After their 4-3 victory over the Tigers last night, the Red Sox are one win away from going to the World Series. This from a team that lost over 90 games last year and had baseball's most epic collapse the year before.
Jon Lester was solid through six plus innings and Mike Napoli came through again with a 3 for 4 night at the plate, including a monster home run off Anibal Sanchez early in the game. After a fairly quiet series against the Rays, Napoli seems to have caught fire at just the right time. Kudos to Farrell for repeatedly saying that they knew Nap was a streaky hitter and were more than willing to ride his slumps for the dividends it might pay when he got hot.
Saturday's game has Cy Young lock Scherzer going against Clay Buccholz again. I'm hopeful that Buccholz can ramp up his game to his earlier season dominance here. I'm also going out on a limb and predicting the Sox get to Scherzer this time. The guys a monster on the mound, but everyone is going to have a bad game and the Sox seem to get better against these pitchers when they see them the second time in a series (see Price, David; ALDS)
Every prognosticator, pundit, and jerky sportswriter for the Tampa Bay Times picked the Sox to finish dead last in the division this year. According to the experts, it was either the Rays or Toronto in the WS in 2013. Well, Toronto finished last in the AL East, and the Rays imploded against Boston in the Division Series. So eff you guys!
Not counting my chickens here, but "if" Boston goes to the series, I'd sort of like to see them against the Cardinals. Only because I'm so freakin' tired of all the behind the scenes drama about who got traded and who was unhappy and . . . whatever. I'd just like to enjoy some baseball. You know? But as I've been saying this post season:
Fear the beard, baby!
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