darkness1162

hope Pedro can turn back the clock and dominate like he used to. He's been very good but not dominant all year. Lately he's been able to dial it up velocity wise on his fastball, but the location on it has been rather poor. It's time for a turn back the clock performance and hopefully they can put the Cardinals on the brink of elimination.

aerozeppelin

Perdo is and has been for a while now washed up. Even if he pitches well, the Sox will be dealing with Ortiz at first (OUCH) and won't have the DH, meaning they'll be dealing with a hole in their lineup. I think the cards can win all 3 at home, but I think it'll take 7 to win the series now (up from my previous prediction of 6, and based on the strenght of schillings 1st start).

dylanmarsh

I wouldn't go so far as to say Petey is "washed-up." Washed-up is a term saved for Rick Reed or John Burkett or Ramiro Mendoza. Pedro is still capable of pitching 6 to 7 strong innings and hitting 97 on the gun then droppping a 75 mph curve for strike three. I'm not exactly sure what his deal is lately, but, like D-Lowe, he's pitching for a few extra million on his contract with this upcoming start.

Papi at 1st is a scary thought, I'll give you that. Two things to point out here, though: 1. Paul Molitor with his beat-up 40 year old body was still able to play first for the Jays in the early 90's World Series; 2. The Sox have proven that errors don't matter much to the outcome of the game. Ortiz played quite a bit of first base early in his career for the Twins, so this won't be a foreign concept to him. (See the pic below, he's even a got a nice glove.)

Glory's Sun

The sox have alot of National Leaguers on their team so this really won't be that big of a deal. Pedro himself was in the NL for a while. I think Pedro will give the sox at least 5 innings of good pitching. He's on alot of rest and he always pitches well on extra rest. I think St. Louis will take one or two games at home but I really think Boston will win one of the three. If they do.. it's over for St. Louis

theFez

as long as francona can see when pedro is out of gas and pull him before he gets in too much trouble he'll do fine. With Arroyo in the pen with two days of rest hopefully francona wont be afraid to pull pedro even after 2 or 3 innings if necessary.

8 errors in two games? who would think they would both be wins.

sox just need to settle down, try to prevent the errors, and they will be just fine.

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aerozeppelin

Washed up is a relative term - I meant he wasn't anywhere near as dominant as he used to be, and is IMO on the decline pretty rapidly. I don't think he has the endurance to last more than 5, maybe 6 innings against the Cards if our bats get going. Plus, with the Sox planning on not using Schilling again (or so ESPN reports; that certainly caught me off guard, but apparently the treatment they are using on his ankle can't be done another time), Arroyo will probably be saved for his game 6 start. I think the Cards can win if they can exploit Perdo's lack of endurance and then blast the middle relief of the red sox - Foulke has been Gagne-like this post season, so I'm not counting on any bottom of the ninth rallies off of him.

On an unrelated note, Ortiz looks a LOT smaller in that photo than he does nowadays... maybe its just me. I'm sure he won't make any amazing plays, but on the same token I'm not expecting him to be another Manny.

Guccilvr, I agree - the Cards need all 3 wins at Busch to have a realistic shot at winning the series. I disagree about their defense, though - I think it is going to catch up to them, especially in an unfamiliar ballpark. I think even more important than the defense is that they now have to play with a hole in their lineup - thats something they aren't used to dealing with, and I think that how well they adapt to that will determine whether they win or lose (that and if they can keep Manny from making too many defensive blunders).

theFez

sounds like he really will be going to the Yankees then, overpaid and underproducing, just the way Steinbrenner likes them!!

I'd rather have bad defense than no hitting and weak pitching.

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aerozeppelin

I'll agree with your thoughts on Steinbrenner - he has a knack for getting bad value. I'm still amazed he didn't go after Guerrero last year... it was such an obvious move.


Pitching i'll concede, but our htiting is far from nonexistant. 11 runs in two games isn't a dearth of run support, and the heart of our lineup has yet to really produce. Once edmonds and Rolen start hitting, it'll get interesting.

kutulu

I guess Pedro proved everyone wrong tonight. What a performance! Those Cards are in some serious trouble now.

theFez

so were any other red sox fans hoping for a loss tonight??

the ruthian symmetry of being the first time to come back from being down 3 games to being the second team to blow it is too frightening!



Pedro was on fire!!

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aerozeppelin

Indeed. I can't believe that we blew it so badly on our baserunning - that has been a strength all year, but it absolutely killed us tonight. Walker trying to take home (and seemingly not running all out...) probably cost us one, maybe two, runs, and Suppan's stall between bases cost us probably another two. Our defense played decent tonight, but not spectacularly - especially when Walker let that ball drop instead of going for the diving catch, which I thought he would make. Further, we gave Pedro too many short at bats - we failed to get him into the 100 pitch range by the fifth, and thereby blew our best chance at putting some real hits on him.

At this point, all I can hope is that Schilling won't pitch again and that the ghost of Ruth comes and inspires us (especially Rolen and Edmonds) to greatness. If it goes to a game 7 though, it will be eery either way - game 7, curse on the line, on HALLOWEEN...

Can't honestly say the odds are in favor of it going to 7, though.

Glory's Sun

I don't think I've ever been more proud of Pedro.

monkeydriven

Holy shit....It's finally gonna happen!

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you think i got my eyes closed but i've been lookin' at you the whole f&ckin' time...
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Posting from the home of the 2004 World Champion Boston Red Sox

darkness1162

I'm not as confident as the rest of the Sox fans. The Cardinals could bust out at any time. They have great, great hitters, and they're facing Lowe and Wake/Arroyo next. So if they take the next 2 games, it's 3-2. Now, Schilling and Pedro posted very good numbers, but Cardinals hitters will be seeing their stuff for the 2nd time- and let's be honest, their stuff has been good but not great.

I am hoping beyond hope but who knows? It's incredible that Pedro was able to do that to the CArdinals last night with the stuff he had. He hit 92-93 a couple times, but largely was 86-89. Amazing.

kutulu

Watching Suppan get thrown out at third was physically painfull to watch (and I'm rooting for the Sox!). I couldn't believe that it was happening. I hope nobody is blaming the 3rd base coach because he was clearly telling him to GO!

It's been such a weird series so far. Overall, it's been pretty boring.

kutulu

One thing I'm not getting is why some have been calling for Curt and Pedro to be the MVPs of the series if they win. Sure they pitched their asses off but they were only involved in two games. It's not like 2001 when Curt was co-MVP with RJ. In that series, Curt made 3 starts going 1-0 and RJ made two starts plus pitching in relief in Game 7 going 3-0.