A big early-season series. I'm considering making the trip to Detroit.

4/17 Samardzija vs Price
The Sox hit David Price pretty well, so this is not a huge mismatch. If Samardzija (first career start against Detroit) has actually figured it out since the 2nd inning of last Saturday's game against the Twins it may actually tilt in the Sox favor. This is the game of the series, the Sox have to get Price out of the game and start digging into a weak and thin Detroit bullpen. The benefits of that will be two-fold, the remaining two starter matchups are very favorable to the Sox and forcing Detroit to dig deeper into their pen widens that advantage.

4/18 Sale vs Sanchez
Oh, what I would give to have this matchup be the first game of the series. Anibal Sanchez never goes more than 5 IP (even against the Sox) and, I mean, Chris Sale. If the Sox want to crawl back into it the Sale games need to turn into automatic W's, let this be the second of many.

4/19 Quintana (not announced) vs Greene
Shane Greene is off to a very hot start, 0 ERA through 16+ IP. Quintana, OTOH, seems to have righted his ship before the worry could set in. I have a feeling the series will be split going into this game, so a lot of it will come down to the availability of Jennings and Duke. Albers had a nice inning yesterday, but still cannot be trusted. The dirty little secret of this series (and the Sox in general) is once you get past Duke/Jennings/Robertson the bullpen is just as bad as it was last year. Now, obviously the way that's worded makes it sound much worse than it is, those three have been nothing short of fantastic so far and its a huge boost, but as the off-days become more sparse new options will have to emerge. If Quintana has a game similar to the one against Cleveland where he is effective, but has to exit by the 6th, this could be a preview of what could be many 7th inning dilemma's this year.

Victor Martinez goes back in the lineup (didnt play in NL games)

Today is a day game? Son of a bitch. Not knowing what's going on is driving me crazy.

I get that its April and the nights are cold, but its fucking Friday. Play the damn game at 6:00.

How we feelon' fellas?

Rock hard. Great baseball action this afternoon, and the weather looks terrific.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

flaccid over here.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Looking for a shelling today Cabrera 2 dingers and Robin does something else stupid. How many runners do the Pale Hose have thrown out on the base paths today ???

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

Why dont you just stay logged in as bigfan to post crap like this?

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Garcia vs Iglesias

The Sox play today?

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

just think someday the young kids of today are gonna go "whoa, there was a basketball player with the same last name as the babe!"

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Dont you largely agree with him on Ventura?

Frank agree with me???

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

CFAdam Eaton (L)
LFMelky Cabrera (S)
1BJose Abreu (R)
RFAvisail Garcia (R)
DHAdam LaRoche (L)
SSAlexei Ramirez (R)
3BGordon Beckham (R)
CGeovany Soto (R)
2BE. Bonifacio (S)



CF Anthony Gose (L)
2B Ian Kinsler (R)
1B Miguel Cabrera (R)
RF J.D. Martinez (R)
DH Yoenis Cespedes (R)
3B N. Castellanos (R)
C Alex Avila (L)
SS Jose Iglesias (R)
LF Rajai Davis (R)

I am not a Ventura fan. At least as a manager...loved him as a player.

If Eaton and Cabrera continue to suck, Sox will struggle this series.

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Has Casey Ventura trotted out the same lineup back to back?

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

Robins just there. Not good, not bad, just present...which is 90% of most jobs.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

He's bad.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

They already had Gene Lamont.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Soto/Samardzija = STEALS

Avi! He put a hurtin on that one.

Avi is so good to opposite field.

they showed Miggy's wife on TV?

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

That was actually a nice inning by Samardzija, Miggy gonna Miggy and there's not much you can do about it.

Why cant they do this a little more often? Like, not swining at the first pitch cuz whatever.

oh fuck you Bonifacio.

At least it wasnt a sacrifice

Great play by Gordon. At least someone on this team can play some fucking defense.