Currently: - Game info: 1:15 pm EDT Sat Oct 2, 2004
- TV: FOX
game.
Boston manager Terry Francona has not decided on his Game 3 starter for the playoffs yet.
Bronson Arroyo can state his case for the job when he takes the mound for the opener of a doubleheader between the Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles.
Arroyo didn’t join Boston’s rotation until May, but has emerged as one of the team’s most effective starters down the stretch. The right-hander is 5-0 in his last eight starts, yielding two runs or fewer in four of those outings.
Arroyo allowed two runs and six hits over 6 1-3 innings in Monday’s 7-3 victory at Tampa Bay, striking out four and walking one, as Boston clinched a playoff spot for the second straight year.
Francona has already tabbed 21-game winner Curt Schilling as his No. 1 starter for the playoffs, which Boston will begin Tuesday at either Anaheim, Oakland or Minnesota. Struggling right-hander Pedro Martinez will follow Schilling, but Francona has not yet determined who will fill the third slot.
“We haven’t talked to everyone yet,” he continued when asked if he had talked to the staff about who might start the third game of the series. “Until we tell everybody as much as we can I’m not going to go through the media.”
Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield made the most of his postseason tuneup Friday, pitching the Red Sox to an 8-3 win in the opener of the four-game set. Johnny Damon and David Ortiz homered as Boston reached 96 wins for the first time since 1978.
The defeat assured Baltimore of its seventh straight losing season.
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