Keywords: ALDS, Anaheim Angels, Boston Red Sox, John Lackey, Jon Lester, Terry Francona, World Series
OK. . here we go. . Boston Red Sox look for second in a row
| View blog | Archive | Friends' blogs
October 01, 2008
Skip Maloney
OK. . here we go. . Boston Red Sox look for second in a row
OK, so here we go. . playoff baseball. The Boston Red Sox start out in search of their second straight World Series title tonight in Anaheim and while they’ve won 9 straight post-season games against the Angels, including the three-game sweep last year, don’t expect that to have much of a bearing on the proceedings. Nor, for that matter, should one place too much emphasis on the fact that the A’s ran away with the AL West, finishing out there 22 games ahead of the Rangers. Bear in mind, as you look to ‘write in’ a series win for Boston, that the Angels have taken eight of the nine games they’ve played against them this year. Three more wouldn’t be a stretch for them. The Sox are dealing with what is hoped to be a minor bump on the road to the World Series and that’s Josh Beckett’s inability to open the series against the Angels. He ‘strained an oblique’ during a bullpen session and as a result, the opening series ball gets handed to Jon Lester, who was arguably the squad’s best pitcher this year (16-6 with a 3.21 ERA). Beckett is penciled in for the Game Three start. On paper, it’s a fairly even matchup, with the two teams, on average, having given up exactly (and I do mean ‘exactly’) the same number of runs per game this year (4.3). It’s on the other side of that ledger that the Sox would appear to have the advantage. They’ve scored an average of 5.2 runs per game, which was second in the American League and third in Major League Baseball this year. The A’s ranked 10th in the AL and 15th in MLB in that department. The Red Sox led the Angels this year in batting average (.280/.260), home runs (173/159), and pitcher strikeouts (1185/1106; Red Sox were first in MLB in that department). The Angels had the edge in some interesting categories. Base stealing, for example (129/120). This, in spite of the fact that you have to pass 13 players on the MLB season list of top base stealers before you hit Chone Figgins with 34 of them. By the same token, the Sox had only one player (Jacoby Ellsbury) on the top 14 (though that put him in third place). The Angels also walked fewer batters than the Red Sox (457/548), which could create some problems. With the A’s propensity for stealing (2nd in AL) and the Sox propensity to walk batters (9th in AL), there’ll be a lot of eyes on first base in this series. In this opening game, Lester has the better ERA (3.21/3.57), and win percentage (72%/70%), but in terms of hits allowed per innings pitched and the strikeout to walk ratio, it’s Lackey with the better numbers there. Looking to break Boston’s nine-in-a-row playoff streak against them, you gotta figure the As are due and most assuredly motivated, hungry, and perhaps, most importantly, rested, since they haven’t played a meaningful game since before kids went back to school last month. That said, let’s hope that Red Sox manager Terry Francona has his squad ready for a fired-up, refuse-to-be-denied Angels team. It’s that ‘vision’ thing that the Angels bring to this series that worries me. Any attempt on the part of the Sox to lay back and think that all they need do is show up is going to cost them. The Angels may not have faced any serious competition in their own division to account for their 22-game lead at the end of the regular season, but as noted at the top, they’ve taken eight out of nine against Boston this year (the last eight meetings, in fact) and Boston’s going to have to be on its toes to put that streak to bed.
Posted by Skip Maloney
| Like this post? Share it:
You must be logged in to post a comment.
