With another win over the National League Champion Colorado Rockies, the American League Champion Boston Red Sox are only two wins away from winning their second World Series in four years after 86 previous years of disappointment.
Thursday night’s 2-1 victory gives the BoSox a commanding series lead over what was the hottest team in baseball. It’s funny how important momentum can be in baseball, as opposed to how long a very long layoff can be.
Playoff veteran Curt Schilling earned the victory over Ubaldo Jiménez, who clearly struggled with nerves when looking at Jiménez’s 2:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio (as compared to his regular season K/BB of nearly 1.8). Schilling, on the other hand, during his 5.1 innings of work struck out four while walking two.
With baseball’s new playoff format, managers have a much easier decision when it comes to pulling struggling starters in favor of fresher relievers. While Jiménez managed 4 2/3 innings, Schilling only lasted two more outs while bullpens for both teams figured prominently in shutting down their opponent’s offense.
If the baseball gods had anything to do with the outcome of this year’s WS, the rest of the games will play out like Game Two with pitching duels. But more likely, Games Three and Four will probably look more like game one with dominate Boston pitching, like Josh Beckett being completely godlike in dismantling the Rockies fundamental offense.
Rockies starter Jeff Francis only lasted four innings in game one, while also throwing 103 pitches (including three strikeous). Beckett used his arm for only 93 pitches (including nine strikeouts). Jiménez was better with his pitches in using only 91 of them with Schilling a paltry 82. The Rockies need to reduce that pitch count and be more efficient. They need to trust that defense that ranked as baseball’s best.
Ultimately the playoffs reward either power pitching or power hitting. Boston has both, while Colorado has some of both. The reason the Rockies probably won’t win is that, while their power pitching was effective during the National League Divisional Series and League Championship Series, none of their playoff opponents were nearly as deadly as the BoSox. The Philadelphia Phillies were pretty loaded offensively, but their ace was a 44-year-old named Jamie Moyer. You get the idea.
Article comments