Series Preview: Red Sox at Orioles (4/25-4/26)
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by user Tylersalt
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The Boston Red Sox head down the Atlantic coast to face the red-hot Baltimore Orioles for a two-game set on Wednesday and Thursday. Boston has the best record in the American League at 12-6 as of Tuesday morning, but Baltimore is not that far behind at 11-9. At first and second in the AL East, this is a quick opportunity for each team to get some distance in the division. Boston's pitching staff has been one of the best in the league, but this is little surprise given the high-profile acquisitions of the past two years in Daisuke Matsuzaka and game two starter Josh Beckett. Baltimore's pitching success has been less expected, but could be due to the influence of 2nd year pitching coach Leo Mazzone. On that note, let's take a closer look at the pitching match-ups for each of these two games.
Game 1
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Boston ace Curt Schilling got hit around during his last start against the New York Yankees, giving up 5 runs on 8 hits, including two home runs to Alex Rodriguez. He went 7 innings and struck out 5. Schilling has had really lopsided right-left splits, with a .155 BAA against lefties but a whopping .357 against righties. He's got to get that down to remain effective through the whole of the season.
Daniel Cabrera's problem has long been his control. He walked four in his first start of the year, but has only walked three in this three starts since. He's struck out a respectable 26 batters so far as well. His 1.32 WHIP leaves something to be desired, but Cabrera seems to finally be moving in the right direction under Mazzone's tutelage.
Top Performers: Miguel Tejada has hit .350 over his career against Schilling, and young Nick Markakis has 3 hits in 8 career AB's against the Boston ace, however much of the Baltimore lineup has had very little success against Schilling in their career. Cabrera has had good success limiting the power of the players of the current Boston lineup, allowing home runs to only Eric Hinske and Mike Lowell. However, several players have hit well off of him, especially Alex Cora (9-16).
Game 2
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Beckett has been one of the best pitchers in baseball so far this season, and seems to be growing into the ace role that the Red Sox hoped he would fill after giving up quite a bit to acquire him from the Florida Marlins before last season. He is tied for the major league lead in wins with former teammate Dontrelle Willis, and has only given up 1 home run, which was a problem he had last year. He also sports a K:BB ratio over 3:1.
Adam Loewen has been a good young pitcher for the Orioles this year, and promises to get even better as he grows and works with Mazzone. His big problem so far has been control, walking over a batter an inning in his four starts. It hasn't bitten him yet, but the Red Sox are the sort of team that makes you pay for walking batters. He'll need to throw strikes to have any hope of success on Thursday.
Top Performers: Tejada has only one hit against Beckett in 3 at-bats, but it was a home run. Jay Payton has 5 hits in 11 at-bats. Manny Ramirez is 3-4 with a home run against Loewen, Wily Mo Pena is 3-7, and Jason Varitek is 2-3.
