox.
As has been the case throughout most of the year, Terry Francona will use the outfield to stack the lineup with as many right-handed hitters as possible. With Mike Cameron gone, the young Yamaico Navarro has taken over the left field duties in this situation. He's spent his whole career up until recently as a shortstop, but the Sox foresaw the need for some defensive flexibility and have had him working in the outfield plenty. He's only seen seven innings there in the majors, though, so it could still prove a challenge.
Boston Red Sox (55-35)
- Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
- Dustin Pedroia, 2B
- Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
- Kevin Youkilis, 3B
- David Ortiz, DH
- Darnell McDonald, RF
- Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
- Yamaico Navarro, LF
- Marco Scutaro, SS
The Rays' lineup has had a good few days to stew over the four-hitter dealt to them by CC Sabathia Sunday. They've been a relatively middle-of-the-road offensive team this year, but then again, that's not really where their bread is buttered, shall we say?
Tampa Bay Rays (49-41)
- Johnny Damon, DH
- Ben Zobrist, RF
- Evan Longoria, 3B
- B.J. Upton, CF
- Sean Rodriguez, 2B
- Casey Kotchman, 1B
- Kelly Shoppach, C
- Elliot Johnson, SS
- Sam Fuld, LF
Pitching Matchup: Andrew Miller (3-0, 3.57 ERA) vs. David Price (8-7, 3.70 ERA)
Andrew Miller is still providing the Red Sox winnable games, but there's not much question that his work against the Orioles was some of his worst on the season. Wild and hittable for all five innings, Miller did manage to limit the damage off of his six hits and four walks to just three runs, but it could have been quite a bit worse if not for the help of his defense. Miller needs to get his slurve back to being the swing-and-miss pitch it was earlier, and get some more consistency on his fastball command if he's going to survive the toughest challenge he's faced yet.
David Price is in need of a bounce-back game of his own after allowing eight earned runs in his last eleven innings. He has always been tough on lefties, which should help him against Adrian Gonzalez and David Ortiz (though Big Papi is actually hitting southpaws exceptionally well), but with Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis destroying opposite-handed pitching, the advantage that lefties were expected to hold against the Sox this year has been largely mitigated.
It may be no surprise, then, that Price hasn't exactly dominated the Sox in his first two outings. While he did very much manage to limit damage in his first game against them (7.2 innings, 2 earned runs), it was not done in terribly impressive fashion. And the five walks he allowed them one month ago will usually result in more than three earned in five innings. He'll have to do better than that if he wants to keep the weight off his offense's shoulders.