Hotmail
ALDS - RED SOX vs. ANGELS - A PREVIEW
by The Patriot Ledger
These are two men, but Ortiz slipped quite a bit this season when he got off to a horrible start, unable to hit a home run until May 20, with a batting average that suggested that maybe there was an injury or that he had finally reached the end of the line. Once he got rolling, he hit 27 home runs from June 6 through, tops in the AL. By the end of the season he had reached more normal power numbers, even flirting with the 100-RBI mark. Along the way he reached the 270 career home run mark, a new record for designated hitters.
Guerrero continued to be a horse, even after missing 35 early games with a chest muscle pull and another 21 later with a calf injury. Yet he picked it up quickly, reaching the .300 mark in batting, settling just under.
Guerrero has been all over the map in the playoffs against the Red Sox . Last year he batted .467, but in two previous meetings he was at .167 and .200. Overall, he's a career .240 playoff batter. In the 2004 sweep of the Angels, Ortiz batted .547 and followed that up with a . 714 effort in 2007. Last year he went 4-for-17-.235.
ADVANTAGE: RED SOX
BENCH
Rocco Baldelli, Casey Kotchman, Jason Varitek, Jed Lowrie/Chris Woodward/Joey Gathright vs. Maicer Izturis, Gary Matthews, Jeff Mathis, Rob Quinlan
Kotchman and Varitek are seasoned veterans with playoff experience (more so Varitek), and Baldelli is simply an unflappable veteran whom Francona likes in a pinch-hitting role. He also gives the manager considerable flexibility against left-handers.
Matthews also has that regular-season experience but is green in the playoffs.
ADVANTAGE: RED SOX
STARTING PITCHING
Daisuke Matsuzaka vs. Scott Kazmir
Each of these teams have questions regarding their starters as they head into the playoffs. The Red Sox had to figure out who No. 1 is, and they apparently settled on Lester, even if his record didn't quite equal Beckett's. Buchholz long ago established himself as the No. 3 starter, and assuming a No. 4 is necessary in the ALDS, Matsuzaka's encouraging late-season return injected him back into the picture.
Perhaps the answer for the Angels isn't quite so clear cut. Against a team (the Red Sox ) whose left-handed batters hit barely .250 against left-handed pitchers, the Angels now have the luxury of inserting newcomer Scott Kazmir into the starting rotation. But where? They've already got Joe Saunders for that task, but they can't exactly spit out Weaver and Lackey. One thing's for sure, though: it would seem that Kazmir, who had a 2.01 ERA with 23 strikeouts in his first five games since coming over from Tampa Bay, would leapfrog Santana.
Lester avoided the Angels this season, and is 1-1, 5.78 against them for his career, but he earned Francona's confidence by going undefeated from mid July to late September, lowering his early-season ERA from 6.51 to the low 3s. In two post-season starts against the Angels last season, he didn't allow a run.
Beckett, meanwhile, was sensational early this season but experienced that rough patch from mid-August through mid-September, and although he appeared to be pulling out of the tailspin, he never seemed quite dominant. Francona wanted to give him a little extra rest - but not the missed start forced by back spasms - one of the reasons for his thoughts of pushing him back to No. 2. Beckett also went 0-1, 4.50 against the Angels this year, giving up seven runs on 15 hits.
Buchholz is 1-2, 3.33 against the Angels for his career, with no appearances this season, but the fact that he went from mid-August through September with five wins and only one late loss certainly buoys the team's confidence in him.
The top three Angels starters have had mixed success against the Sox this season. Weaver beat them. Saunders lost and so did Lackey, in a tough defeat in which he faltered in the sixth inning, throwing away a ball to score a run in a 4-1 loss. He's only 3-7 lifetime against the Sox , but Weaver is 2-2 and Saunders 4-1, 3.24.
ADVANTAGE: RED SOX
RELIEF PITCHING
Red Sox relievers were at or near the top of the AL relief heap for most of the season, but dropped off late. In the month before the regular season came to a close they dropped off from fairly lofty ERA levels, going an ugly 5.56 in September to close it out over the 3.80 mark.
One of the reasons was the complete implosion of Delcarmen, a once dependable right-hander whose June 9 ERA of 1.07 had dropped to 4.53 by late September thanks to a month-long stretch in which he gave up hits (15) and runs (11) at an alarming rate, along with a 14.14 ERA. Yet, Ramirez also faltered with several less-than perfect outings, while even Daniel Bard, who was dazzling batters with his 100-mph fastballs, began to be less of a mystery.
The upside was depth, and when the Sox added Wagner, it gave them a second left-handed arm (behind Okajima), and Wagner came out firing in his set-up role.
Angels relievers were hurling at 4.48 ERA clip through the end the season, but the good news for them was a strong late-season performance. They improved to 3.14 in September, fourth best in the AL.
ADVANTAGE: RED SOX
CLOSER
Jonathan Papelbon vs. Brian Fuentes
No doubt Papelbon struggled this season. He walked only eight batters in all of 2008, yet three times that a year later. His ERA was lower, though, and he even had fewer blown saves (three vs. five). It's just that he was forced to work so much harder, facing more batters than ever before with a career-low strikeouts-to-walks ration of 3.08. Last year it was a career-high 9.63.
On the other hand, he fell just shy of the 40 saves mark once again and six of his saves were of the inning-plus variety, including one two-inning save, the first of his career. And he began settling down nicely toward the end of the season. Over the final month of the season he compiled a 1.74 ERA with only two runs allowed, six hits, 11 strikeouts and no walks.
The Angels thought they'd found themselves a special closer when they acquired Fuentes through free agency. The Sox are familiar with Fuentes, Colorado's closer in the 2007 World Series, when he gave up six hits and four runs in 32/3 innings. Make that three runs and seven hits this season - an 8.10 ERA.
Against other teams, Fuentes has been a lot better. He headed into the final weekend with 46 saves to lead the majors, with seven blown saves.
ADVANTAGE: RED SOX
Prediction: Red Sox in 5
ON THE WEB
Follow the Red Sox this postseason with our special report at PatriotLedger.com and Enterprisenews.com
| Copyright 2009 The Patriot Ledger | |
|
Terms & Conditions Privacy
Copyright © 2009 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
Add a comment
advertisement
