J-Bay is Back!

Great game to be at last night as the Sox topped the Tigers 8-3 to take a 3-0 lead in the four-game series. Some thoughts:

-J-Bay is back and he is back big. Four homers in his last five games. Just when we needed a bat bad in the middle of the line-up (especially with Youk out for 5 games), Bay is swinging a hot stick.
-Lowell is also hot as a fire-cracker right now homering for the 3rd time in two games. He even legged out an infield hit!
-Beckett has been so reliable this year; proving last year really was fluky. He notched his 14th win while allowing three hits and two runs over 7 innings striking out six.
-One interesting observation I had was Francona's substituting last night to get a little extra rest for players/get them ready for today's game. With the game essentially in hand, Tito brought in INF Chris Woodward to spell Lowell (Woodward is starting at 2B for Pedroia today). Also, Josh Reddick took over for Jacoby in CF (Reddick is batting 2nd and playing RF today). I like the strategy to get a player into a game before they are going to play (and I assume these are scheduled off-days for Pedroia and JD) when the game is in hand.

Buchholz takes on strikeout stud Justin Verlander (12 Ws, 3.45 ERA, 188 Ks, 159 1/3 IP) this afternoon at Fenway. Here's the lineup for the 1:35 affair:

Ellsbury - CF
Reddick - RF
Martinez - C
Bay - LF
Ortiz - DH
Lowell - 3B
Kotchman - 1B
Green - SS
Woodward - 2B

Hopefully we can squeeze out a win against the stellar Verlander; although he has given up 5 ER in each of his last two outings.