After their 12-2 victory last night, the Red Sox have to be considered favourites heading into game seven of the ALCS tonight.
The Indians have seen their 3-1 series lead vanish and while their equation stays the same (win one game and they’re through), the mindset is very different. Two chances to seal their berth in the World Series have gone begging. The vultures are circling, ready to insert the “Cleveland choke†into the annals of baseball history. Any team can lose two games on the spin, but when you are this close to the Fall Classic those losses take on an extra significance. Eric Wedge will be emphasising the positives in the Cleveland clubhouse, telling his troops to put the past behind them and to concentrate on the task at hand. It’s easier said than done though.
How different things could have been. Grady Sizemore started the game with a shot that just bended foul around Pesky’s Pole. A few feet the other way and the Fenway faithful would have been silenced before a single Boston hitter had stepped up to the plate. In the bottom of the first, J.D. Drew played the “zero-to-hero†role to perfection, swatting a grand slam into centre field. Had he connected only fractions of an inch differently, the ball may have landed safely into Sizemore’s glove and Fausto Carmona would have escaped from a shaky first frame without conceding a run. As the old saying goes: baseball truly is a game of inches.
While the Indians will be trying to raise themselves, the Red Sox enter game seven with unrivalled confidence. Having survived two sudden death matches, they are well placed to survive another. Attention will naturally fall on Daisuke Matsuzaka, Boston’s scheduled game seven starter. The Red Sox stumped up a considerable amount of money to secure his services during the off-season, bludgeoning their rivals with a $51 million posting fee simply to earn the right to negotiate a multi-year contract with the Japanese star. This is why they invested so heavily in Dice-K, to help them make it two World Series wins in three seasons after an eighty-six year drought. His two post-season starts, including a loss in game three of this series, have been decidedly unimpressive. His team mates have given him an opportunity to make amends and it would be no surprise if he does exactly that.
But let’s not write off those Indians just yet. It’s hard to imagine any team paying $51m to sign Jake Westbrook, but he’s an effective Major League starter and he got the best of Dice-K and the Red Sox the first time around. If he can continue to induce double-play balls with his sinker, Cleveland will be able to keep out of the big innings that proved to be their downfall last night. And will tonight be the night that the 2006 version of Travis Hafner finally reappears? Pronk is hitting just .179/.304/.333 over ten games in the post-season while Wedge refuses to budge him from the number three spot in the batting order. It’s time for Hafner to repay some of the faith that the Indians have shown in him.
Whichever team prevails, they will have to contend with the Colorado Rockies if they want to win the ultimate prize. Debates will be raging about who has the advantage heading into the World Series. Will the Rockies be well-rested or undercooked? Will the ALCS winner be worn out or battle-ready? Will any of that really matter in a best-of-seven series? Those questions may be answered in due course, but first we have to find out who the Rockies’ opponents will be.
The game will be live on Five tonight, although their TV listings still state that the Sunday Night NFL game will be on instead. Nat and Mike noted during their trip to Atlanta for last week’s Monday Night Football match that the ALCS would take precedence, so tune in from 01.05 to catch what should be a thrilling finale from Fenway.
