Rays @ Red Sox

[ability]

Rays @ Red Sox: 9/8/08

September baseball is brilliant. Second only to what's yet to come next month. Perfect example -- tonight. Tonight will start off the most important series of the year for both teams involved. The Red Sox find themselves 1.5 games back in the division and closing fast. Tampa Bay is just trying not to choke away what has been an absolutely amazing season.

Jon Lester and Edwin Jackson will be starting tonight, both being key pitchers for both teams. Jon Lester more so for the Red Sox. Jon Lester has gone from promising youngster, to inspirational figure, to key starter for the Red Sox in a very short amount of time. Everyone saw the promise that had, few questioned if he'd ever put it together -- and he has. His velocity has nicely gone up, and his breaking ball/cutter combo has been fantastic all season. With a stat line of: W-L 13-5 | ERA 3.37 | K 129 |Walks 57 |WHIP 1.32. It should be easy to see how well he's taken to the learning curve while being a solid contribution to the ball club.

This is the first of 6 games these two teams will play against each other over the next 10 days and the Sox winning this series will put them in a great spot to take home the AL East title again this season. Tampa Bay has been struggling as of late, playing .500 baseball in their last 10 games. But it's worth noting head to head this season the teams are an even 6-6. More interesting is the fact that the home team has yet to lose a game.

I'll be "live blogging" on the game tonight since I'll be on the computer anyway as I have the MLB.tv package. First post on the new blog. Thanks for reading and keep checking back.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS:

courtesy of YahooSports!:

OF J.D. Drew took swings at live pitching for the first time on Saturday and voiced optimism that he’ll be ready to come off the 15-day disabled list during Boston’s homestand this week. Drew has been out of the lineup since Aug. 18 with a lower back strain, but he took batting practice against injured RHP David Aardsma and shagged flyballs in the outfield. Manager Terry Francona indicated that Drew is still feeling some level of discomfort, but the right fielder’s back is improving on a gradual basis. “More than anything now, it’s running full speed, getting breaks on balls,” Drew said. “It’s maybe the thing that I’ve got to be ready to do, standing flat-footed for two to three innings before you actually get a ball hit to you.”

[ability]

So far, so good. 3-0 in the first. Jason Bay continues to crush the ball.

[love_that_reefer]

Huge comeback win for the Rays!!