- Detroit’s Justin Verlander, arguably baseball’s hottest pitcher, takes on his nemesis tonight in the fourth game of a five-game series with the White Sox. Verlander has won six in a row since April 27, posting a 1.12 ERA during that span, but he’s 2-9 with a 5.90 ERA lifetime against the Pale Hose. That’s a full quarter of his 36 career losses coming against one team. The struggling John Danks will get the ball for the White Sox.
- I’m rooting for Lance Berkman to drive in five runs with a pair of doubles tonight, setting things up perfectly for Thursday. He’s currently sitting at 299 homers, 994 RBI, 1,497 hits and 4,993 at-bats.
- It figured that the Pirates would want to Charlie Morton a look soon after acquiring him in the Nate McLouth deal, but to have him pitch against his former team just a week following the deal certainly wasn’t the ideal scenario. He’s taking Jeff Karstens’ place against the Braves tonight after Karstens was needed in Monday’s 15-inning game.
Game of the Night
N.Y. Yankees vs. Boston - Chien-Ming Wang wasn’t exactly eased back into the Yankee rotation: after facing the Rangers in his first start since coming off the disabled list, he gets to pitch in Fenway tonight. Wang is 6-5 with a 4.82 ERA lifetime against the Red Sox. Boston will go to Tim Wakefield, who didn’t pitch in either of the first two series against the Bombers this year. The knuckleballer went 1-1 with a 4.98 ERA in four starts against the Yankees in 2008 and is 10-17 with a 5.03 ERA lifetime against the team. Alex Rodriguez has hit .276 with seven homers in 76 at-bats against him. The Red Sox will hope for another strong night from David Ortiz, who has hit .444 with two homers in 36 at-bats versus Wang.