Wakefield Set For Monday; Ellsbury & 0-2

Tim Wakefield threw 40 pitches in a side session yesterday and believes he is set to pitch on Monday.

If Wakefield does poorly in some strength tests today, Junichi Tazawa (who has not pitched since September 4) or Michael Bowden (idle since September 8) are possible replacements.

With Wakefield coming back, the Red Sox will have a six-man rotation for the rest of the season. This will give Josh Beckett an extra day of rest before his start on Wednesday in Kansas City. (Jon Lester starts on five days rest tonight). Also, Beckett is sixth in the AL in pitches thrown, with 3,166. Lester is seventh with 3,136.

Sean McAdam notes that this puts Beckett in line -- after starts on September 28 and October 3 -- to pitch ALDS 1.

Adam Kilgore has a great blog post at the Globe. In plate appearances in which he falls behind 0-2, Jacoby Ellsbury leads all the major league batters with a .327 average; the league average is .178.

So maybe I should get into 0-2 counts. Just stand there. Strike. Strike.

Jason Bay caught the flu from his daughter Addison, who "has been throwing up for five days, so it's only a matter of time before someone in our household got something". He said he "ran out of steam" in the fourth inning last night. Nice of him to homer and break the 1-1 tie before he left, though.