Cody Ross, Adrian Gonzalez Look to Use Hot Bats to Split Series With Cleveland

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Aug 12, 2012

Cody Ross, Adrian Gonzalez Look to Use Hot Bats to Split Series With ClevelandEditor's note: The temperature gauge is a Bill James-created statistic that measures how hot or cold hitters are. We will spotlight Red Sox and opposing team temperatures on game days.

After a dominant performance by Clay Buchholz that led to a much-needed victory on Friday night, the Red Sox offense couldn't get anything going against rookie Zach McAllister and the Indians on Saturday, losing 5-2.

Boston is now 3-7 in its last 10 games and sits in fourth place in the American League East, 12 games back of the Yankees. More importantly, the Red Sox find themselves six games back of a wild card spot behind a handful of other teams. So, while the playoffs aren't a lock by any means, they still aren't mathematically out of the question.

Leading Boston into the series finale is Cody Ross, who has been on fire lately. He had an eight-game hitting streak snapped Saturday but is still batting .371 and slugging .657 over the past nine games. In addition, he's swatted two homers, driven in seven runs and scored four times.

Despite cooling off a bit from his ridiculous past few weeks, Adrian Gonzalez has still been a formidable presence at the plate. He's had a hit in five of his past six games, including two three-hit efforts, and has an OPS of 1.080 in that span. He's also collected a home run, 10 RBIs and four runs scored.

The latest driving force behind Cleveland's offense is Boston's old friend Brent Lillibridge. The utility player torched Red Sox pitching on Saturday night to the tune of three hits — including a home run — two RBIs and two runs scored. He's raised his batting average nearly 20 points in the last seven games he's played in, and he's added a a pair of stolen bases for good measure.

Here are the Red Sox and Indians temperatures for Sunday, Aug. 12.

Red Sox
Cody Ross 86
Adrian Gonzalez 84
Dustin Pedroia 81
Danny Valencia 73
Pedro Ciriaco 70
Scott Podsednik 67
Jacoby Ellsbury 65
Nick Punto 65
Carl Crawford 61
Ryan Lavarnway 58
Mike Aviles 58
Jarrod Saltalamacchia 53
Kelly Shoppach 48

Indians
Brent Lillibridge 86
Asdrubal Cabrera 79
Carlos Santana 78
Michael Brantley 74
Ezequiel Carrera 70
Jason Donald 65
Jason Kipnis 61
Shin-Soo Choo 60
Jack Hannahan 60
Casey Kotchman 59
Lou Marson 59
Shelley Duncan 55

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