The Red Sox took on the Rangers today. I'll get to that in a moment, but first, some other happenings that could effect the Sox in the long run. The Rays won yesterday over the Yankees. The Red Sox thus gained a half game on the Yankees but fell a half game to the division leading Rays. The Twins ended their long road trip by losing again as they were swept by the Blue Jays. Boston now leads the Twins by 5.5 in the Wild Card. The Jays then helped the Red Sox some more today. They extended their winning streak to 6 in a win over the Rays. The Twins won and the Yankees currently trail the lowly Mariners 3-0 in the 7th as Brandon Morrow has a no hitter going for the Mariners. On to today's game.
Because of the Rays' loss, if the Red Sox were to win over the Rangers, not only would it be their 7th straight win over Texas, but it would move to Red Sox within 2.5 games of the division lead, the closest they would have been in a while. Helping the cause is the return of Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett. Lowell started at 3rd for the first time in over 3 weeks and Beckett made his first start since his return from the DL as well.
Both helped immediately. Beckett was limited to 80 pitches because the Sox are being conservative with him. However, he didn't need too many to get the win. The Sox scored early and often and had a 5-0 nothing lead in the 4th. That would be all Beckett would need as every single one of his 80 pitches were good ones. He shut down the potent Rangers' lineup going 5 shutout with 7 strikeouts. Manny Declarmen, Justin Masterson, and Hideki Okajima threw 4 innings giving up one run in relief, as that bullpen is looking better everyday. The Sox scored a total of 7 off of Rangers' starter Kevin Millwood and 8 in all, 4 of them coming off the bat of the recently activated Mike Lowell, who also homered in the game. In the end, it was an 8-1 victory for the Sox.
Kevin Youkilis, however, was not in the lineup for the Red Sox. He sat out once again with back spasms even though many thought that he'd be back today. He is still considered day to day which means we should see him in this series. However, the Red Sox, with a playoff spot almost wrapped up, need to play it safe with Youkilis. He is an important part of their lineup and they can't afford to have him miss time in the playoffs. Mark Kotsay has done a good job at first in Youk's absence.
The Sox continue their series in Texas tomorrow, looking for their 8th straight win over Texas and their 5 straight overall. Tim Wakefield goes for the Red Sox against young Matt Harrison of the Rangers. I expect a bad pitching performance from Wakefield because he is a flyball pitcher pitching in a park where flyballs become longballs very often and against a lineup that leads the majors in runs scored by a nice margin. However, the Red Sox offense, against Harrison and his 5.73 ERA, will keep them in it. Expect a high scoring, 8-7 or so, win for the Red Sox tomorrow.
