I am on the Red Sox tonight....

Red Sox -130 (3 unit play)

This line opened at -123 and is now -130 and I believe it will be about -135 at gametime. I know Ortiz is not playing (suspension) and that Hendrickson has been lights out in 2 of his last 3 starts (2 complete games), but the Red Sox are in a heated Wild Card race and know what has to be done to beat up on these lesser opponents. Wakefield was pitching some brilliant ball until his rain shortened debacle in his last outing. Bottom line is if Wakefield's knuckler is on the rays have no chance. If its flat this will be a very high scoring game. In a high scoring game the advantage would also go to the Sox as they have some great numbers against Hendrickson in the past. Its worth the juice.

-- Wakefield has dominated the Devil Rays while going 9-1 with a 2.61 ERA in 22 career appearances, including 12 starts. He is 4-0 with a 1.62 ERA in 12 appearaces, including six starts, at Tropicana Field.

-- Hendrickson is 1-1 with a 6.06 ERA in seven career games, including six starts, against Boston.

Good luck tonight.

-MC

The line is -133 now.

GL capper

I got the rays


Just wanted to mention that Hendrickson has only faced boston twice this year... Last year the sox were a completely different team.


Same with the Wake stats - defensively the team IMO was a lot stonger last year as well.

Also wake wasnt pitching brilliant in the rain shortened game (I think we are talking about the same one vs baltimore on july 27th)- the sox were down 4-2 and wake had given up 5 hits (2HR) 1BB and 4 ER in 2 innings...

"Rainouts aren't always the worst thing in the world for the Red Sox, especially when they're trailing, 4-2, in the third inning and their starting pitcher, Tim Wakefield, remains hampered by a shoulder injury he suffered when he was struck by a line drive July 17 in Anaheim, Calif."

"Wakefield, who allowed four runs on five hits, including a pair of home runs, and a walk in two innings, will receive another five days of rest before he returns to the mound Monday against the Devil Rays at Tampa Bay. Had the game resumed last night, Wakefield would have yielded to Bronson Arroyo, whose next start would have been affected.

The knuckleballer welcomed the extra rest. He threw 40 pitches in the two innings.

"It'll just take me all five days to get ready to pitch," he said, referring to the lingering effects of the injury. "It's not like a normal situation where I might be able to come back Friday and pitch. Why screw our rotation up? Let everybody get their regular rest and I'll come back Monday."

Wakefield said he was a bit discouraged that the injury continued to bother him, but he was not wary of any long-term consequences. He has scaled back his work between starts so as "not to waste any bullets."

"The doctors say it's not going to have any career-ending effect," he said. "But it's a really, really deep bruise and there's a lot of swelling underneath my scapula."

Wakefield surrendered a solo homer to Melvin Mora in the first inning and a two-run shot to B.J. Surhoff in the second before the Orioles picked up another run in the second inning on consecutive singles by Jerry Hairston and Karim Garcia, a walk to Javy Lopez, and an RBI ground out by David Newhan."


To me it sounds like there was even some concern as to whether or not he would be ok tonight - but I'm probably reading into it too much.

Anyway just thought Id share the info


Best of luck

I misunderstood you - I thought you were saying he was pitching some brilliant ball in the rainout game - which of course he wasnt - and they attribute that to the shoulder injury...


my mistake

looking good for you MC


GL

Jaypaw,

No problem buddy. This game will probably end up being decided by the pens.

Nice job MC.

sportsbet,


Thanx! Long time no see.

hope it was a big win for you, it was for me.


needed some confidence.

Yea it was nice. I have been on fire recently. I said once August comes I will heat up. Well August is here. The books better take cover.

MC:


I notice you take more dogs than favs. Do you realize that since week 6 the dogs haven't had a winning week. That is just mind blowing to me. I gotta beleive some of these books are getting hit or not winning as much as they normally do. If this keeps up I think there will be some nice juicy dogs by the time September gets here.


Have you noticed this yourself?
Hitman

Hitman,

I havent noticed it to that extent. But I can def see that being true.

My Card for tomorrow has 2 favs and 1 team that should be a fav. I will try to post the card tomorrow.

-MC