Red Sox Weekend Preview: Wild "Wild West" Card

The Boston Red Sox currently stand a half game ahead of the surging Texas Rangers in the AL Wild Card standings.

Boston, who was shut-out today by Detriots' Justin Verlander, 2-0, can look at the bright side by seeing Clay Buchholz pitched seven strong innings and only gave up two runs, but they most certainly cannot over look losing a game to Texas in Wild Card standings.

Texas has been playing a different form of baseball than they have played in previous years. Not only do they have such a powerful offense, they have been pitching very well this year. They have the best ERA in the Majors since the All-Star break. But you cannot over look one of the biggest factors with the Texas Rangers, their home-field advantage.

Texas plays in some of the hottest weather the United States has and many teams feel the heat when they play in Arlington, Texas. Texas has the third best home record in the American League standings at 37-21, they should be very thankful of their advantage.

Boston and Texas are opening up a three-game series in Arlington tomorrow. Both teams are fighting for playoff contention, and both are in the thick of things in the Wild Card race.

Here are the weekend's pitching match-ups

Game 1: Jon Lester (9-7, 3.67 ERA)  vs. Kevin Millwood (9-7 3.38 ERA)

Game 2: Brad Penny (7-6, 5.16 ERA) vs. Derek Holland (5-7, 5.04 ERA)

Game 3: Junichi Tazawa (1-1, 4.05 ERA) vs. Dustin Nippert (3-1, 3.62 ERA)

These pitching match-ups, in my opinion, favor Boston.

Boston is only seeing one of Texas' top pitchers, Kevin Millwood. But he is facing Boston's ace Jon Lester. Boston needs to come into Texas ready to fight because Texas is a very fiery team playing in the heat.

Although Boston had played poorly in a series after the All-Star break in Texas this year, I see Boston taking at least two of the three games this weekend. This whole series will depend on how well Boston's offense performs. With Jason Bay turning it around, he might come up big for Boston over the weekend series.

This will be a very entertaining and crucial series for both teams but hopefully Boston can come out of Texas with a 3.5 game lead in the Wild Card.