Game time: 7:05 pm PDT, 10:05 pm EDT

Scheduled starters: Kason Gabbard (0-2, 3.38) v. Esteban Loaiza (7-7, 5.12)


Oakland weather: 11 am PDT (2 pm EDT) observation at OAK: wind variable at 6 mph, visibility 8 miles, overcast layer at 700 feet, temperature 58F, DP 53F.


Forecast: There's patchy fog in the Bay Area now, and it's clearing slower than forecast. OAK is still at 700 feet overcast but SFO is reporting few clouds at 500 feet with scattered clouds at 1,000 feet, so it's starting to break up. When the layer does break up, it will be sunny with highs in the low 70's. It should be in the mid to upper 60's by game time, with clear skies, but the fog will return later in the evening. The wind will be west to southwest at around 10 mph, which is blowing out toward left/left center.

Isn't it Kason Gabbard? Not Kayson.

Fixed...

It's on ESPN2, for those out-of-NESN Rooters who want something to fall asleep to on the T.V.

Ugh.

As if the performances of late haven't been hard enough to watch, now we get to sprinkle in some Morgan-Berman-Sutcliffe-Brantley?

Well, goddman-where's the butterscotch sauce??? I'm having me some ice-cream too-night! Yes!

Bold predictions: Slug fest in witch the Sox get a lead going into the 7th-8th inning and drop it. Youks+Pena go yard (if there in)

I have EI and it is amazing how hard it is to fall asleep during these West Coast swings. Of the 5 late night games this trip, I fell asleep during one of them. I wonder if it is like that car accident on the side of the road. You know you should not look, you know that you don't want to do what you shouldn't do, but you just have to look. Or, it could be that feeling that you just don't want to miss that game where they turned it around. Regardless, I haven't been able to fall asleep after the games. I am way to tied to the fortunes of this club.

Hey, there's at least a chance that you get an O'Brien-Orel combo. Pray for Orel!

Hi Rooters!

I'd wish you luck, 'cause you're trying to catch those evil pinstriped ones and all, but I just wouldn't mean it.

Good luck with the rest of the West Coast swing, though.

And thanks for taking 2 of 3 from the Halos.



With the LLWS rainout yesterday, it's hard to say who's going to be doing the games tonight. Orel and Morgan were in Williamsport, so I'd assume they're still there.

Does Morgan do the "when I was in Little League" bit at the LL games?

Please win tonight.

Please?

Gordon Edes is reporting that Carlos Pena has been brought up from Pawtucket and will play first base tonight. Nothing on the roster move made to make room for him.

You have the line-up for tonight yet?

The official lineups are available about one hour before the game.

Edes posted in his blog that Stern has been put on the 60 day DL. He also posts the lineups.
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/reds...as/extra_bases/

Crisp, CF
Loretta, 2B
Ortiz, DH
Youkilis, LF
Lowell, 3B
Hinske, RF
Lopez, C
Pena, 1B
Cora, SS

Actually, I was watching the game, and he did.

After the game when the Japanese team was crying, he started talking about how he cried when hen lost in the regionals as a kid. Of course, he talked about how he had cried after delivering a five minute monologue about why the Japanese team shouldn't have cried, but that's Joe Morgan for ya....

But the OFFICIAL lineups are not posted by MLB until around one hour before the game. The earlier lineups can, and often do, change.

Stern to the 60-day DL makes room for Pena on the 40-man roster. Lester to the DL makes room for Pena on the active roster.

I'm happy they're treating the Lester situation with caution, but it's rather disappointing that neither Timlin nor Kapler were given the boot.

I was all excited about C.Pena coming up and now this.....

Honestly though, the kid has been great this year. No need to overextend him, if he pitches some down the stretch, fine. Otherwise, see you next year in the rebuilt rotation kid. You're a big part of the future, train hard.

So Manny, Wily Mo and Mirabelli haven't been put on the DL yet? If they can't play why not bring up some more bats?

Why would they DFA either of them with 3 days until the roster expands? If this were July, the roster was depleted by injury, and either of those guys was in the kind of stretch they're in right now, then yeah, sure. But Timlin, in particular, deserves to go out with a bit more dignity than that.

