The Red Sox and Orioles will close out their three-game series on Wednesday afternoon, with Dice-K gunning for his 17^th win.  Here’s your Daily Sports Roundup . . .

Event of the day . . .

Daisuke Matsuzaka (16-2, 2.82 ERA) is coming off his best outing of the season, holding the White Sox scoreless on two hits and two walks over eight innings of work in an August 29 win. The righthander also fanned seven in that contest. Matsuzaka has faced Baltimore twice over the past month and a half, winning both of those games.

The Orioles were expected to counter with Jeremy Guthrie (10-11, 3.57 ERA) in the series finale on Wednesday afternoon. However, Guthrie has been hit hard in each of his last two outings (giving up a combined 12 earned runs on 14 hits over 9 2-3 innings of work), and instead the team will skip his turn in the rotation this time around. Reliever Lance Cormier (2-3, 4.61 ERA) is the top candidate to start in place of Guthrie.

Baltimore has outfielder Adam Jones back in their lineup; he was activated from the disabled list on Monday, and homered in his first at-bat of that contest. Boston outfielder J.D. Drew (herniated disk in back) could return to the lineup at some point this week.

Non sports event of the days…

Surely Sarah Palin’s speech tonight at the RNC will get as much interest as any Veep speech in history.  Will it be as memorable as Warren Zevon appearing on the David Letterman Show?

It will be interesting to see if the political betting odds change much in the next few days based on Palin’s speech and the attacks on her daughter Bristol Palin.

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Non-event of the day . . .

It’s been a long time since Barry Zito was considered a top pitcher, and he’ll be looking to avoid his 17^th loss of the season on Wednesday when the Giants play in Colorado. Zito (8-16, 5.62 ERA) was pounded for seven earned runs over just 3 1-3 innings in his last start (against the Reds). The Rockies‘ starter will be Aaron Cook (16-8, 3.88 ERA).

Also on the schedule . . .

Carl Pavano (2-0, 3.27 ERA) will be looking to keep that perfect record intact when he takes the mound for the Yankees in Tampa Bay on Wednesday night. Other games on the American League schedule: the White Sox at Cleveland, Seattle at Texas, the Angels at Detroit, Minnesota at Toronto, and Oakland at Kansas City.

Ryan Dempster (15-5, 2.95 ERA) will get the ball for the Cubs when they host Houston and Randy Wolf (8-11, 4.73 ERA) on Wednesday. Rounding out the National League slate: Atlanta at Florida, the Mets at Milwaukee, St. Louis at Arizona, Philadelphia at Washington, Pittsburgh at Cincinnati, and San Diego at the Dodgers.

Finally, there’s one WNBA game on the Wednesday schedule: Minnesota at Phoenix.

News from the wire . . .

Running back Rudi Johnson will look to get his career back on track in Detroit, as the Lions signed him to a one-year deal . . . Rookie quarterback Joe Flacco will get the start for the Ravens this weekend . . . Browns quarterback Derek Anderson is expected to return from his concussion in time for the team’s Week 1 contest . . . defected Predators forward Alexander Radulov seems unlikely to return to the NHL this season.

Peek at the future . . .

Scott Kazmir (10-6, 3.13 ERA) will take on Darrell Rasner (5-9, 5.08 ERA) in the Rays/Yankees finale on Thursday . . . Vijay Singh, the winner of each of the first two FedExCup playoff events, will be the favorite to take the trophy in this week’s BMW Championship at Bellerive . . . this week’s college football schedule gets underway on Thursday night, with Vanderbilt taking on South Carolina (-10) (college football odds)