Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Loe vs. Beckett

Rangers vs. the Red Sox
Kameron Loe vs. Josh Beckett
Of the Red Sox hitters, six have faced Loe. They hit .667 against (that four out of six) and have 3 RBIs. Loe is arguably my favorite pitcher, and heck, the guy thinks my son is awesome. And in my little world, flattery will get you everywhere. I liked the guy a ton before getting his autograph earlier this year, and when you compliment my boy, the stock just goes up. If I could get away with saying that he will no-hit the Sox, I’d be apt to do it. But as it stands, in a handful of tries, Ortiz, Rameriz, and Varitek have successfully done well against the Loe-Rider. The breakdowns that I normally do wouldn’t prove worthy since there is only six at-bats, so it will be difficult at best to guess what the Red Sox will do against homey. Barajas is 2 for 2 against Beckett; look for him to be in the lineup. Wilkerson has somewhat success hitting .258 in 31 at-bats. With two homeruns in the mix, he will be in there, too. Current Rangers hitters have but 6 RBIs against Beckett (and that is in 78 at-bats). And with a 7.7% score ratio, the Rangers need to think about getting Beckett into a high pitch count and hope for success against the bullpen. If Beckett goes all nine, the Rangers will most likely score 3 or 4 runs. Loe had much success in the Fall last season, and did quite well this Spring. I honestly think he can put together a good game for the Rangers, but I don’t know if the Rangers can answer with the needed bats. And on top of it all, I don’t see Loe going longer than 7 innings, not with Otsuka and Coco in the pen, it wouldn’t make sense, and I don’t think Loe has gone longer than 6 innings in his career. If that is the case, Loe goes a strong 6, and then the Sox face a stronger pen than last year, which the Sox have done quite well against thus far already. Going against everything I believe in, I say the Rangers will be dropping to 1-2 this season as the Sox end a one game loosing streak with a victory of 4-3. BOO! GO RANGERS!

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