Red Sox Live Blog: Red Sox, Tigers Postponed, Doubleheader Scheduled for Sunday

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May 28, 2011

Red Sox Live Blog: Red Sox, Tigers Postponed, Doubleheader Scheduled for Sunday

9:16 p.m.: NESN will carry the afternoon game Sunday, but the evening affair will be blacked out due to ESPN rights. Booooooo.

Sorry for mis-tweeting for those who saw it. I read an email incorrectly. But yes, you will need to find a radio to get the Beckett-Verlander affair.

Or, you could follow the live blog.  I’ll make sure to fill it with as many details as possible. Sorry, I wish I had another answer…a complete shame that game will not be on.

8:38 p.m.: They will try again tomorrow, folks. This one has been postponed. A doubleheader is scheduled for Sunday, 1:05 and 7:05.

Pitching matchups should remain the same, but we will wait for verification.

Sunday’s forecast does not look great, so cross your fingers if you want to see some baseball this weekend.

Back in a bit to wrap this up for you.

8:18 p.m.: If you are watching FOX or clicking on the doppler readings, you know the rain is coming down heavy in Detroit. There may be a lighter period a couple of hours off, so that may be what they are waiting for.

It doesn’t appear as if anything will begin anytime soon.

Seems like this always happens to Clay Buchholz, doesn’t it?

By the way, there are only a few common dates I can see working for these two teams if they do decide to call it. There is the potential for a doubleheader tomorrow. Then we have June 23, when the Sox will be between a homestand and a trip to Pittsburgh, and Detroit is coming home from a road trip and getting set to host Arizona on the 24th.

Both have the day after the All-Star break off, so that’s an option, but an annoying one. That would be it, unless they choose to not play it unless necessary and thus slot it into Sept. 29, the day after the regular season ends.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s just see what happens tonight.

7:06 p.m.: There is a pretty good swath of storms that will roll through early in the night, then a break and then more rain. At least that’s the forecast.

We will update you when we hear anything, but we will not be starting on time.

6:59 p.m.: So, this game is on FOX. Forgot to mention that. Oh, and we have a rain delay apparently.

6:48 p.m.: A few computer issues but I seem to be out of the woods and ready to carry you through this one.

Thought it would be good to look at Andy Oliver, the Tigers starter tonight. He was 0-4 with a 7.36 ERA in five starts for Detroit last year, but is considered a legitimate prospect with a pretty bright future.

Oliver was 4-3 with a 3.31 mark at Triple-A Toledo this year before being called up to take the place of the injured Phil Coke.

The lefty can bring it in the mid-90s, and sports a slider he likes to use rather regularly, and an occasional changeup. We’ve seen two young lefties — Adam Wilk and Charlie Furbush — come out of the Detroit pen and shut down the Sox the last two days.

Boston is only slightly less successful vs. lefties (.267 average, compared to .271 vs. right-handers, OPS is .763 compared to .781), but early in the season those numbers were leaning rather heavily in favor of lefties. Slowly, teams have begun to find more success with their left-handers against the Sox, as evidenced by the last two days.

Having never seen Oliver, and knowing what southpaws can do to this lineup (relatively speaking, of course), we could see the kid hang in there for a bit. Then again, I predicted Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello would be difficult challenges, so who knows.

First pitch about 15 minutes away.

5:00 p.m.: I am told the link to the Find Matt Hill page is not working. Try it again here, but if that doesn’t work, it is http://www.facebook.com/findmatthill.

4:43 p.m.: Daniel Bard told reporters in Detroit to direct readers to this facebook page to help in the search for his missing friend, Matt Hill.

Hill has not been heard from since Tuesday. He was a groomsman in Bard’s wedding and was working with a ministry group that supports college students in the Washington, D.C., area. He had just dropped off a student he was tutoring on Tuesday night before he vanished.

If you know of anything that can help, contact DC Metro Police at 202-727-9099.

3:37 p.m.: The Red Sox will be facing a left-hander tonight in Andy Oliver. Nobody on the team has ever seen him, at least at the major league level.

That can sometimes make for a difficult night, even for a lineup going as strong as Boston.

Here is the crew that will take aim at Oliver, who is making his first start of the year:

Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Kevin Youkilis, 3B
David Ortiz, DH
Jed Lowrie, SS
Carl Crawford, LF
Mike Cameron, RF
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C

1 p.m.: Clay Buchholz looks to keep alive a very impressive streak for Red Sox starting pitchers when he takes on the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night.

After Tim Wakefield yielded just two runs in seven innings of a 6-3 win over the Tigers on Friday, the rotation had put together seven straight games in which its starter allowed two runs or less. The ERA for the starters in that span is 1.61.

The offense hasn’t been any worse. Boston enters Saturday’s contest having outscored opponents 38-7 over its last 33 innings.

Buchholz did not get the win despite shutting out the Tigers for seven innings at Fenway Park back on May 18 in a game the Red Sox won 1-0. That lowered the righty’s ERA against Detroit to 2.23 in five career starts.

The Tigers will hand the ball to 23-year-old left-hander Andy Oliver. He is making his first start of the season in place of the injured Phil Coke, who was fantastic opposite Buchholz in that meeting 10 days ago.

First pitch for this one is 7:10 p.m.

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