Game time: 7:05 pm PDT (10:05 pm EDT)

Scheduled starters: Kyle Snyder (3-2, 6.35) v. Joe Saunders (4-1, 3.64)

Anaheim weather: 10 am PDT (1 pm EDT) observation at SNA: wind out of the south at 7 mph, visibility 9 miles, sky clear, temperature 76F, DP 61F

Forecast: Clear and cool this evening, with a light wind out of the south. That's blowing out.

From today's LA Times:

Diane Pucin - Red Sox Nation Fans Out; Wherever the team goes, it finds legions of supporters, and Angel Stadium is a hotbed of Boston backers


When the Angels play host to the Red Sox beginning tonight, and again when the New York Yankees arrive for three games starting Friday, the Angel Stadium crowd will include more than a fair share of fans rooting for the visitors.

"There's a lot of them, and they are all over the country," Dodgers pitcher Derek Lowe said of the fans who follow his former team. "It amazes me."

Lowe, who played more than seven seasons for the Red Sox and had a key role in their 2004 World Series championship, can't explain the steadfast allegiance of Boston fans.

"Maybe it's the mentality there," he said. "They are passionate. And it's generational. It gets passed on."


...

John Dukakis expects to find plenty of like-minded fans sitting all through the Anaheim ballpark when he goes to see his Red Sox.

Dukakis, 48, whose father, Michael, was Massachusetts governor and a presidential candidate, is a Los Angeles entertainment manager who prefers the team he grew up with "because the Red Sox are special, you know?"


...


Jim Conners, owner of Santa Monica bar and Red Sox fans hangout Sonny McLean's, is taking a bus of about 50 fans to Angel Stadium Thursday night. Like Vincent, he had to buy an extra 50 tickets to an Angels-Rangers game.

Is he going to use those Rangers tickets? "No way," Conners said.

Conners moved from Boston to Los Angeles 10 years ago to attend film school. That hasn't worked out, but being a misplaced Red Sox fan is a good gig, he said.

"Going to Angel Stadium is great," he said. "We've always made more noise than the Angels fans and no one hassles us."

Joe Saunders. Will the rookie pitcher shut us down (as most do), or will our slumbering offensive juggernaut wake up in time to figure him out.

Late night baseball is back? When did it ever leave? I was up to nearly 2:00 a.m. Sunday/Monday.

Did Dustin Pedroia join the team on the left coast? When he gets his uni dirty will he be a Dirt Dog or a Dust Dog?

Is it time for non-mojo Mojo? No other form of mojo has worked lately.

Running on 2.5 hours of sleep. I'll probably pass out before the end of the game. This is what I get for going to bed at 5:00 AM.

If I'm not awake to see it, maybe they'll actually win! Except the phrase "Kyle Snyder, stopper," just doesn't flow very well.

Wait a second... There's a game tonight???? I thought the season was over.

Well, what the heck, if they have to play it, I might as well watch it and they might as well win it.

It would be interesting to see the mood of the "nation" if the Sox string together 4 or 5 in a row now.

Saunder's has had pretty good success at home with a record of 3-0 and an ERA of 1.29. Still, if Texas can rough him up, can't we?

All good things have to come to an end - and thus Saunder's needs to lose a game at home.

I'll be watching, because I believe this team can win a game again. I hope Pedroia will be playing tonight.

All is not lost Sox nation. Things may be extremely glim...but there are still enough games to get the wild card.

Lineup:

Coco Crisp, CF
Mark Loretta, 2B
David Ortiz, DH
Kevin Youkilis, 1B
Wily Mo Pena, RF
Mike Lowell, 3B
Doug Mirabelli, C
Gabe Kapler, LF
Dustin Pedroia, SS

Yay to Pedroia, boo to pretty much everything else. I mean, Youks batting cleanup? WTF?

At least Coco has been semi-competent vs. LHP this year. Regardless, did you expect anything else from this fool?

Yay Pedroia is playing! Aside from that I feel sick - Manny's hamstring is obviously still bothering him. Things aren't looking so good and the game hasn't even started!

Oh well it is not like they are facing a stud pitcher....

I'm so sick of Gabe Kapler that I actually would have put Papi at 1B and Youks in LF and maybe DH'd Cora just to keep Kapler out of the lineup, but I guess that's going a little overboard. Regardless, I can't wait until he's DFA'd.

A Manny-less night is not a pleasant one - still excited to see how Pedroia does. For the love of god Francona, quit trying to put the Square Coco in Triangle lead off spot

But on a happy note, both the White Sox and Twins are losing, let's try to make a gain in the wild card

Let's go Kyle Snyder, the Greatest American Hero!

