Game preview: Texas @ Sox GM2

Tejada (5-7, 6.57) vs. Beckett (11-1, 3.07)
Fenway Park 7:05

After climbing back into the win column last night with a tough, one-run victory against the slugging Rangers, the top winner in the majors will try to start a Boston winning streak when Josh Beckett goes for his 12th win of the season.

Beckett is coming off one of his best outings of the season, when he allowed just two runs and six against while besting NL wins & ERA leader Jake Peavy, 4-2, in San Diego on Sunday.

That dynamic performance ran Beckett's record to an ML-best 11-1, and if he gets the win tonight he will be almost guaranteed of starting next Tuesday's All Star game in San Francisco.

A win might not be as easy as it seems despite Texas' awful record and atrocious starting pitching; that's because Beckett's opponent on the mound will be the Rangers' Robinson Tejada, who hurled a gem of his own against Boston back in early April.

Tejada got the win when he tossed a shutout for seven innings over the Sox back on April 5th, and Texas won 2-0 behind a bloop single by Sammy Sosa in Boston's fourth game of the season.

Since then Tejada's gone 4-7 and has lost four of his last five starts while compiling a 9.58 ERA, and he has allowed five earned runs or more in five of his last seven starts.

Needless to say Boston needs to kick this punching bag while he's down, not let him linger around in a close contest where they could lose the game on a blooper or because of a bunch of missed scoring opportunities.

All signs point to a big Boston win tonight, and if the Sox don't win by at least four runs, then it's time to call in the shrink because pretty soon this habit of making shitty pitchers look like world beaters is going to drive them nuts.

It's already doing that to RSN.

Go Sox!

**UPDATE-- accd'ng to the Globe, the Sox placed reliever Joel Pineiro on the DL prior to the game and called up speedy outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury from Pawtucket to make his major league debut tonight at Fenway. Ellsbury will replace Coco Crisp in the lineup, who will need a few more days to rest that moderately sprained thumb. Good luck, Jacoby- how 'bout getting your first ML hit tonight kid?**