The Mariners Sail Into Town...Daisuke Going To Ft. Myers For Conditioning

First up on this sunny (finally) Friday morning, the Seattle Mariners, fresh off an 8-4 drubbing of CC Sabathia and his pinstriped teammates, invade Fenway Park for the three game holiday weekend. Tim Wakefield will start tonight for the BoSox in what will be his final appearance before the Major League NL and AL All Stars will be selected and announced. Right now he has a nifty record of 10-3 with an ERA of 4.18. If he can get that ERA down below 4.00, he stands as an easy pick. Timmy said this recently...

"It would be huge,” Wakefield said recently. “That would really be an honor, just to add to the list of things I've accomplished in my career,” Wakefield said.

His manager, Terry "Tito" Francona, gushed this...

“He’s one of the most consistent starters in the league,” manager Terry Francona said recently, “with an inconsistent pitch.”

In other Sox news, the ailing Daisuke Matsuzaka will travel to the Red Sox complex in Fort Myers, Florida to begin a shoulder stengthening and conditioning program. He and the team want him to be back later this summer even if Boston has a solid five man rotation. I really hope that in the future he will not ruin half of his season by pitching in the World Baseball Classic. Is that selfish of me? NO WAY. The Red Sox are paying him millions of dollars every year. The WBC should not be scheduled during MLB spring training in the first place. OK, enough about that. I went off on a tangent, I guess. Sometimes, it's easy.

The Red Sox are 12-3 in Wake's 15 starts, easily the best stat of the entire starting pitching roster so far. We wish him all the luck in the world tonight and every afternoon and night. If he can keep his dancing pitches fluttering THROUGH the strike zone, he will baffle the opposing hitters once again. GO TIMMY!!

Here are the pitching matchups for the weekend series against the left coast Mariners. Beware of Friday night's Seattle starter, Felix Hernandez. He's one tough cookie...

Hernandez (8-3) vs. Wakefield (10-3) Friday at 7:10pm EDT
Olson (3-2) vs. Penny (6-3) Saturday at 1:05pm EDT
Morrow (0-3) vs. Lester (7-6) Sunday at 1:35pm EDT

I want to wish every one of my Constant Readers a healthy and happy Fourth of July weekend. Have fun, safe fun and as always, BE WELL. Your comments are so welcome and I'll respond to each and every one of 'em. Click on the title of this post for more Sox stuff. Bye.