Gordo Leading Off as Sox Attempt Sweep – Lineups 7/5

Kevin Youkilis played the hero yesterday and for the second day in a row endeared himself to the Chicago crowd. His 10th inning walk-off single came on the 9th pitch of an at-bat that started 0-2. The AB pretty well sums up one of the main reasons he was acquired, to see pitches. He saw plenty, and he came through in a big way. The Sox have defeated the Texas Rangers, the best team in baseball, in 2 out of 3 games at the Cell. The winning ways at home are a nice change. In the first stretch of games played at home, the Pale Hose didn’t fare so well. They only won 7 out of the first 20 games. Since then, they have won 14 of 22. Everybody is supposed to play well at home, and now that the Sox have turned that around, they can continue their above average play on the road, and it might be time to start looking at making acquisitions that mean something in a playoff series, more than just moves that help extend the season.

Thursday gives us a day game, Jose Quintana vs. Matt Harrison. For as good as Quintana has been, Harrison has been better. In his last 5 starts, he’s allowed only 3 runs total. He’s pitched into the 8th 3 out of those 5 games and one of them he delivered a complete game shutout. Quintana is coming off the roughest start of his career, in which he gave up 6 runs to the Yankees after never having yielded more than 2 in any appearance. They say seeing how a young pitcher recovers from an outing like that says a lot about his future. Jose has the nice bonus of having gotten the win in that game anyway, so I suspect he’s dealing just fine.

Today’s Lineup:

1.Gordo – 2B
2.Escobar – 3B
3.Youkilis – 1B
4.Paulie – DH
5.Rios – RF
6.Alexei – SS
7.Viciedo – LF
8.Flowers – C
9.Danks – CF

The Day of Rest Lineup, complete with Gordon Beckham leading off…against the Rangers most effective pitcher. Should be interesting. This lineup, or ones like it, haven’t actually been as terrible as one would think when run out there. It seems at first that a full line change would be a bit extreme. Maybe it would best to rest guys a day at a time, spreading it out, but Robin likes to use the day after night to get all the guys that need a breather a little time off, and it hasn’t been detrimental.

As always in day games, plan your lunches accordingly, and if you have some time, go on ahead and put a #takejake on the board.