Game time: 4:35 pm EDT/1:35 pm PDT

Scheduled starters: Daisuke Matsuzaka (9-5, 4.01) v. Ryan Feierabend (1-2, 8.20)

The game will be on NESN.

Seattle weather:

10 am PDT/1 pm EDT observation at KBFI: Wind out of the southwest at 5 mph, visibility 10 miles, scattered clouds at 10,000 feet, 22,000 feet overcast, temperature 62F, DP 46F

Forecast: Cool and cloudy, with a light breeze out of the southwest, becoming northwest by later in the afternoon. There's some rain to the west associated with an approaching trough, but it isn't expected to rain in the Seattle area until this game is over. It might get to the low 70s by game time. The wind will be blowing in from left initially, but will blow out toward right later in the day.

Time for Dice K to show he's a stopper. With the usual Japanese attention to Seattle baseball, he should be plenty pumped. Let's try to keep the pitch count down, 'K. The bullpen is fried and needs a break.

As for Mr. Quittin' Time ("Feierabend"), I fear he may be another one of those lousy pitchers the Sox can't figure out. Prove me wrong, boys!

Enough of this quittin' crap, let's win one today.

Please Tito, don't sit Papi against the no-name lefty. It would, however, be a classic Tito move. With a day off tomorrow he'd make sure one of his regulars--albeit one who doesn't play in the field--gets a two day rest. Please please please put our best hitting team in the lineup today.

I would hope that if he's sitting someone, it would be Drew.

vs. lefties this year:

Ortiz: .276/.366/.356/.722
Drew: .213/.290/.361/.651
Pena: .268/.333/.439/.772

This has "Wily Mo in RF" written all over it. Especially since, for reasons unknown (although, granted, Coco has been hot lately), Tito seems to have cooled on "Drew as leadoff hitter."

Dice K is a strikeout pitcher, which generally entails a lot of deep counts and a lot of pitches thrown. I'd love to see him go deep into the game too, but I wouldn't want to see him step out of his element in order to cut down on his pitch count. Sure would be nice if he didn't walk anybody, though.

I like Drew, but there should have been a L/R platoon in RF from day one. Outside of 2004, Drew hasn't hit LHP well at all, and ever since then, he's been well below-average. These are perfect spots to a) give Drew days off and b) get WMP at bats, but Tito has neglected to do so.



Drew appears to be the leadoff hitter when the entire A lineup is in. When one person beside Varitek is out, Tito seems to reconfigure the entire thing so Crisp leads off.

06/27 15:14:18 ET

Good call, Rominer.

I wish we didn't have to bat Youkilis 5th anymore:
(BA/OBP/SLG/OPS)
5th: .288/.365/ .370/ .735 73AB
2nd:. 354/ .447/ .553/ 1.000 161AB

It would be really dissapointing to lose to a guy named Quitting Time.

Interesting split. The difference in batting average and slugging percentage seem pretty self-explanatory: Pitchers simply aren't going to give Youk as much to hit when he's coming up after Papi and Manny. The difference in OBP, on the other hand, is a bit more perplexing. As selective as Youk is, I would think he'd be drawing a ton of walks under the circumstances. Perhaps he becomes a bit less selective knowing that he doesn't have the big guns behind him? Just a guess...

Honestly, the first thing that came to mind was the fact that he's been scuffling lately in the #5 spot.

The trend COULD prove he's better in the #2 slot vs. #5, or it merely could prove that by coincidence he was hot while he was the #2 guy, and has cooled since being put in the #5 slot.

Dice is on fire today.

Heck yeah.
I think he wants on the All-Star team.

It could be that but his 3 year splits (2004-2006) also seem to suggest that Youks is best suited for the number 2 slot.


I'm not going to praise DiceK until he's done with his outing.

You can praise him thus far, that's all I was doing .
Hopefully he keeps it up.

Holy God.

The Seattle announcers are so bad.

Soooo bad.

Anyone on MLB.tv feel free to back me up.

Seems like a sound policy.

I'm just relieved Papi is in the lineup after convincing myself Tito would rest him.

Yeah Czar. It's like they're not even at the ballpark.

Gameday is showing multiple outs for the Sox that appear to be right at or on the wall. Can anyone watching the game verify that they are smoking the ball off this guy and they're just not falling?

this mariner announcer is the WORST at calling a game

Dice looking strong. Sox with 5 warning track shots already... need some timely hitting.

i hate seattle

Thanks, Crisp.

Coco hurt himself on that dive.

I seriously hope Crisp didn't just hurt himself there.

Flexing his hand.

Sox lose 1-0.

The Sox are pounding this kid and they get this crap. Unreal.

That's a -1 on the FRAR.

Yes. I believe he is, in fact, the worst person alive at his job.

The senility is really setting in. Ichiro caught that easily.

He also said that the double that got by Crisp was not a hit. He's awful.

edit: "Wacka wacka wacka."

Really?

This could be the most aggravating game ever.

Every out for the Sox has been a fly out. This cannot last; something has to give...

waka waka waka??

I thought last night was the most aggravating game ever. C'mon, we can't go winless in Seattle. Ack!

Even crappy left handers stymie them. This time mostly on luck.

I used to like Dave Sims. He used to do a lot of Big East basketball broadcasts and I used to listen to him when he had a show on WFAN in NY. He shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a baseball stadium though, even if he is best guy in Seattle's booth right now.

Has there been a single called strike 3 on a Red Sox batter yet in this series that has shown up as a strike on FSN Seattle's strike zone gimmick?

I just tuned in via MLB.com GameDay and MLB.com audio. I can't tell if you guys are listening to the same broadcast I am, i.e., the last voice I heard at the end of the top of the 4th was Rick Rizzs, who is the M's official fanboy announcer. Also, Dave Niehaus, who is teetering on the edge of being the M's play-by-play man emeritus (he's been with the organization since its first day in 1977).

There was a lively critical discussion about this on USSMariner last night (I was neither on that blog or here...I'd rather watch the games on TV, and show up after the fact ).

About half of us M's fans at USSMariner agree he -- I mean, Dave Niehaus -- SHOULD gracefully retire, and the other half think he should have the right to go out when he thinks he can't broadcast any more (heh). Nowadays he sorta reminds me of how Ned Martin was in the last couple of years he broadcast Red Sox games on NESN. It was painful to hear at times.

The third and fourth guys in the booth (they alternate between TV and radio) are Mike Blowers, whom some say is dull but whom I like for his dry humor and straight-man byplay with the new guy, Dave Sims, who's a East Coast import new this season and still getting used to the team and the players.

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I know it's no consolation to any of you at this point of the game (but anything can happen, and probably will)...you should know, though, that Ryan Feierabend was practically annihilated in his last start by the Reds at Safeco: 2.2 innings, 5 BB, 6 hits, 9 ERs.

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Edit: clarity re: Dave Niehaus

Lugo is an on base MACHINE!

Play him everyday, Tito. Resist your pet toy.

You shouldn't be allowed to post here during Sox/Seattle games. Sports bigamists annoy me.

Should they have held Lugo at third?

Is it just me or did Lugo just dog it around the bases? I thought he could have scored, but it looked like he was jogging around second.

Extra bases for Coco. You don't see that every day.

Come on Papi. Time for the hammer.

He definitely slowed up, but I don't think he could have scored unless he had been off with the pitch. Once the ball kicked back into LF, it was a fairly short throw to the plate. If the ball had hugged the line a little better, different story.

How bad was that last called strike. It looked waaaaaaay outside on gameday?

This guy's strike zone is a complete joke.