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The showdown of Red Sox pitching and Barry Bonds begins tonight at 10pm EST. Tim Wakefield gets the first round of three battles this weekend. In the past seven days Bonds has only hit over .400, two home runs, knocked in five, and walked 11 times. Which begs the question, to pitch to him or not?

"It depends on the situation," said Sox general manager Theo Epstein. "If you were to play the Giants 162 games and you intentionally walked Barry Bonds every time, you'd be worse off than if you pitched to him. If the situation allows, you pitch to him. You try to pick the right spot.

The match up of knuckleballer Wakefield pitching to Bonds appears to be a bit of a mis-match. However, Wakefield, a team mate of Bonds on the Pirates, has faced bonds seven tims in the past, and Barry has nothing to show for it. That simple fact probably doesn't comfort Wakefield in the least.

"He impacts the game like no one else can," manager Terry Francona said. "I struggle with (the question of whether to pitch to or walk Bonds). We'll definitely put time into (debating it)."

Not all of Wakefield's teammates are approaching the situation with trepidation.

"I'm looking forward to that, man. It's going to be real exciting," said Sox slugger Manny Ramirez. "My son, he's crazy [about Bonds], every time we're at home, he's flipping channels, 'Hey, I got to see this, Barry is coming to hit.' After he hits, he'll change it. He's awesome. I don't even know how he does it."

"I never watched Barry play in person so it's going to be fun to watch."said David Ortiz."I'm going to watch him from first base."

You can watch him from your couch at 10pm on NESN.

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