SOX LINEUP FOR TONIGHT'S GAME

The big news is that both Drew and Lowell are starting.

1. CF Jacoby Ellsbury
2. 2B Dustin Pedroia
3. DH David Ortiz
4. 1B Kevin Youkilis
5. RF JD Drew
6. LF Jason Bay
7. 3B Mike Lowell
8. SS Jed Lowrie
9. C Jason Varitek

SP Jon Lester

Source:
Extra Bases

RED SOX SET ALDS ROSTER

Pitchers:
Josh Beckett
Paul Byrd
Manny Delcarmen
Jon Lester
Javier Lopez
Justin Masterson
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Hideki Okajima
Jonathan Papelbon
Tim Wakefield

Catchers:
Kevin Cash
David Ross
Jason Varitek

Infielders:
Sean Casey
Alex Cora
Mike Lowell
Jed Lowrie
David Ortiz
Dustin Pedroia
Kevin Youkilis

Outfielders:
Jason Bay
Coco Crisp
JD Drew
Jacoby Ellsbury
Mark Kotsay

I personally would have gone with a faster pinch runner type of player as opposed to three catchers, but that's not too big of a deal.

Source:
WPRI

ALDS GAME 1 PREVIEW

This is the 4th time the Red Sox and Angels have met in postseason play. The Red Sox have won all three previous series. The Angels haven't beaten the Sox in the playoffs since the 1986 ALCS.

However, the Angels were 8-1 against the Red Sox this season, including a 5-1 mark in Fenway Park. The Angels have the best record in baseball. And of course, the Angels have homefield advantage. The Sox were 39-42 on the road this season.

Josh Beckett was pushed back from Game 1 to Game 3 due to an oblique injury suffered in a bullpen session. This means Jon Lester will take the mound for the Sox to start the series. Opposing him is John Lackey.



Lester's history against the Angels isn't a good one. In 4 career starts he's 1-1 with a 7.78 ERA. This year he had a 5 inning, 4 run no decisions against them. But that was back in April. He finished that month with a mediocre 4.31 ERA. He'd finish the season with a 3.21 ERA. Since the end of April, Lester is 15-4 with a 2.97 ERA. He won AL Pitcher of the Month for September, and he's become the Ace of the Red Sox staff.

John Lackey finished the year 12-5 with a 3.75 ERA. The big righty actually did worse facing righthanded batters. He allowed a .301 average and 14 of his 26 HRs allowed were hit by righties. He was 2-0 against the Sox this year. He had a complete game, 2 run outing on July 29th (in the midst of the Manny Ramirez saga), and a 7 inning effort in an 11-3 Angels win earlier in July.



Some of the Red Sox hitters have good histories against Lackey. David Ortiz is 10 for 30 (.333) in his career off Lackey, with 3 doubles, a triple, and 2 homers. Pedroia's 5 for 12 (.417), Drew's 5 for 16 (.313), and Youkilis is 5 for 17 (.294) with a pair of homers. So the middle of the lineup should do fine against him.

The major advantage the Angels have in this series is their bullpen. The Red Sox have Papelbon - who may or may not be close to exhaustion from overuse this season - the Angels have Francisco Rodriguez (the nickname K-Rod sucks), Justin Speier, Scot Shields, and a resurgent Darren Oliver. But this isn't as good as the Angels bullpen that won them the Series in 2002. This is still a beatable bullpen. Speier is 2-8 with a 5.03 ERA, Shields had 5 blown saves, the Sox have a combined .294 average against Oliver.



Then there's the record holder... Francisco Jose Rodriguez. 62 saves. And 7 blown saves. But 89.9% conversion is very impressive. And the Red Sox have nothing but bad history against him. Kotsay's 1 for 8, Crisp is 2 for 7, Youkilis is 2 for 7, Lowell's 1 for 6, Varitek's 1 for 6, Ellsbury, Cora, Drew, and Casey are a combined 0 for 9 off him. So by the 9th inning, the Red Sox better have a lead or be tied.

