The Sox beat the Cardinals in the first game of the Series 8-1. Uncharacteristic sloppiness by the Cards, coupled with good hitting and some lights out pitching by the Sox gave the home team a big win on the first night.
Jon Lester threw 7 2/3 shutout innings, looking as dominant as he ever has. Mike Napoli drove in three runs in the first to give Lester a nice cushion to work with and the power lefty ran with it. Kind of fun to watch David Ortiz hustle it around from first to score on that hit. Always gives me a chuckle to watch the big man chug it like that :-)
Speaking of Papi, he had another post season home run in the seventh and almost had a granny earlier but Beltran caught it over the bullpen. Nice job there.
But some bad luck and sloppy play really got the Cards in a bind. An easy pop-up in the second that fell between Molina and Wainwright looked like first night jitters. And the overturned call (properly, I might add) on the attempted double play in the first inning gave the Sox a bases loaded situation that Napoli converted with gusto.
Farrell's swapping up the line-up in the series, so I'm assuming Lackey's on the mound for game 2. I'm sure he'll be dialed up for this game, which might give the Sox the chance to head to St. Louis up 2-0. Which would be nice.
I've seen where Farrell is concerned about Buccholz' fatigue factor in his starts and may push him into the four slot of the rotation. Oddly enough, that would give Jake Peavy the chance to close out the series if it goes to seven games. Wouldn't that be something for the late season acquisition?
Way to start things off, guys! Fear the beard, baby!
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