Red Sox @ Rangers (April 6th-8th)

[Molina00]

Game 1 Matchup
Tim Wakefield (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Robinson Tejeda (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
1:05 PM Central on Fox 4

Game 2 Matchup
Julian Tavarez (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Kevin Millwood (0-1, 5.40 ERA)
7:05 PM Central on My27

Game 3 Matchup
Curt Schilling (0-1, 11.25 ERA) vs. Vicente Padilla (0-1, 11.57 ERA)
7:05 PM Central on ESPN

Game 1 Matchup
Wakefield: This will be Wakefield's first start of the season. He is 4-10 with a 5.95 ERA lifetime against Texas and went 0-1 with a 7.59 ERA against the Rangers last season.

Tejeda: Finished strong last season going 4-2 with a 2.32 ERA over his last 9 starts of the season, and was the Rangers player of the month for September. Hopefully his hot pitching can carry over to this season and he can snap the Rangers 3 game skid.

Game 2 Matchup
Tavarez: Has made 19 career appearances against the Rangers, all of them in relief. In those appearances Julian has posted a 2-3 record with a 5.86 ERA. This will be Tavarez's first start of the season.

Millwood: In Monday's season opener Kevin went 5 innings, gave up 3 runs on 5 hits, and struck out 5 taking the loss against the Angels. He has pitched well in his career against Boston though going 3-3 with a 4.12 ERA in 9 career starts against them.

Game 3 Matchup
Schilling: In Schillings season opening start against the Royals he gave up 5 runs on 8 hits over 4 innings and struck out 5. He has pitched well against the Rangers however, posting a 4-0 record with a 3.82 ERA in 8 career appearances against Texas. The Rangers will be looking for more of Schilling's Sunday performance though.

Padilla: He was hit hard in his first start of the year against the Angels, allowing 6 runs on 9 hits over 4.2 innings for the loss. He pitched very well against Boston last season though going 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA in 2 starts against them. Manny Ramirez is just 1 for 8 striking out 4 times in his career against Padilla.

[Molina00]

I just realized today's game was already going, and it's going great so far. Top of the 7th and the Tejeda has shut out the Sox so far and the Rangers lead 2-0. Tejeda has only allowed 2 hits over his 7 scoreless innings of work.

Now going into the bottom of the 7th with a 2-0 lead and Brad Wilkerson leading off.

[Molina00]

Bottom of the 7th
Pitching for Boston: Hideki Okajima

1) Brad Wilkerson: Took 2 called strikes and then 4 straight balls to draw the walk.
2) Gerald Laird: Grounds out. Runner on 1st with 1 out.
3) Ian Kinsler: Lines out to rightfield. Runner on 1st with 2 out.
4) Kenny Lofton: Was up 3-0 in the count but ended up flying out to leftfield to end the inning.

Rangers lead 2-0 going into the 8th.

[Fishercat]

Tejeda has made the Sox look foolish, ruining a great start (for him) from Wake.

Now Benoit is in, he's given the Sox trouble too.

[Molina00]

Top of the 8th
Pitching for Texas: Joaquin Benoit

1) Dustin Pedroia: Strikes out swinging.
2) Julio Lugo: Draws the walk. Runner on 1st with 1 out.
3) Kevin Youkilis: Grounds out to 3rd base, Lugo goes to 2nd.
4) David Ortiz: Grounds out to 2nd base.

Rangers lead 2-0 going into the bottom of the 8th.

[Molina00]

Bottom of the 8th
Pitching for Boston: Hideki Okajima

1) Matt Kata: Lines out to 3rd base.

Pitching Change: Kyle Snyder replaces Hideki Okajima.

2) Michael Young: Lines out to shortstop.
3) Mark Teixeira: Hit by the pitch. Runner on 1st with 2 out.
4) Nelson Cruz: Strikes out to end the inning.

Rangers lead 2-0 after 8.

[Molina00]

Top of the 9th
Pitching for Texas: Aki Otsuka

1) Manny Ramirez: Singles to rightfield. Runner on 1st, nobody out.
2) J.D. Drew: Strikes out swinging. Runner on 1st, 1 out.
3) Mike Lowell: Grounds into a force out. Ramirez is out at 2nd, Lowell safe at 1st. Runner on 1st with 2 out.
4) Coco Crisp: First pitch swinging, grounds out to secondbase to end the game.

The Rangers have won their first game of the season 2-0 over the Red Sox.

[Molina00]

Tejeda has made the Sox look foolish, ruining a great start (for him) from Wake.

Now Benoit is in, he's given the Sox trouble too.

Wakefield did pitch an very good game, the error didn't help a lot either. Unfortunately for you're boys Tejeda brought his A game. He only threw 77 pitches over his 7 scoreless innings.

Game Recap
The only scoring in this one was in the first 2 innings. The Rangers scored single runs in the 1st and 2nd innings for the only runs of the game. Tim Wakefield pitched very well for Boston going 6 innings allowing just 2 runs on 3 hits and striking out 4. He was outpitched by Robinson Tejeda who gave up only 2 hits over 7 scoreless innings for the Rangers first quality start of the season. Joaquin Benoit shut out the Sox in the 8th and Aki pitched a scoreless 9th for his first save of the season.

[Molina00]

Game 2 Recap
The Rangers got some more solid pitching from their starter, this time it was Kevin Millwood going 6 innings for the win. Julian Tavarez lasted just 4 innings giving up 4 runs on 6 hits for Boston.

The Red Sox scattered their runs through the game scoring in the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th innings while the Rangers scored their runs in bunches. Down 2-0 going into the bottom of the 3rd, Texas put 4 runs on the board against Tavarez to take a 4-2 lead. The Red Sox made it a 4-3 game with a run in the 6th but the Rangers responded by scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the inning again. Two of those runs came off of Sammy Sosa's first homerun of the year, the 589th of his career, and his 2nd career blast as a Ranger. His first was in his rookie year back in 1989.

The Rangers went on to 8-4 and are a win away from sweeping Boston after starting the season being swept by the Angels.

[Molina00]

Game 3 Recap
The Rangers got solid pitching for the 3rd straight game against Boston with Vicente Padilla going 7 innings and allowing 3 runs on 4 hits. He was outdueled by a superb performance from Curt Schilling however, who allowed just 1 run and struck out 6 over 7 innings.

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning, Frank Catalanott homered off Schilling to tie the game at 1. Had it not been for David Ortiz, who hit 2 homeruns and drove in all 3 Boston runs, the Catalanotto homerun would have been enough for the Rangers. Instead with the game tied at 1 in the 3rd, Ortiz hit a 2-run homerun to give Boston a 3-1 lead. That was the end of the scoring until the 8th inning when the Rangers tacked one more on Joel Pineiro to make it a 3-2 game. That was it for the Rangers though as the Red Sox went to Papelbon to close it out. Papelbon dominated the Rangers hitters striking out 3 in 1.2 perfect innings to nail down the save and keep Boston from being swept.

The Rangers fall to 2-4 and back into the AL West celler.