The Colorado Rockies have announced the first three pitchers of the 2007 World Series — Jeff Francis is predictably going to square off against Josh Beckett in Boston for Game 1.
Game 2 will pit Ubaldo Jimenez against an unknown Sox pitcher, and in Colorado’s first ever World Series game in Colorado, Josh Fogg is expected to get the ball. The other start will go to either Franklin Morales or Aaron Cook (who hasn’t pitched since August 10).
Who should the Red Sox pitch in Game 2? All signs point to a rested Tim Wakefield, who was unavailable out of the bullpen yesterday — for two principal reasons. One required some foresight, and I’m glad the baseball gods didn’t jinx us so… but the first reason was to line Wake up for Game 2. The second was a worry that Wake wouldn’t have recovered enough from his last start health-wise to be available out of the bullpen … a concerning thought.
The Rockies visited Fenway in June, taking two of three. During those games, we learned:
Wakefield cruised against the Rockies, giving up only one run in the eighth inning en route to allowing only four hits, one walk, and whiffing three. The Sox scored two runs, both off Aaron Cook.
Curt Schilling got lambasted in a 12-2 loss, a start after his near no-hitter. He gave up six runs (five earned) in five innings and Josh Fogg also matched Schilling in innings but gave up only two runs.
Josh Beckett’s first loss of the 2007 season came at the expense of the Rockies, who knocked him out of the game after five innings (10 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 2 HR) and Jeff Francis of the Rockies gave up seven hits, no runs, two walks and six K’s in five innings.
So, what are the Sox likely to do? First, Wakefield will probably go in Game 2 to keep him out of the thin air in Colorado. Schilling, who posted a 40 percent groundball percentage this year, should get the nod in Game 3 in Colorado. Game 4 will more than likely see Daisuke Matsuzaka get the nod unless Terry Francona elects to bring Beckett back on short rest (meaning we will go through this whole controversy yet again). If not, Beckett will start Game 5, Wakefield Game 6 and Schilling Game 7 (last three if needed).
The AL is superior to the NL, but I would caution against getting too cocky for two reasons:
First off, pretty much every single starting pitcher we have (and this includes Jon Lester) are flyball pitchers. The reason why the starting pitchers of the Rockies have experienced success in Coors Field is because they keep the ball on the ground. This may hurt us when we head to Colorado.
Second off, they are an extremely hot team that hasn’t lost yet in the postseason. The long layoff will benefit them in terms of healing injuries and getting rest, but it can also hurt them in terms of too much rest and lost momentum (which the Detroit Tigers cite as big reasons why they lost in the World Series, according to Peter Gammons).
Reasons why we can win:
We have tremendous momentum, home-field advantage, just as good pitching and hitting, and our park plays to our tendencies (much like our tendencies do not play at Coors Field — on the pitching side, I mean).
All in all … I think we’re in for a tough fight.
