Meet the Sox!

Last thing you want to do when getting ready for the 28-12 Boston Red Sox is to lose three-of-four games to the Washington Nationals of all teams.

The Red Sox lead the AL in runs scored, BB, AVG, and of course, OBP. Beyond that, they lead the AL in ERA. They are probably the best team in baseball right now so can we take two-of-three? Sure, stranger things have happened. After all, the Nats took three-of-four...

Grr, I think I'm not going to stop having nightmares about that for awhile.

Well, the Red Sox are giving the Braves a chance here. Because of Josh Beckett's injury and the Sox decision to overvalue the series with the Yankees by holding Tim Wakefield back, the Sox will start a pair of new pitchers surrounding Saturday's Dice-K start. Maybe by missing Beckett and Wakefield, the Braves will be given a bit more of a chance to win this series.

Course, we have to get past the Red Sox offense. David Ortiz has a 1.023 OPS and Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis are also playing well. So is J.D. Drew, but he's missed the past few games because - surprise, surprise - he was hurt. He was initially going to play the second game of yesterday's double header, but was scratched. If it's anything like the Drew we all know, he'll miss the next 5,000 games with his back boo-boo.

Manny Ramirez has yet to really hit this year (.248/.341/.396). As a fantasy baseball owner of Manny, he can be Manny starting Monday. The Greek God of Walks, Youkilis, is nearly impossible to keep off the bases for an entire game. He scores a lot of runs. Jason Varietek is in the same ballpark and even Dustin Pedroia is hitting well. Their bench is very deep as well with Alex Cora, Willy Mo Pena, Eric Hinske, and Doug Mirabelli.

It all comes down to whether or not we can beat up on Devern Hansack and Kevin Gabbard on Friday and Sunday and keep the lead. See, we did plenty of getting the lead against the Nationals and then doing absolutely nothing after that. With a bullpen of Jonathan Papelbon, Hideki Okajima, and Brendan Donnelly, if the Braves don't get the lead and keep it, we will not have a shot in the world.

Pitching Matchups
Anthony Lerew vs. Devern Hansack
John Smoltz vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka
Tim Hudson vs. Kevin Gabbard