We switched things up tonight going with hot and cold pitchers over their last three starts instead of their last 5 starts. We came up with the same amount of pitchers on both sides of the spectrum with five hot pitchers and five cold pitchers with ERA's under 3.00 and ERA's above 6.00.

Hot Starters:

Jake Peavy (3-0, 23 IP, 0.74 WHIP, 0.78 ERA)

Is Peavy back? He's got quite the stat line and 4 quality starts in a row for the White Sox who are cruising right now winners of 16 of their last 21 games. I wouldn't go all the way to saying Peavy is back because his quality pitching has been against not so quality hitting with two of them coming against the Cubs alone and then 3 of 4 from National League teams. I would like to see more from Peavy before I start backing him against American League teams the success is just not there and I believe he is still just getting back into where he was a few years ago.

Peavy has two starts though vs. the Kansas City Royals, and both have been quality starts and both resulted in White Sox W's. The total line is 15.1 IP with 11 hits against and 4 ER. However, the Royals continue to hit with consistency as far as for average and they'll go with an ace of their own in Zach Greinke. Greinke has not pitched up to his reputation of being the Cy Young winner, but a 4.19 ERA at home is not terrible and he's got a 2.62 ERA in his last three starts.

Royals are just 4-13 in Greinke's last 17 starts but are favorites here because of Greinke. White Sox are 16-5 in their last 21 overall and 14-3 in their last 17 vs. a RH starter. This one to me screams under I just can't see Royals as favorites unless you think Greinke is going to throw a gem and it's close enough with the success from Peavy vs. Royals this year to think this will be a pitchers duel.

Dice K (2-0, 19.2 IP, 1.27 WHIP, 2.29 ERA)

Dice K has really started to throw the ball well, but he'll be tested on Wednesday against the Rays who in his last two home starts vs. them has not been able to go deep into the game with a combined 9.1 IP and 9 ER while giving up 14 hits. He'll go up against our featured cold starter Matt Garza who has really struggled of but has a lot of success pitching at Fenway (see below).

Dice K will go up against what seems to be a cold Tampa team batting .108 vs. RHP in their last 5 with just 2.65 runs per 9. Boston meanwhile has been red hot and have always played well with Dice K on the hill. Dice K is on 5 days rest where the Red Sox are 23-9 in his last 32 on 5 days rest.

Honorable Mention L5 Starts

Felix Hernandez (2-0, 0.64 WHIP, 1.69 ERA)
Clayton Richard (1-1, 19 ip, 1.42 whip, 2.84 ERA)
Zach Greinke (2-0, 24 IP, 0.83 WHIP, 2.62 ERA)

Cold Starters:

Matt Garza (2-1, 1.80 WHIP, 8.40 ERA)

Garza has really struggled since getting off to the great start to help the Rays with the best record early, but all of that is in the rear view mirror. I believe Garza makes a statement game at Fenway on Wednesday where he seems to really enjoy to pitch. IN his last 5 starts in Fenway against the Red Sox he's given up just 8 ER in 35.1 IP for a 3-2 record and a 2.04 ERA. Garza will have to go up against a weak hitting Boston line up in terms of the players they have available. Some of the players have been banged up but the Red Sox continue to hit with a .325 average vs. RHP and 7.27 runs per 9 in their last 5 games.

Garza is 8-1 in his last 9 starts on 5 days rest, but just 3-13 in his last 16 road starts vs. a winning team. The Rays overall have struggled at Fenway just 20-53 in their last 73, but 9-3 in their last 12 when Garza pitches. Value may be on the side of the Rays with the way the Red Sox bullpen has pitched.

Ice Cold:

Kevin Slowey (0-2, 12.1 IP, 22 hits, 1.95 WHIP, 12.41 ERA)
Wandy Rodriguez (1-2, 1.79 WHIP, 9.00 ERA)
Jesse Litsch (13.1 IP, 1.80 WHIP, 8.78 ERA)
Kevin Millwood (16.1 IP, 1.90 WHIP, 8.27 ERA)