Tagged: Boston Red Sox

10/9 MLB Tonight – ALDS Previews

Plesac.jpgWe have plenty to talk about on today’s show.  Both AL series will be played tonight so we’ll break those down as well as look back to yesterday’s games with the big story taking place at Dodger Stadium.

It’s going to be very tough now for the Cardinals to come back and beat the Dodgers being down 0-2 and losing both of the games Carpenter and Wainwright pitched.  It should be 1-1 and then you’d like the Cardinals chances of possibly winning this series.  If they don’t come back and win it’s going to be a long off-season for Matt Holliday.  There are a few reasons as to why he didn’t catch that ball yesterday.  It could have been the white towels, the lights or the time of day, but when he didn’t make the catch it started to unravel for St. Louis and they may not be able to recover.

Yankees-Twins will be interesting to watch tonight.  Joe Girardi has given A.J. Burnett his wish as Jose Molina will be his catcher.  Will this work for Girardi or backfire?  It’s important to make your pitcher comfortable so I think he’s making the right decision here.  We’ll find out. 

After Yankees-Twins tonight we’ll have Angels-Red Sox as LA looks to go up 2-0.  The Angels haven’t been able to beat the Red Sox in the postseason in recent years, but this may be the year they get it done.  They’re as healthy as they’ve ever been, while the Red Sox are not.  We’ll have to see which Josh Beckett shows up tonight.

We’re on at 5 tonight and then we’ll be on after both game so make sure you tune into MLB Nework all postseason.-Dan Plesac

 

10/8 MLB Tonight – Red Sox-Angels Preview

KEVIN MILLAR.jpgWe’re going to talk today about the only series that’s not underway yet and that’s Red Sox-Angels. There’s a lot of history between these clubs in recent years.  This is their 4th postseason meeting since 2004 with the Red Sox winning the previous 3 times.  Who will win this series? I’ll let you know by the end of this blog.

I think this is the best chance for the Angels to finally beat the Red Sox.  Torii Hunter is in his 2nd year with the Angels and he is clearly now the leader of this team.  He’s been a great signing by the Angels.  You throw in the additions of Bobby Abreu and Scott Kazmir who were not part of any of the previous losses to the Red Sox and they may be able to win this series.

The pitching and hitting is pretty even.  Both clubs have a balanced attack.  However, I think this series is going to come down to the bullpens and I have to give the edge to the Red Sox.  They can throw Bard, Okajima, Wagner, and Papelbon.  That’s tough and makes a lot of these games 6 inning affairs for the Boston starters. 

As I said earlier I think this is the best chance the Angels have to beat the Red Sox in the playoffs and I think this series will go 5 games, but in the end I think the Red Sox will find a way to advance once again.-Kevin Millar

 

10/5 Path to the Pennant – Playoff Preview

vasgersian.jpgWe have a couple of themes on tonight’s show.  It goes 1, 2, 3, 4.  We’re going to look at the best 1-2 pitching combinations for this year’s playoffs as well as in past playoffs.  We’re also going to do the same for 3-4 hitting combinations.

First up is the 1-2 pitching duos.  We have a few good ones this year with Carpenter-Wainwright in St. Louis, Lester-Beckett in Boston, and Sabathia-Burnett in New York.  The thing that always fascinates me about these debates is the historical part of it.  There have been some great 1-2 punches over the years.  Koufax-Drysdale for the Dodgers, McLain-Lolich for the Tigers, and Schilling-Johnson for the D-backs to name a few. Who is better?  That can be debated for a long time.

The same can be said for the best 3-4 hitters of all-time.  Again, we have a few good ones this year.  Teixeira-Rodriguez in New York and Pujols-Holliday in St. Louis jump out at you right away as the most formidable 3-4 combos in this postseason, but are they better than say Manny-Papi?  Tough to say.

The other topic I can’t wait to get into tonight is the one-game playoff.  This is the 3rd year in a row we’ve had one.  We’ll have two guys on the set tonight who played in one and that’s Barry Larkin and Al Leiter who squared off in 1999 for the NL Wild Card.  Leiter and his Mets won 5-0.

We’re on from 6-8 tonight previewing all of the playoff matchups so make sure you tune in.- Matt Vasgersian