Game Time: 7:05 pm

Scheduled Starters: Brandon Duckworth (1-2, 5.40) v. Jon Lester (4-0, 2.89)

Boston weather: 1 pm observation at BOS: Wind out of the southwest at 15 mph, visibility 10 miles, few clouds at 25,000 feet, temperature 95F, DP 70F

Forecast: A few thunderstorms have already formed across northern NY and NE ahead of a cold front that will be in the Boston area around game time. Satellite imagery shows cumulus clouds are developing along the frontal boundary.

We've got all the ingredients for a couple good thunderstorms; conditions are conducive to some of these storms being severe.

So, there's a chance of severe weather later this afternoon into early evening. After the daytime heating slows down, the threat will diminish. There is no way to predict where a thunderstorm may form, and most areas will not see any rain. Those that do should prepare for a potentially severe storm.

Outside of thunderstorm activity it will be HOT and HUMID. The wind at game time will be out of the west to southwest at around 15 mph. That's blowing OUT. Good thing Beckett's not pitching! After frontal passage, the wind will be more northwest/north, which is blowing out toward right/across from third toward right.

Anni

[codebox]Kansas City Boston
----------- ------

Pos Player HR RBI AVG. Pos Player HR RBI AVG.
--- ------ -- --- ---- --- ------ -- --- ----
LF DeJesus, David 4 24 .307 1B Youkilis, Kevin 10 44 .287
DH German, Esteban 1 12 .341 2B Loretta, Mark 3 37 .300
2B Grudzielanek, Mark 3 27 .286 DH Ortiz, David 32 90 .280
RF Brown, Emil 6 46 .284 LF Ramirez, Manny 24 67 .306
1B Graffanino, Tony 5 31 .272 RF Nixon, Trot 6 44 .302
3B Teahen, Mark 9 34 .269 3B Lowell, Mike 12 50 .300
SS Berroa, Angel 6 36 .248 C Varitek, Jason 9 41 .242
CF Gathright, Joey 0 6 .209 CF Crisp, Coco 4 16 .274
C Buck, John 8 32 .243 SS Gonzalez, Alex 6 29 .281
P Duckworth, Brandon (1-2, 5.40) P Lester, Jon (4-0, 2.89)[/codebox]

¿Dónde está el mojo? Más mojo por favor.

Weather is looking great so far, there are still Severe T-storm watches up and talk of another south of Boston. So the experts down in OK are seeing the ingredients for storms but as of yet nothing is south of Concord, NH.

It seems to be drying out a little... Maybe we'll dodge the bullet and get through the game without a storm. There's a solid line of cumulus from central ME right down through the Bridgeport area; right now the leading edge of it is just west of Worcester. We've had a lot of heating, and the CAPE values are still really high, but so far nothing's happened...

http://www.redsoxnation.net/forums/index.p...st&p=553409

Birthday Mojo!

http://www.famousbirthdays.net/july18.htm

John Glenn, Hunter S. Thompson, Nelson Mandela, *and* Vin Diesel
From this it can be deduced....
...October is a *very* busy month

And you can't celebrate a birthday..............without birthday cake...mojo!!

Loretta got to a ball! Celebrate!

While I wasn't watching, Tek got moved down in the order. Very nice. Particularly tonight, since Lowell pounds Duckworth (yes, it's a small sample size, 20 ABs). His average is low, but he's slugging .750!

Attaboy loretta! Ok Lester... good command today!

Um, Mr. DeMuth, sir, where was that?

THAT is bullshit. ****in' umps.

oh friggin a... This is the Royals kid... nobody has more than 9 home runs. Let them swing.

K.

Very nice 1st.

Words of advice from Jon Lester:

seeKK the dugout.

Ahah Brandon Duckworth. What a shit return for Wagner.

Thanks to the Royals for swinging at pitches out of the strike zone.

Three run bomb for Richie Sexson.

AHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3-0 Seattle!! Somebody get Ponson a beer!

We don't plan on making Duckworth look good, do we?

It's gross that we did not score 4 runs that inning. Oy. Brandon. ****ing. Duckworth.

Oh, and Papi, BUNT!!! There was about 1.5 football fields of open space to the left side of the field. No, I won't get off this bunting thing

How is that pitch (1-1) not a strike?

How was that not batter interferance? He was directly in the path of where Tek would've had to throw...

And when did the Royals trade for Gathright?!

Yeah I don't know he blocked any throw that would have been made.

Random thought: When they told Gathright that he had been traded, the first thing he must have thought was that he wouldn't be stuck on such a bad team. And then he finds out he was traded to the Royals.



Recently, I'm not sure exactly when but sometime in June I think, they traded a pitching prospect for him.

WTF? He's now struck out Loretta, Ortiz, and Manny.

This is completely random, but Keith Foulke has an 0.29 G/F this year. That's horrifying.

Yanks cut it to 3-2 on an Andy Phillips HR.

Well, it's better than a 0.29 G/HR ratio.

You know those 6 HR in 32 IP he's given up? The scary thing is that the laws of baseball say he should be giving up more.

na it was for a bucket of golf balls, in the mean time they turned down a deal that would of landed them Lester and Hansen for Lugo.

This past half inning is sort of what I mean about Remy. We hear about his new TV screen amd his trip to Watertown, but nothing about what is going on in the game. What is Duckworth doing out there to be so good? Why is Nixon slumping?

I think Remy is a couch potato who shows up for the broadcasts, but doesn't do a lot of mingling with the players and FO to dig up some scoop for us.

did Lester just get hit? he OK?

So did Lester get dinged? What does this mean: "John Buck grounds out, pitcher Jon Lester to second baseman Mark Loretta to first baseman Kevin Youkilis. "-From gamecast.

Lester's getting a lot of ground balls.


Buck hit a chopper, Lester jumped and it bounced off his glove.

Wow, only 39 pitches through 3 for Lester. Maybe he'll get to see the 7th inning tonight.

Edit: Thanks, guys, for the update on the Lester2Loretta play.

It tipped off Lester's glove when he reached over his head, and deflected to Loretta.

That's the fastest inning I ever remember Lester pitching.

he deflected with the tip of his glove a high chopper. He just deflected it slightly to Loretta, but it wasn't too fast, although it was right up the middle, although he probably lifted the ball higher in the air (Loretta had to wait for it to come down and then had to throw real quick to first to beat the runner). Perhaps Gonzo would have made the play, or else it would have been a single to center. He tried to make a defensive play though, he did not get hit at all.

Gonzalez ripped that ball to LF, too bad it held up.

This game is going by really fast for a Red Sox game.

Yeah, gameday say he has 6 groundouts/0 flyouts. Not bad.

I cannot believe we are getting shut out by Gary Busey.

Hey, Gary'll bust you inside if you dig in too hard in the batter's box. He's crazier than Tavarez.

Duckworth is pitching a great game. The ox hitters still don't have a clue what he will throw next. He has 2 different fastballs going, a curve and a change, is mixing them up well, and has great location.

So far.

That sounds a bit like Kyle Snyder. I guess we'll KO him in the 5th.

When the hell is the offense going to wake up... They have been shut down by some "not so good" pitchers the past couple weeks....

Is this Jon Lester or Brandon Webb?

A great 5 innings from Lester. That line out to Manny was the first well hit ball all night.

Does anyone have a pitch count on Lester?

68. Pretty good; hopefully he can go 7 tonight.

First signs of life since the 2nd inning. Could've been a HR.