vs. RED SOX, 4/11

Baltimore Orioles (5-0, 1st +2.0) @ Boston Red Sox (3-2, 2nd -2.0)

Streak / L10

BAL: N/A

BOS: N/A

*2015 stats will be used for now; switching to 2016 stats for Tillman's next start (14th?)

Game 1 (2:05)

(QS=0)Yovani Gallardo (13-11) 3.42 (1.42/.268), 121/68 (15HR)

vs.

(QS=0)David Price (18-5) 2.45 (1.08/.230), 225/47 (17HR)

Yovani Gallardo: The five innings against the Twins went well allowing one run on two hits and three walks on route to the win. The three walks aren't good and Twins hitters hit 10 fly balls to three ground balls with 89 pitches thrown. Gallardo was sitting in the 86-88 MPH range with his fastball most of the night touching 89 a few times and it will be interesting to see how that flies against Boston.

Speaking of Boston, Gallardo is pretty terrible in three starts at Fenway Park allowing roughly two base runners an inning with some really ugly numbers. Ramirez, Pedroia and Ortiz are particularly giddy when they see Gallardo on the mound with some other guys having success as well. I hope Gallardo finds some extra life on his fastball and some extra movement coming into this one because it could get ugly for him. Even with the extra, it might still be ugly.

Splits & Sits

397 vs. left: .271/.340/.383 (9HR)

396 vs. right: .265/.322/.341 (6HR)

Bases Empty: .287, 8HR

RISP: .215

RISP w/2 outs: .208

Men on w/2 outs: .230

Man on 3rd, < 2 outs: .290

Career @ Fenway Park (3 starts)

(1-2) 5.52 (1.91/.366), 4HR, 28 baserunners in 14.2 IP

Career vs. BOS (4 starts)

(2-2) 4.35 (1.69/.326), 4HR, 35 baserunners allowed in 20.2 IP

vs. Batter

Pablo Sandoval (26 AB) .192, HR, 2RBI

Ryan Hanigan (25 AB) .280, 2 2B

Chris Young (18 AB) .111

Hanley Ramirez (13 AB) .308, 2B

Dustin Pedroia (12 AB) .417, 2B, S-HR

David Ortiz 4/7, HR, 2RBI, BB

Brock Holt 2/7, RBI

Xander Bogaerts 2/7, 2B, RBI

Mookie Betts 1/6

Blake Swihart 1/4, RBI

Jackie Bradley Jr. 1/3, 2B

Rusney Castillo 1/2

David Price: Well, this guy doesn't need much of an introduction considering this will be his 20th start against the Orioles. Last year, Price put up a 6.0 WAR good for second best in his career (6.4 in 2012) and already has a quality start under his belt this season where he struck out 10 over six innings of two run ball against the Indians. Price will get the ball for Boston's home opener here against the Orioles at Fenway where he has been dominant in 11 career starts.

Lefties get the better of Price by far, but he gives up more dingers to righties. It's a little surprising that Price sees so many more righties than he does lefties when he has more trouble with them, but fortunately, we have a few to throw at him. Wheat and Davis do very well against him though 17 of his 29 outs against Price where whiffs. Alvarez has not seen Price and of course, we have Kim and Flaherty as well. The only "weakness" is his .360 BAA with a man on third and less than two outs, but getting into a situation like that is easier said than done.

Pitch wise, there seems to be a few chinks in the armor as well, but not many. His two worst ranges are 31-45 (.269/.299/.394) and 46-60 (.281/.328/.368) which is basically a window of 30 pitches the second time through the order. He allows BAA between .250-.260 when he gets above 90 pitches, but he never allows a SLG in the 400's in any range and allows an OBP in the 300's only once in the 46-60 range. The deeper Price gets into a count, the more effective he becomes except in the rare occasion he is behind in the count. Swinging early (at strikes hopefully) might be something we'll see here from Orioles hitters.

