Red Sox – Orioles April 8

The Boston Red Sox return home for the first time in 2013 and take on the Baltimore Orioles this afternoon with the first pitch at 2:05 and pregame starting at 1:20 on WDEA AM 1370.

The Red Sox begin the day at 4-2, in first place, a far cry from their 2012 and 2011 starts when they were 1-5 and 0-6 respectively. In fact, this is the first time the Red Sox have had a winning record through 6 games since 2006!

The Red Sox will send righty, Clay Buchholz to the mound. Buchholz was superb in his first start of the season, giving up one run over seven innings against the Yankees. Buchholz is 7-3 with a 3.64 ERA lifetime against the Orioles. Baltimore will counter with lefty, Wei-Yin Chin. Chen struggled with his location and allowed two runs on seven hits in Wednesday's no-decision. The lefty threw 84 pitches, 53 for strikes, in his season debut.

On the injury front, shortstop Stephen Drew will continue to play for Double A Portland, and is expected to be activated on Wednesday, April 10th when the series resumes against Baltimore, as tomorrow is an off day. This is the first time since 2003, when David Ortiz has not been the starting DH at the Fenway Park home opener. In 2003 Jeremy Giambi was the starting DH. The Red Sox are still waiting for MRI results on John Lackey, but it's clear he will miss at least 1 start if not more after injuring his bicep Saturday against Toronto.

Updated Starting Lineup

RED SOX (4-2)
Ellsbury CF
Victorino RF
Pedroia 2B
Napoli 1B
Middlebrooks 3B
Nava LF
Gomes DH
Ross C
Iglesias SS
Pitching: RHP Clay Buchholz (1-0, 1.29)

ORIOLES (3-3)
McLouth LF
Machado 3B
Markakis RF
Jones CF
Davis 1B
Wieters C
Hardy SS
Flaherty 2B
Pearce DH
Pitching: LHP Wei-Yin Chen (0-0, 3.18)

Source Boston Globe