Tonight's Orioles-Red Sox Pitching Matchup

    
     The Baltimore Orioles will send Jeremy Guthrie to the mound tonight as they look to take the second game of their three game set with the Boston Red Sox. The Orioles took the first game of the series behind the arm of rookie Zach Britton, who went 6 innings allowing only one run.

     Jeremy Guthrie will take the mound tonight for the Orioles and is searching for his first win since Opening Day against the Tampa Bay Rays. Guthrie pitched 8 shut out innings for the Birds that night, allowing only 3 hits and walking one. In three starts following Opening Day, Guthrie has had some tough luck. He allowed one run and two runs to the Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins respectively, but the offense struggled to score runs in each of those games. His only bad outing of the season came against his former team, the Cleveland Indians on April 16th. In that game, Guthrie allowed 6 runs in 5 innings en route to an 8-3 loss.

     Guthrie has had his fair share of struggles against the Red Sox in his career. In 15 career appearances (14 stars, 1 relief appearance) Guthrie is just 1-7 with a 4.94 ERA. Last season, Jeremy made three starts against the Sox, and went 0-2 with a 5.71 ERA in those three games.

     After a 6-6 season in which he posted a 5.78 ERA in 2010, Josh Beckett is having a bounce back season in 2011. In four starts this year Beckett is 2-1 with an ERA of 1.93. Beckett's only loss came in his first start of the season, a 3-1 loss at the hands of the Cleveland Indians. Since that game, Beckett has only allowed 3 earned runs in 23 innings pitched. Beckett has gone at least 7 innings in his last three starts, including an 8 inning performance last Thursday against the Angels in which he only allowed 2 runs on 3 hits, but received a no decision.

     Beckett has pitched well against the Orioles, especially at Camden Yards. Overall, he is 6-3 with a 3.53 against the Orioles, and 5-2 with an ERA of 2.94 in Baltimore. Beckett made two starts against the Orioles last year going 0-1, but still posted a low 2.57 ERA against the Birds.