After taking two out of three in their series against the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway, the Red Sox will play host to the Baltimore Orioles in a three-game set starting Monday.
In the standings, these teams are on polar opposite ends. The Orioles enter this week leading the American League East by 9.5 games with an 83-59 record, while the Red Sox find themselves with a record of 63-80, sitting in dead last in the AL East and in the hole by a staggering 20.5 games.
Joe Kelly (1-1, 3.89 ERA) is set to face Baltimore’s Miguel Gonzalez (8-7, 3.38 ERA) in the first game of this series. Gonzalez has been on top of his game in recent starts and threw his first shutout in his most recent outing, a 6-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds. Kelly, meanwhile, has been pitching well, but watch out for his tendency to surrender walks, as he has recorded 22 of them in his past six starts.
In game two, rookie Anthony Ranaudo (3-1, 4.63 ERA) will take the mound against Chris Tillman (11-5, 3.40 ERA). Ranaudo has made some strong starts for the Red Sox, though he recorded his first losing decision the last time out against the Yankees. Tillman has also been pitching well recently. He has won his last four starts and his last loss was on July 23rd against the Los Angeles Angels.
The third and final game of this series will be a matchup between Brandon Workman (1-8, 4.90 ERA) and Wei-Yin Chen (14-4, 3.69 ERA). Workman’s record this year is not great, but he looked good in a no-decision last Thursday against the Yankees. Chen has experienced considerably better success and has only lost twice of his last 21 starts.
We also hope to see Mike Napoli and Brock Holt back in the lineup for this series after Holt left Friday night’s game with nausea and dizziness and Napoli left Saturday’s game with the same symptoms. “Hopefully this isn’t something that’s contagious and runs rampant,” manager John Farrell said before the game on Sunday afternoon. Despite their unfortunate illnesses, both players are reported to be recovering well.