I have a feeling the winner of this series wins it all. It starts Wednesday. Angels have been about as good as a high school JV team against the Sox in the playoffs, but the Sox come in with some injury issues, namely Lowell and Drew. They do get to pitch one of the best postseason pitchers of all time twice (Beckett), Lester twice, and Matsuzaka in Game 3 though. Should be a good series.
There are at least 4 Sox fans that I can think of off the top of my head, and since it's a playoff series I'd imagine baseball fans in general would be interested. If you don't care about it just stay in the Mets playoff thre... oh, wait. Nevermind.
Fair enough. I was in a bad mood for obvious reasons when I wrote that. 4 though? Really? On a Jet board...Just genuinely surprised by that.
This really seems like a tossup to me. Of the 4 first rounders this week, this is the hardest for me to decide on. On one hand the Angels dominated Boston in the regular season. They have an excellent pitching staff top to bottom. An ace, a deep rotation, a very deep bullpen, and an very good (also very very overrated) closer in K-Rod. Their lineup is also very deep. That lineup however, hasn't actually scored that many runs this year despite being very good on paper. On top of that, this Sox seems like it might have a second gear nobody expects. They had the best run differential by far in the AL this year, and they saw significant injury time from some key contributors. Now though, all the main pieces are back and appear to be healthy. Knowing this team's post-season experience and looking at the players they have, it's hard to rule them out. Whenever I watch this team they don't appear to be that great, yet statistically they lead the AL in runs scored and are second in runs allowed. Also, the Sox appear to have magical powers against "LA of Anaheim" in the playoffs. Prediction: Angels in 5
How can you say that? The Rays have dominated the Angles all year this year... The playoffs are a different story, but @ the same time, I find it funny how you refuse to give the Rays any type of credit. Typical Red Sox fan. The Rays have also proven that we are the AL East champions for a reason...Winning the season series over the Boston Red Sox. Kazmir Shields Garza will be tough to beat and the Rays have the best bullpen...Handsdown. David Price also makes it THAT MUCH stronger. Iwimura-2B Upton-CF Crawford-LF Pena-1B Longoria-3B Navarro-C Rocco/Floyd-DH Hinske-RF Bartlett-SS Thats one hell of a lineup and one of the best Defensive teams in the game today. This team has sooooo much heart and refuses to give up. Then we also have SOLID backup players such as Perez, Gross, Johnson, and Gomes. Say what you want about the Rays, you have been wrong all year about this team... Think the Red Sox are the team to beat? :rofl: ok. Without Manny (One of the best clutch players to ever play the game), Drew and Lowell...I see this team eliminated in 4 or 5 games...The Angels are just the better team here in 2008. That bullpen also blows. GL on watching the Angels DOMINATE the Red Sox, like they have all year. Upton=Been on the DL Rocco=Been on the DL Longoria=Benn on the DL Floyd-Been on the DL Navarro=Been on the DL Crawford=Been on the DL Bartlett=Been on the DL Pena=Been on the DL The only starter who has been healthy all year long has been Iwimura... Kazmir, Percival and Garza have also been on the DL this year. I cant think of one team in the leauge...That has had their WHOLE starting lineup on the DL...This Rays team just kept on winning, plugging in players...And we still won the AL East. Now this team is back to 100%... Refuse to give the Rays credit all you want...It's clear that you have been WRONG all year.
How can I say it? Here are some numbers from this year... Josh Beckett vs Tampa- 2-1, 2.96 ERA, 35 IP, 27 H, 5 BB, 37 K Jon Lester vs Tampa- 3-0, 0.90 ERA, 20 IP, 18 H, 6 BB, 19 K Daisuke Matsuzaka vs Tampa- 1-0, 3.00 ERA, 15 IP, 13 H, 11 BB, 17 K TOTALS- 6-1, 1.93 ERA, 70 IP, 60 H, 22 BB, 73 K Scott Kazmir vs Boston- 0-2, 9.00 ERA, 18 IP, 24 H, 14 BB, 14 K James Shields vs Boston- 2-2, 5.85 ERA, 20 IP, 20 H, 5 BB, 17 K Matt Garza vs Boston- 1-1, 4.50 ERA, 22 IP, 21 H, 7 BB, 10 K TOTALS- 3-5, 6.30 ERA, 60 IP, 65 H, 26 BB, 41 K The Devil Rays beat the Sox this year by beating the Mike Timlins and Chris Smiths of the world for the most part. In the playoffs, you won't see those guys out there in leverage situations. The three starters the Sox would be sending out posted a 1.93 ERA against the Devil Rays this year, with over a K/IP and a nearly 3 K/BB ratio (which is skewed by Matsuzaka's 11 BB). In the meantime, the Devil Rays pitchers had an ERA over 6 against the Sox with more H allowed than IP and far fewer K/IP. They just don't scare me. The only thing that does scare me is the health of Beckett. He's the key to this team's postseason success.