I think the Sox will go to ANAHEIM and split, winning Game 1 tonight, losing Game 1 on Friday. Lester will have a strong outing, the Sox will get to Lackey for 3 or 4 runs, and win 4-2.

JD Drew said he was "100 percent" for the ALDS. No official word yet on whether he'll be in the starting lineup or not. Same goes for Lowell, although all the news has been positive the past few days.

If you got kids, set the TiVo, or introduce them to coffee tomorrow morning. Game time: 10:00 PM (probably more like 10:15) on TBS.

Sources:
ESPN.com
Boston Herald

THREE WORST WORDS SOX FANS COULD HEAR: BECKETT IS HURT

Josh Beckett strained an oblique muscle during a bullpen session and his start has been pushed back from Game 1 to Game 3 of the ALDS against the Angels. Jon Lester will start Game 1, with Daisuke starting Game 3.

This is bad news no matter how you look at it. Last year, Beckett carried the Sox in October. This year, he's struggled a bit, and hasn't looked healthy all season.

This also means that Beckett will only be able to start one game in the series, as opposed to two. Thankfully Lester and Matsuzaka have been good enough to merit two starts each in the series. Let's just hope that Game 3 isn't an elimination game for the Sox. And if it is, let's hope Beckett has some October magic left in him to extend the series.

Source:
WBZ

HEY BOSTON COLLEGE, UCONN... MAN UP AND PLAY EACH OTHER!

One thing that pisses me off about BC's football scheduling is that they don't play UConn. Chestnut Hill is only 80 miles from Storrs. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are 85 miles apart. Michigan and Ohio State are 188 miles apart. Miami and Florida State are nearly 500 miles apart. In college football geography, 80 miles is a stone's throw.

Boston College doesn't have a football rival. Say what you want about Notre Dame, but the Irish don't care. Their rivals are USC, Michigan, and Purdue. The same goes for Miami (actual rivals: Virginia Tech, FSU, Florida), and Virginia Tech (actual rivals: Miami, Virginia).

So, Boston College, UConn, let's make a deal here. Play each other for 6 years and see what develops. Hell, play at Gillette Stadium if you want a neutral location. You can split up the 70,000 seats evenly between schools. BC, you'll get noticed more by the media in Boston. UConn, you'll steal a little attention from your basketball teams. Make up some silly trophy to play for like Paul Revere's Saddle or something. Call it the Blackstone River Shootout brought to you by Carl's Jr.



So instead of playing UMass or URI or Holy Cross or UNH, man up and play each other!

THE ECONOMY'S IMPACT ON SPORTS

You may have no interest in politics or economics, but they have a serious impact on sports in this country. The current economic "crisis" is a perfect example of that.

The financial institutions of this country are facing drastic changes in the status quo. 150 year old companies like Lehman Brothers are going bankrupt, banks are failing; and without something happening (like the "bailout" which is really more of a buyout), it's going to continue (which isn't necesarilly bad, it will simply change the way our economy functions).

The effects of this crapstorm will be felt in many different ways. This post tries to narrow the focus to its effect on the sports world.

Right now, there's no credit available. You want to take out a mortgage, or get a business loan; you'll either be denied or have to pay an extremely high rate of interest. Banks simply lack the cash to give out credit right now.

For huge teams like the Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Cubs, Dodgers, NFL teams, Lakers, Celtics; this doesn't mean much. They have so much cashflow and they're such good investments for banks, that they'll get any loans they need. Hell, the Yankees are getting money from New York to build their new Stadium in return for nothing.



But the KC Royals won't be getting a new ballpark anytime soon (but they're almost done with a major renovation project). The Rays will find it very difficult to get any private financing for their proposed new ballpark. Their owner - Stuart Sternberg - is primarily a Wall Street investor. It's been a rough month for some of those guys.

