Thursday: Two for the Twinkies YTD: 304-277, +57.3 units

Wednesday: 4-4, + .5 units. Treading water. One bad first inning by Sheets killed my night.

Twins. ML(+186). one unit
Twins.ML. First 5 innings. One unit. This line is crazy considering how badly Lester has pitched and how well the Twins hit lefties. Certain pitchers(Peavy is one of them) give the Twins fits, but overall they have hit well going back into June. Other than Plouffle, they are healthy, hit for some power and have good team speed. Lester has had a miserable July, and facing a righty stacked lineup in Fenway seems to favor the Twins. The Twins send out Deduno who honestly is crazy wild, but seems to get the job done. His last outing vs. the Indians, and the one before that vs. KC, show that he can make batters miss. It seems that his curve is a great out pitch, but his fastball and cutter move so much, he doesn't know where it will end up. It's a gamble taking Deduno, but I like what he's done in 4 starts, and the Twins are working hard with him to show some command. Also, the Red Sox just don't have the offense they used to. Even in Fenway. Against familiar pitchers like Sabathia or Hughes, they seem to hit better, but against this guy, I don't think they will. Taking the First 5 might help avoid the Twins BP.

Angels:ML. One unit. Last night's terrific comeback doesn't mask the problems facing Texas. Pitching injuries, Darvish underperforming, and Josh Hamilton, among others, not really hitting well for a long time. Dempster may not help as much as they think. NL pitching stats don't always translate well to the AL. These AL teams, like Texas and LA(and others), have no breaks 1-9 in them. In the NL, Dempster faced some weak lineups, and always had the 8-9 hitters to look forward to. The Angels may not have seen him yet (except Pujols- who has killed him career wise), but looking at how well the Angels are hitting in this series, I think they'll get to him. Pujols looks like he's getting hot. C J Wilson is much more battle tested and has faced some very tough teams lately, and in his career. Beltre hits him better than any Ranger, but he's slumping along with Hamilton. Wilson is also familiar with pitching in Texas, and used to the heat. And remember, not only did the Angels BP melt down last night, so did the Rangers. In fact, overall, the Rangers BP has not been as good as earlier in the year.

Not sure who closes out game for LAA though today. Downs on DL and Frieri unavailable since he threw a ton of pitches last night and also came in the night before.

Hopefully they won't need anyone late.