[codebox]Boston LA Angels
------ ---------

Pos Player HR RBI AVG. Pos Player HR RBI AVG.
--- ------ -- --- ---- --- ------ -- --- ----
CF Crisp, Coco 6 26 .268 CF Figgins, Chone 6 43 .267
2B Loretta, Mark 4 50 .308 3B Izturis, Maicer 5 31 .315
DH Ortiz, David 44 117 .287 SS Cabrera, Orlando 8 61 .282
1B Youkilis, Kevin 13 64 .293 RF Guerrero, Vladimir 27 98 .320
LF Pena, Wily Mo 10 36 .300 LF Anderson, Garret 12 67 .276
3B Lowell, Mike 14 60 .286 DH Rivera, Juan 20 67 .300
C Mirabelli, Doug 6 20 .200 2B Kennedy, Adam 2 41 .259
RF Kapler, Gabe 2 8 .219 1B Quinlan, Robb 6 28 .328
SS Pedroia, Dustin 0 0 .000 C Napoli, Mike 13 33 .232
P Snyder, Kyle (3-2, 6.35) P Saunders, Joe (4-1, 3.64)[/codebox]


08/22 21:03:30 ET

Agree with you there. And I was pumped when he came back!! Now I can't remember why.

Youk is actually OK (eh) in LF. He's got three games there (at least) this year. I was in Atlanta for the game he played left & we won. And we'll win tonight.

This might be the worst lineup the Red Sox have trotted out since the glory days of Bob Zupcic.

...at least we have one of the worst starting pitchers in MLB going for us. Awesome!!!

No friggin' way do we win this game.

Please fire Francona.

3B Youks
CF Crisp
SS Cora
1B Papi
RF Pena
LF Hinske
DH Lowell
C Mirabelli
2B Pedroia

White Sox losing 4-0 in the top of the 9th to the Tigers. The Twins are also losing in the top of the 9th (6-3) to the Orioles.

The Sox have the perfect opportunity to get a game back in the wild card. I know it doesn't look so great with Kyle Snyder up against Guerroro and the Angels, and Manny is on the bench...but stranger things have happened. Go Sox!!

Thats the spirit! If situations were reversed we would expect to win tonight and we would be wrong. so tonight we don't expect to win and maybe we a re wrong this time

Twins have lost and White sox have lost- time to party-

if we win, we're 3 games away from the WC.

We suck, but we're still in it, despite the quality of our game.

You'd think that if we just picked it up enough to go from "awful" to "poor" we could actually make it, because the others just look like they are waiting for us.

I mean, we can surely make that jump with the new Wells and Foulke and with Wakefield and Varitek closer, right?

They're letting lurkers post over at SoSH. It may get crazy over there tonight.

Covelli with a leadoff double???

I still wish he hadn't killed my cat.

Mr. 1 for 19 gets a hit!

good start for the sox. BTW, Minny and CWS have lost, so here is a chance for the sox to get back in this.

Think they'll walk Papi?




Guess not

Something is ******! My MLB EI is showing some NASCAR Beyond the Glory or some crap and the Sox game isn't coming in on any channel!!

No, but he advanced the runner......

This lineup should kill a young left-handed pitcher who they've never seen before.

Think positive - Coco got on base! That is a big start...Granted we squandered a lead off hit, but you have to start somewhere.

wasted leadoff double. Where the **** is Manny?

Youk isn't a good choice for the cleanup spot, but we have noone else with Manny hurt.

ok, Coco sucks.

But in fact, against LHP's he's surprisingly good. Not really good, but if he played his entire season to those numbers, nobody would be complaining. He has (roughly) .300 BA and .350 OBP.

And Youkilis had a walk.

Let's see what Snyder does for us now...

is this game on ESPN?

Of course O-Cab gets a hit off of us

walking vlad- like it- why make mediocre pitcher throw to the likes of him

I don't think so...I'm watching on NESN.

I'm going on the record that walking Vlad was smart.

I'm saying this before whatever happens next.

Proof that your pitching sucks: Garret Anderson owns us.

F it- walk anderson too

Garret Anderson owned a lot of people. He used to be pretty damn good.

Yeah, used to.

Is Snyder a servicable pitcher? He looks pretty good at times.

Yanks losing -this is the best hour of baseball in a long time- Twins lose W Sox lose yanks losing WOW

Birds are gross. I wouldn't drink a beer that was opened by a parrot.

Heads up play by Wily Mo.

Not that good. Never had a season over a 900 ops or a .343 obp (in a full season).

Wow. Brilliant play by Wily Mo.

That was cool.

Pena's one sneaky bastard.

sox rallying.

Pedroia is the only chance we have

Anyone notice that Saunders looks like John Lackey?

I know this is WAAAAAAAY of topic, and a little late, but did anyone hear specifics about Millar sending a bag of s**t to Francona?