That leads me to another potential impact. Most of the owners of sports teams are business tycoons who use teams as a toy as well as a business. See: Mark Cuban. A lot of these people have enough personal wealth to absorb a few bad hits in the market. They didn't get rich by not diversifying either. But a few might be forced to sell their teams in order to help their other businesses. God willing, Jeremy Jacobs will be one of those sellers, but I doubt it.



Think about the names of ballparks, stadiums, and arenas: TD BankNorth Garden. Wachovia Center, Progressive Field, Lincoln Financial Field, Quicken Loans Arena, PNC Park, INVESCO Field at Mile High, Scotiabank Place, Chase Field, Bank of America Stadium, Prudential Center, Citizens Bank Park, RBC Center, M&T Bank Stadium, HSBC Arena, BankAtlantic Center, Scottrade Center, Comerica Park, SAFECO Field. These are all in the financial/insurance industries.

When these banks fail, or are purchased, the teams they sponsor might lose their lucrative naming rights deals. SAFECO was just bought by Liberty Mutual, and it will be interesting to see what that does to Seattle's SAFECO Field.



And it's not just naming rights. Through billboards, commercials, and luxury boxes; corporate America provides most of the revenue for sports teams. As credit vanishes, most companies will be focused on survival, rather than expansion (no credit=no expansion). They won't pay huge amounts on advertising. This could also have a domino effect through television. TV stations make money from ads, then they pay the NFL $3.7 billion a year to broadcast football.

You won't be seeing teams declare bankruptcy. You won't see significant declines in attendance. The teams that make money now will continue to make money. The teams that lose money will continue to lose money, but not catastrophically. Things may get a little tighter for many teams. New ballparks/stadiums and major renovations will be rare for a while. Smaller market teams might get a little tighter when it comes to paying players.

Things will change.

DOUBLEHEADER PISSES ME OFF

I just don't get the point of forcing a meaningless doubleheader into the last weekend of the year. I guess the 37,000 fans who have tickets are happy, but they're going to see what amounts to a split-squad spring training game. The regulars and the stars might play a few innings in one game or the other. But don't expect David Ortiz to have 8 at-bats on Sunday.

It's kind of a shame the Red Sox lost Friday night. Tampa Bay has lost three straight. It's frustrating when you come so close to winning the division over a 162 game season. There are countless examples of games the Sox "should have" or "could have" or "would have" won.

Tampa Bay deserves tons of credit, but do they win the AL East if Josh Beckett remains healthy? How about David Ortiz? Mike Lowell? JD Drew? I don't think so. The Rays had injuries of their own, but Beckett and Ortiz are two of the premier players in the game. Lowell is last year's World Series MVP, and nearly regular season MVP.

1:35 this afternoon, Daisuke Matsuzaka goes for win #19, Mike Mussina goes for win #20. 7:35, Sidney Ponson faces Tim Wakefield.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Elise Amendola

VICTORY OVER CLEVELAND KEEPS DIVISIONAL HOPES ALIVE

The Sox are still technically in the AL East race. They trail Tampa Bay by 2 games, with 3 games remaining. That means in order to win the division (and have homefield advantage in the first round), the Sox have to win 3 games against New York, and the Rays have to lose all three of their games in Detroit. Tampa Bay would win in the event of a tie.

This probably won't happen. The Sox will be lucky to even play a game this weekend with all the rain. But the victories were important. The Sox are playing solid baseball at precisely the right time. The 5 runs they put up on Cliff Lee was very promising for the playoffs, where they'll be facing quality pitching every night.

Winning the division is relatively meaningless in the bigger picture of things, but having homefield advantage is not. The Sox are 39-42 (.481) on the road, but 55-23 (.705) in Fenway. And even though the Sox have the 4th best record in all of baseball, they'll be on the road for the ALDS, as well as the ALCS. Unless there's a miracle this weekend.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Charles Krupa