The Angels are reeling with five consecutive losses entering Wednesday night's game at Fenway. They'll have to face their old teammate John Lackey who gets the starting nod for the Red Sox.
Wednesday's storyline in Boston is the two starting pitchers will be facing teams they have ties to in the past. But does anyone really remember that Joel Pineiro once pitched for the Red Sox? Lord knows a lot of Boston fans and bettors would like to forget it, something that Angels fans will never be able to do in regards to John Lackey's service to that franchise.
Pineiro (2-3, 5.76) did indeed pitch in Boston, for a while at least in 2007. He was used entirely out of the pen, posting a 5.03 ERA in 31 relief appearances before being dealt to the Cards. Now he'll take the mound with an Angels cap and jersey to battle the Boston lineup.
Lackey (2-3, 4.50) will be facing an Angels team he spent his first eight MLB seasons with, helping Gene Autry's old franchise to its only Series title as a rookie in 2002. He left Anaheim for Beantown over the winter, the irony being Pineiro taking his place.
Boston is a 165-170 favorite for Wednesday's game, with a few shops offering some lines outside that range. Oddsmakers put the scoreboard at 9 ½ with it costing a little extra to take the 'over.'
The Red Sox made it two straight last night with a 5-1 win behind the left arm of Jon Lester. It was a sharp contrast to the 17-8 contest in Monday's series opener. The defeat was the fifth straight for the Angels, dropping them to 12-16 on the season and 5.7 units in the red. Boston is now 13-14 and also very red at the window, minus 6.6 units.
Lackey has pitched well enough to be 4-1 this season. One bad outing April 19 against the hard-hitting Rays bloated his ERA. In his other four outings, Lackey has a 2.36 ERA.
The only hitters in LA's lineup that he's faced before are Hideki Matsui, Torii Hunter and Bobby Abreu, the meat of the Angels order. None of that trio has done exceptionally well or poor facing Lackey. The three Halos are a combined 22-for-87 with four homers, two by Hunter. Abreu has had the toughest time of the three, 5-for-25 with a dinger.
Pineiro got off to a solid beginning in an Angels uniform with quality starts his first three times out. The last two outings, however, have been very ugly. In 9 1/3 innings versus the Yankees and at the Tigers, Pineiro was charged with 15 earnies, 21 hits and three bombs. All three of the homers came April 30 at Detroit.
The Puerto Rican righty didn't pitch all that well at Fenway when he was part of the Red Sox, but his lone start in Boston since leaving the team was solid. Pineiro tossed seven innings and allowed just two runs in a June 2008 interleague game at Fenway while with the Cardinals. Boston won the game in 12 innings, 5-3.
If there's one thing going for him it's that the bad games were the second time around for both the Tigers and Yankees to face Pineiro. Boston hitters will be seeing him for the first time since that 2008 interleague contest.
Nineteen-year veteran Wally Bell will be under the mask for this one, his seventh game behind the plate this season. Home teams are 4-2 with totals basically split at 3-2-1. Before calling a 2-1 game in Boston last May, Bell had a string of four consecutive 'overs' on the pitch down in The Fens.
Speaking of The Fens, it should be a nice night for baseball at Fenway. Clear skies are forecast, with a first-pitch temp in the upper-60s before dropping to the upper-50s. There is a chance of some wind, so keep an eye on that. Right now the weatherman is calling for SSW winds in the 12-18 mph range, blowing out from the first base bag to left-center field.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
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John Lackey Faces Old Anaheim Mates
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