Agreed completely, Timlin has gone down the tubes but he still deserves more than to be DFA right before rosters expand.

You mean there are nights when you don't have ice cream? I should try that!

Revised lineup:

[codebox]Boston Oakland
------ -------

Pos Player HR RBI AVG. Pos Player HR RBI AVG.
--- ------ -- --- ---- --- ------ -- --- ----
CF Crisp, Coco 7 28 .264 C Kendall, Jason 1 36 .293
SS Cora, Alex 0 14 .270 LF Kielty, Bobby 6 27 .274
DH Loretta, Mark 4 51 .304 RF Bradley, Milton 10 38 .272
LF Youkilis, Kevin 13 65 .288 DH Thomas, Frank 27 76 .263
3B Lowell, Mike 15 62 .289 CF Payton, Jay 10 49 .292
RF Hinske, Eric 0 0 .252 3B Chavez, Eric 16 56 .241
C Lopez, Javy 8 35 .256 1B Swisher, Nick 27 76 .248
1B Pena, Carlos 0 0 .000 SS Scutaro, Marco 4 30 .245
2B Pedroia, Dustin 0 0 .111 2B Ellis, Mark 9 39 .229
P Gabbard, Kason (0-2, 3.38) P Loaiza, Esteban (7-7, 5.12)[/codebox]


08/28 21:55:49 ET


Something happened to Ortiz! Any info? We oughta really clean up with THIS lineup!

Ortiz came down with the same bug that got Youkilis a few days ago.

http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/redSox/?p=638

This has to be the worst lineup since the Butch Hobson era.

And somehow, someone will find a way to blame Tito and/or Theo.

Well why the hell is Cora hitting second and the all "Powerful" Mark Loretta hitting 3rd?

He doesn't have much to work with though so this game is a free pass and if he strings out a win than i'll be impressed.

(only way I get pissed at Tito is if he brings Timlin into the 8th for him to blow it again)

bright side: no Kapler

Only person who could really bat third is Mike Lowell, but he hasn't played well lately. I don't really see any acceptable option anywhere in the lineup.

When your bench is essentially 0 players due to injuries and sickness, you don't have many options...

Coco = out. Almost time to start calling him Mr. Automatic.



No, no... that's the thread down the hall. This is being hit-on-the-head lessons in here.



Is anyone else seeing an early pattern here?

Unfortunately for Gabbard, it looks like he is going to have to perform very well tonight for us to even have a slight chance at this game

Well, just as long as there's no pressure for him.

Here is Gabbard's chance. Not many better nights to prove he belongs.

As much as I like Coco, I'm seriously debating getting a custom jersey with his number and "automatic" as the name



no kidding

Nice! Brings to mind the Pointer Sisters' song. Maybe that could be his intro music.

Here's a snippet of the lyrics:

No way to control it
It's totally automatic
Whenever you're around
I'm walking blindfolded
Completely automatic
All of my systems are down
Down down down
Automatic
Automatic

That's right.

Injuries/Illness have no place in the blame of this team's demise...

Uh huh, try telling me that again...

NICE GRAB!!!!!!

holy hinske

that was quite a catch

DEFIB!!!

could be worse, we could have the bases loaded if Kielty didn't swing at one outside the zone

Nice play by Cora/Pedrioa! Unfortunately, that inning took 21 pitches. How long is Gabbard good for?

good play by Pedroia - but another dangerous flip from Cora. I'd say he will be done after the 5th if he goes at this pace

Gabbard if I were you I would stay away from asking Mike Timlin for advice

Let's play on a lousy field and get more injuries.

I'll say it now, both Oakland and Minnesota are going to make some serious noise come post-season (assuming they both make it of course)

edit and of course assuming the Twins win the division

YEAH!!!!! A BASE HIT!!!! WOO-HOOO!!!! (ouch... I think I just hurt myself)

oh javy, I cannot wait until Tek comes back

OK, that K was worth the price of admission.

So, back in the day, Kevin Millar was the Red Sox emergency catcher.

Given how awful Lopez has looked behind the plate, and given that his offense has made Millar's .248/10 HR 2006 season look stellar...why didn't we just bring back Millar and make him play catcher?

If nothing else, that would have made losing a lot more entertaining.