Game Preview: Orioles @ Sox GM3

Guthrie (3-6, 3.40) vs. Lester (4-3, 3.50)
Game 3 of 3 6:05PM @ Fenway

The Sox will bid adieu to the Birds for a month after this evening's game at Fenway, and the way these last few games have gone it's not a moment too soon.

After trouncing the O's in the first three games of a four-gamer at Camden two weeks ago Boston lost the next two meetings before eeking out a win last night in a game that was a lot closer than it should have been.

The problem with these pesky avians is that a bunch of their hitters have been thriving on Red Sox pitching this season, as Hideki Okijim'a struggles have proven.

Here are some of the numbers for Baltimore batters vs. Boston pitchers this season:

-Luke Scott .462 (12-26), 2 2Bs, 3HRs, 7R, 6BI the 3rd year player acquired from Houston in the Miguel Tejada deal has been the ringleader of the Baltimore Birds of Boston Destruction as he has simply torched Boston pitching all season long; almost a 1/3rd of his 10 homers have come against the Sox

-Audrey Huff .424 (14-33) 3 2Bs, HR, 6R, 4BI the former DRay has had a lot of experience hitting Boston pitching, but never has the surly DH capped them at a .400 clip. His 2-run single off Oki the other night was the back breaker in the come-from-behind win

-Nick Markakis .364 (12-33), 5 2Bs no surprise here as the solid right fielder has hit Boston at a .300 clip for his young career, and though he doesn't have the power numbers against them he still manages to get on base vs. Boston. A lot.

-Adam Jones .303, 3 2Bs, 5BI although he's only hitting .252 overall the second-year center fielder has been having a field day against Boston; his 3-run double off (who else?) Oki won a game for the O's back in late May

This list of Boston bashers doesn't even include Kevin Millar, who's only batting .200 vs. his old mates but has 6 runs batted in and 5 runs scored against them, or Jay Payton, another ex-Sox who's hitting .294 and has driven in 8 runs in only 17 at bats against his old team this season.

Talk about the Boston stranglers.

The task of stopping these maniacs will fall on the shoulders of Jon Lester. Fresh off serving his (unwarranted) five game suspension for his role in the Raysbrawl, whatever his role may have been, Lester should be rested and ready to put brushbacks and beanballs behind him and concentrate on winning games again.

Since tossing his no hitter on May 19th Lester has one win, one loss and one ND on his record and though he hasn't pitched poorly he hasn't been close to unhittable, allowing 22 hits and 7 earned runs in 16 1/3 innings of work.

His mound opponent will be the unlucky righty Jeremy Guthrie. Despite being 10th in the league in ERA Guthrie has often fallen victim to a pitcher's worst nightmare - poor run support.

In half of Guthrie's 14 starts the O's hitters have scored three runs or less including his recent three-game losing streak in which they scored 0, 1 and 2 runs for him.

Since that streak he is 1-0 with one ND, which came in Baltimore's 6-3 win over Boston when Jones hit his game winning double off Oki. For the season Guthrie is 1-0 with a 2.92 ERA against the Sox, striking out a dozen batters while walking only two in 12 1/3 innings.

As long as J.D. Drew, who has a 10 game hitting streak in which he's batting .500 (16-32) with 5 homers and 13 RBI, and Manny Ramirez, who owns a 15-game streak and has homered in 4 of his last 5 games against Baltimore, keep bashing like they have been the Sox should be alright in this one.

But it's up to Lester to calm the Baltimore bats and help the Sox win the series before they head out on a six game interleague road trip beginning in Cincy tomorrow.

Not an easy task they way these guys have been hitting Boston pitching, especially with the game set to start at six o'clock again.