Red Sox Send Daisuke Matsuzaka to Mound in Hopes of Completing Two-Game Sweep

The Red Sox will aim for their second straight sweep of the sliding Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday at Fenway Park.

After dropping four to the Rays at home back in April, the Sox have taken control of the series with four straight wins. Behind John Lackey and five extra-base hits, Boston secured an 8-5 victory in Tuesday's series opener.

The Sox have won three in a row overall.

Daisuke Matsuzaka gets the start for Boston in his second outing since coming off the disabled list. Matt Garza, who has had success against the Sox in the past, goes for Tampa Bay, a loser of 20 of 32.

WHEN AND WHERE

Rays (44-32) at Red Sox (47-31)
Wednesday, June 30, 7:10 p.m.
Fenway Park, Boston

HEAD TO HEAD

The teams have split eight meetings this year.

PITCHING MATCHUP

RHP Matt Garza (8-5, 4.10 ERA) vs. RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (5-2, 4.50 ERA)

As is often the case with Matsuzaka, he offered up a bit of a mixed bag in his return from the disabled list six days ago.

Facing Colorado on the road, Matsuzaka gave up two runs in an extremely long first inning before throwing four scoreless frames to help the Sox come back from an early deficit. He's 2-4 with a 4.05 ERA in nine career starts vs. Tampa Bay.

Garza has built a reputation as a Red Sox killer, going 6-3 with a 3.36 ERA in 14 meetings with them. That's not counting some dominant postseason efforts in the rivalry.

However, the 26-year-old struggled in his previous outing against Boston. In an 11-3 loss on May 26, he gave up six runs and walked a season-high five in five innings.

LINEUPS

STAT SHEET

Red Sox

• Designated hitter David Ortiz's next home run will be the 335th of his career, tying him with Darryl Strawberry for 89th on the all-time list.
• Boston has won seven straight home games.
• Both of Adrian Beltre's four-hit games this season have come against the Rays.

Rays

• Right-hander James Shields has lost a career-high seven straight starts.
• Left fielder Carl Crawford leads the majors with six four-hit games. He has stolen 33 straight times against Boston without being caught, the longest streak in the majors against one team since Vince Coleman stole 34 straight against Houston from 1986-90.
• Tampa Bay as a team has been successful in its last 17 stolen base attempts against the Sox, dating back to Sept. 1, 2009.

BLACK AND BLUE

Red Sox

• Second baseman Dustin Pedroia was placed on the 15-day disabled list Saturday with a fracture in his left foot. He suffered the injury when he fouled a ball off his left foot the day before. Team officials said Monday he may miss as many as six weeks.
• Catcher Victor Martinez was put on the DL Tuesday with a minimally displaced fracture on the tip of his left thumb, suffered after taking two foul balls off the thumb during Sunday's game in San Francisco.
• Clay Buchholz suffered a left hamstring strain running the bases Saturday in San Francisco. He will not pitch this weekend but the club is hopeful he will return to the rotation by Monday or Tuesday.
• Outfielder Jeremy Hermida was placed on the DL on June 11 after an MRI revealed five fractured ribs, the result of a collision with third baseman Adrian Beltre one week earlier. He is swinging and doing outfield and baserunning drills.
• An MRI conducted June 9 revealed a new fracture in outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury's ribs. Ellsbury, who was placed on the DL May 28 for the second time this year, has been at the Athletes' Performance center in Arizona for three weeks but has yet to resume baseball activities.
• Josh Beckett is expected to begin a rehab assignment soon as he works his way back from a lower back strain.
• Infielder Jed Lowrie remains on the DL after coming down with mononucleosis during spring training. He is playing in extended spring training games.
• Righty Junichi Tazawa underwent Tommy John surgery in March. He is out for the year.

Rays

• Outfielder Gabe Kapler hopes to come off the disabled list Wednesday. He has been sidelined with a strained right hip flexor.
• Reliever J.P. Howell is out for the season after left shoulder surgery.

OUTLOOK

Rays manager Joe Maddon said Tuesday night that he was very encouraged by the fact that his team scored five runs in the final three innings of the 8-5 loss. The Tampa Bay offense has been so stagnant of late that he hopes that the rally is a sign of things to come.

Matsuzaka is a candidate to help the Rays get going, at least early on. His ERA in the first inning this year is 14.00. It is 2.56 thereafter.

If he can get through the early portion of the game, look for Boston to extend Tampa Bay's misery.