Game time: 1:05 pm

Scheduled starters: Eric Bedard v. Bronson Arroyo.

Tim Wakefield is scheduled to pitch after Arroyo.



The game will be on NESN, WEEI, mlb.tv and mlb.audio


Fort Myers Weather: 10 am observation at Page Field: wind variable at 7 mph, visibility 7 miles, sky clear, temperature 74F, DP 61F


Forecast: Mostly clear skies, temperatures in the mid-80's and light winds from the southeast, becoming southwest later in the afternoon. The morning haze should burn off by noontime.

Anni

You mean today right?

Maybe having Varitek back (starting today) will help Arroyo's struggles in ST.

Just realized my mlb audio is updated automatically. I will be listening. Oh how i have missed joe and jerry.

Sox Lineup:

Crisp, cf
Lowell, 3b
Nixon, rf
Ramirez, lf
Varitek, c
Lowell, 3b
Youkilis, 1b
Graffanino, dh
Gonzalez, ss

Arroyo, p

Nice little 390 foot opposite field job by Manny there.

There need to be more spring training games on TV, though: I am very much in pre-season form as a fan. Youkilis just hit a lazy fly to left center, not very deep at all, and I was thinking "double" off the bat. Ha. Not even close.

No runs through 5 for Arroyo.

I think we can safely say that all our pitchers will have 0.00 ERAs when Tek is catching them.

Bronson did look like he was commanding his FB better than the last time I saw him, but the O's lineup is almost all RH. And Josh Bard is making catching Wake look positively routine. I assume that if the knuckler wasn't too good today, the hitters would be hitting it, so I guess Bard's getting the hang of it.

I've been saying this since the day we signed him, the Rudy Seanez era is going to suck.

Era and ERA.

Interesting comments from Arroyo in his postgame press conference -- sounds like he is expecting to be in the bullpen.

Which is, of course, a pretty realistic expectation for a guy who has an ERA of 173.59 in Spring Training. But he didn't sound like he lacked confidence, or like he was in any way bitter about the prospect of being there -- he just sounded like a realist, who knows that with the depth right now at SP, he's the most logical candidate for the pen.

Seanez did not look impressive. The Sox defense in the 9th did, though...

FINAL - SOX 3, Orioles 1

WP - Bronson Arroyo
S - Rudy Seanez

LP - Erik Bedard


SOX - 3R, 6H, 1E
Orioles - 1R, 6H, 1E

Bronson was saying that before he'd even had the lousy spring training starts, though. When he signed the contract, he said that he knows he'll probably be in the bullpen, but he'd rather be in the Sox bullpen than starting on another team.

Yup, the era will suck and the ERA will be gigantic.

Interesting strategy there with Lowell...

He went pretty in depth into it today. It's just good to hear a guy accept his role even though he'd rather be starting. That is in contrast to certain other guys on the roster.