Game time: 1:05 pm

Scheduled starters: John Lester (3-0, 2.95) v. Josh Johnson (7-4, 2.20)

Miami weather: 11 am observation at MIA: Wind out of the east at 8 mph, visibility 10 miles, scattered clouds at 2,800 feet, broken layers at 8,000 and 30,000 feet, temperature 86F, DP 73F


Forecast: Hot and humid...

The tropical wave is now over SE Florida, and it is causing scattered showers and thundershowers. There's a lot of moisture in the air, and a potential for heavy downpours. There's a chance of some rain during the afternoon. Right now, the heaviest rain is southwest of the Miami area, as well as offshore to the southeast.

The wind will continue to be out of the east, which is blowing in, but that didn't stop Manny and Papi yesterday.

[codebox] Pos Player HR RBI AVG. Pos Player HR RBI AVG.
--- ------ -- --- ---- --- ------ -- --- ----
3B Youkilis, Kevin 9 39 .313 SS Ramirez, Hanley 3 20 .270
2B Loretta, Mark 3 33 .320 2B Uggla, Dan 13 44 .309
1B Ortiz, David 25 74 .276 3B Cabrera, Miguel 12 54 .343
LF Ramirez, Manny 22 60 .309 LF Willingham, Josh 9 39 .264
RF Nixon, Trot 6 42 .332 1B Helms, Wes 5 15 .255
C Varitek, Jason 7 38 .248 C Olivo, Miguel 9 31 .291
CF Crisp, Coco 3 13 .277 RF Borchard, Joe 6 18 .228
SS Cora, Alex 0 9 .307 CF Abercrombie, Reggie 3 14 .214
P Lester, Jon (3-0, 2.95) P Johnson, Josh (7-4, 2.20) [/codebox]

Youk!!!!

Youk: "Take that, Foulkelore!"

YOOOOUUUUKS!

Or, as ESPN, would say, "Yooooooouuuu!"

Man, we need to get a real lead off hitter. That Youks dude just isn't fast enough. Did you see how slowly he rounded the bases just now?!?

Yeah...and how is Papi supposed to get RBI's if he keeps doing that?

Oops, Jon.

wow, talk about good swings... two really hard hit balls

Was Miguel Cabrera this fat last year?

Lester looking like sh!t.... He got lucky on the DP

nice K though.....

Seems like he is just missing the corners.

As long as he keeps us in the game, I'll live with it. And considering he is 3-0, I feel stupid saying that to begin with. We knew when he was coming up that his control was nothing special and needed lots of work. He continues to show that is all.

Ump is squeezing him, too. Our bullpen is OK if he can just keep us hanging around. It's got to be hot and humid as all getout, too, maybe that's affecting him. Perhaps he'll settle down.

El Capitan

The captain makes it happen.

The offensive plan for both teams : Hit Solo Homeruns.

I agree, He was walking a lot of guys in AAA and up until last start it wasn't a problem. He needs to work on it and i suspect that he will. This is what young pitchers do. Your right though he just needs to keep them in the game.

Ball's really flying out. It's 96 and 50% humidity up here in DC, I dread to think what it is in Florida.

Fake edit: OK, 85 degrees, feels like 92, with 71% humidity. About the same.

I just have this comment:

FSN announcer: "You could say he got Tekked there. A Tek message."

Dude, please, do quit your day job...but not to become a comedian.

That was ball 4 to Lester. Oh well.

Jon, can you please pitch better? Thanks.

This is getting ugly.

Oh awesome. The Sox still have Andy Marte. That rules.

He just doesn't have it today....He is getting hit really really hard. His last four inning of pitching have been awful.

He has nothing today. Pull him, Tito. Don't wait until it gets out of hand and shoots his confidence to sh*t. It's rapidly approaching that.

He danced through the raindrops against NY, but this game has been rather discouraging for Lester.

33 pitches through 1+ inning. Not good.

I came here specifically to mention this...the Florida broadcasters just said that Andy Marte was a prospect in the Boston system.

Nice prep work, fellas.

Just need one more, but Cabrera is up.

We needed that out big time.

Isn't there supposed to be some dude in the dugout called a pitching coach that comes out to discuss when you're sucking? Where is he?

I completely disagree. If they don't give him a chance to try to work through this, they're showing no confidence in him, which would be worse.

And there you go!

Apparently, all you had to do is ask.

Houdini.

They should just intentionally walk the first three batters of every inning. Lester is a better pitcher with the bases loaded.

Nipper probably wanted to stay in the shade.

WOW. I was just thinking where the hell is Nipper...apparently, who needs him when you have Varitek.

And the confidence killing experience goes the other way. Lester's gotten himself into bigtime trouble this year, and then pulls a Houdini act.

WOW. He got out of it. Nice job, Lester! I apologize for wanting to pull your plug so soon. But still...it was really hairy there.

Yeah. I came here specifically to mention their bad, awful, misguided attempt at a pun/joke on Tek's home run.

Their continued excellence has kept me in the game thread.

These guys are so bad that I'm listening to European pop music while watching with the sound off. It's vastly preferable, plus it's very funny.

New Nickname?


All according to plan. Papi!

Papi likes this ballpark.

Nice hitting there on the (should've been) 2-0 count.

Is it me, or is this ump giving Johnson a bigger strike zone (especially the low strike) than he's giving Lester?

I was thinking the same thing.

This strike zone is irritating, but I just can't get mad at Joe West. He was the crew chief in the 2004 ALCS during that game where they overturned all those calls in our favor. For that, I will be eternally grateful to him.

I love how even in the game threads, we're so used to Papi that a HR barely warrant a mention, yet the suckitude of the FLA announcers is the topic du jour.

They do suck, however. No doubt about that.

Where was that ball 3 curve ball? That looked it broke to the middle of the plate. Where did that miss????

Lester is giving me the creeps today. I'm going to avoid watching the bottom half of innings. Maybe it'll bring him luck. It got him out of that bases-loaded jam.

I'm not convinced that West is really paying attention. I think he's just dozing off and making up the calls as he goes along.

That's OK, we still love you Papi.

Man, Ortiz sucks. Think we could get anthing for him on the trade market?

That should not have been charged an error to Papi.