G138: Red Sox 14, Orioles 2

Orioles - 000 100 001 -  2  8  0
Red Sox - 004 610 21x - 14 20  0

A perfect night.

Red Sox win -- and the Rays, Twins and White Sox all lose. Tampa's lead in the East is cut to four games and Boston's lead in the WC is now four games over both Chicago and Minnesota.

Yankees 7, Rays 2
Blue Jays 7, Twins 5
Spiders 9, White Sox 3

***

Radhames Liz (6.95, 63 ERA+) / Jon Lester (3.41, 132 ERA+)

Liz faced the Red Sox on July 12 and they totally abused him: 2.1-6-8-3-2, 61. In his 21-game major league career, he has allowed 89 hits and 61 walks in only 81.2 innings -- a whopping 1.789 WHIP. More destruction should occur tonight.

Lester faced Baltimore about two weeks ago, on August 18: 7-4-1-1-5, 103.

Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett both seem on pace to return Friday night in Texas. Lowell thinks playing on Friday is "a legit possibility". J.D. Drew could come off the DL today, but he's not ready.

Dustin Pedroia scored 33 runs in August. Last night, he set a new Red Sox team record for hits by a 2B (he has 184, breaking Del Pratt's 1922 mark of 183).

FY has also stolen 17 bases in 18 attempts; his 94.4% rate is the best in the AL among players with at least 15 attempts. If he can maintain that rate, it would be the best for any Red Sox player with at least 10 attempts since 1956.

Also at 7 PM: Yankees/Rays, Twins/Blue Jays, and White Sox/Spiders.