The Red Sox are riding high after a 2-1 series against the Blue Jays and a 3-1 series against the Tigers as part of a 5-2 road stand. Greeting them on their trip back to Fenway Tuesday night will be the second place Baltimore Orioles who stand at 30-24 this year. Tomorrow night's game will start a series of games that could go either way-- that game features Jon Lester (right)(3-4/4.79/48) against the impressive Jason Hammel (6-2/3.06/58). Lester is 14-0 against the Orioles in his career but the way that Hammel has pitched this year vs the way Lester has pitched, it's looking like it could become 14-1. Wednesday night's game will feature another close matchup with Josh Beckett (4-5/4.26/46) going head to head with Wei-Yin Chen (4-2/3.75/47). Chen's stats look a little better than Beckett's on the season, but if one takes a pair of bad starts away from Beckett-- he has been better than Chen so I'd predict a win. In the series finale, we'll see yet another close matchup with Clay Buchholz (5-2/6.58/40) and Brian Matusz (5-5/4.41/50). Even though Buchholz's numbers on the season have been miserable, his last few starts have been better and solely on optimism I predict a win.
Bold Prediction: Red Sox win series 2-1.
I'm hoping our shared optimism plays out - I'd differ only with your losing pick: Lester squeaks a win and Buchholz squeaks a loss in spite of respectable numbers. Our bats are too cold.
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