Splits & Sits

226 vs. left: .262/.284/.354, 4HR

662 vs. right: .219/.267/.316, 13HR

Bases Empty: .233

RISP: .241

RISP w/2 outs: .212

Men on w/2 outs: .217

Man on 3rd < 2 outs: .360

Career vs Baltimore (19 starts)

(8-4) 2.65 (1.21/.244), 7HR

Career @ Fenway Park (11 starts)

(6-1) 1.95 (0.95/.186), 4HR

vs. Batter

Adam Jones (49 AB) .265, 4 2B, 3RBI

Matt Wieters (44 AB) .341, 6 2B, HR, 4RBI, 17K

J.J. Hardy (39 AB) .308, 5 2B, 3RBI

Nolan Reimold (28 AB) .143, HR, 4RBI, 10K

Chris Davis (20 AB) .300, RBI, 9K

Manny Machado (20 AB) .250, 2B, HR, 2RBI

Mark Trumbo (19 AB) .368, 2 2B, HR, 4RBI

Jonathan Schoop 2/7, RBI

It's nice to be 5-0 to start the season, but that train might be pulling into the station on this day. David Price is no Drew Smyly when it comes to owning the Orioles, but he's close enough. Price kind of owns everyone, though. Gallardo on the other hand, meh, not so much. One guy dominates at Fenway and the other ponders over whether or not he should call in sick that day (can he do that?), but there are some positives at least.

We have quite a few hitters that have had nice success against Price. Mark Trumbo could pick up his first XBH as he has the highest BA against Price of anyone in our lineup with two doubles, a HR and 16 singles because that's just how Trumbo rolls; through the infield between defenders. Wheat also does well carrying a .341 BA, but a whopping 17 strikeouts to go with it. Davis and Hardy make four guys in our lineup that hit over .300 against Price and the sample sizes are more than big enough to mean something.

Gallado is terrible at Fenway and averaged 4.9 innings per start over his three starts there. It doesn't look good for 6-0, so I think a "prepare for the worst, hope for the best" approach is a good one here. Price is no slouch and Gallardo is going to have to pitch better than he has ever pitched at Fenway for us to have a shot here unless by some miracle, we hammer Price early for some runs and get him out of the game. Fat chance of that, but the Orioles also had a fat chance of starting 5-0.

It'd be nice to have Jones back. Let Rickard try the monster and have Reimold DH.

Rickard 7

Jones 8

Machado 5

Davis 3

Trumbo 9

Wieters 2

Hardy 6

Schoop 4

Reimold DH

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So Wieters, who's worked well with Gallardo, is DH. Can he not catch on back-back days?

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So Wieters, who's worked well with Gallardo, is DH. Can he not catch on back-back days?

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There were not too many other good choices at DH and Matt is one of our better hitters against Price. This was the lesser of the evils I guess.

Im not counting on this game as a win. Too many negatives and Mr. Price is gonna be on his game.

Could get ugly fast . I'm grateful for 5-0, but I don't have much hope today. Its their opening day at Fenway. Uh-oh.

Thanks Roy. I was worried for a bit.

Weather conditions for Boston: Cloudy with isolated showers. Highs in the upper 50s. South winds 15-20MPH gusting up to 40MPH at times. Chance of rain 20%.

Thanks Roy. I was worried for a bit.

I thought the same thing. :agree:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dustin Pedroia introduced as "one of the greatest second basemen ever." Discuss</p>— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) <a href="

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Would love to see Schoop jogging by Pedroia with that wide smile he carries all the time after a long home run!

Is this on masn or ESPN?

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is this on masn or espn?

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masn..

So Wieters, who's worked well with Gallardo, is DH. Can he not catch on back-back days?

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I think, its trying to keep the wear and tear on Wieters down.

Im not counting on this game as a win. Too many negatives and Mr. Price is gonna be on his game.

Thanks Roy. I was worried for a bit.

Price is a very good pitcher, but the Orioles usually do well against the better pitchers and stink against the bad ones.

masn..

Internet for me.

Pedroia, a smurf with a baseball bat.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dustin Pedroia introduced as "one of the greatest second basemen ever." Discuss</p>? Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) <a href="

">April 11, 2016</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Would love to see Schoop jogging by Pedroia with that wide smile he carries all the time after a long home run!

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/jaws_2B.shtml

Ranked 22nd all time by JAWS. Not nearly good enough to be called "one of the greatest second baseman of all time". Need to be AT LEAST top 10, and I would even say top 5, to be able to say that.

And he's 30th in WAR.

Agreed. Can't recall off the top of my head what O's batters did vs. Price in 2015, but they stepped up in the '14 ALDS vs. him.

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