Red Sox News And Notes

Tim Wakefield was able to throw a bullpen session yesterday at Fenway Park when the weather broke. He threw 77 pitches and proclaimed to Tito that he's ready to go. He is scheduled to pitch game 4 on Tuesday in Cleveland, one day after Daisuke Matsuzaka's game 3 start. Jonathon Papelbon and Curt Schilling also had side sessions, as did Josh Beckett, tomorrow's starter, on Monday.

Bobby Kielty, in all likelihood, will start in rightfield in place of JD Drew for Cleveland's CC Sabathia's game one start on Friday. This is from the Globe.....

"....Kielty's track record suggests he'll be in the starting lineup tomorrow night when the Sox face Sabathia in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. J.D. Drew, the Sox' regular right fielder, has three at-bats in his career against the lefthanded Sabathia, and has whiffed all three times.
Kielty, a switch hitter whose niche in the big leagues is as a righty batting against lefties, is hitting .310 lifetime against Sabathia, with nine hits in 29 at-bats, including four doubles and two home runs."

Peter here. Although JD Drew has been swinging a hotter bat lately, this is the right move. And who knows? Sabathia might be in for a short Fenway stay. I saw his start in game 1 against the Yankees, and he was wild and all over the place. The Red Sox will take pitches, foul them off, be selective, and then, poof! He'll be finished before 5 innings are up. That's my prediction for his game one start. The Red Sox will ride to victory on 7 strong innings from Beckett (if not 8) and more stellar bullpen work, with Paps closing it out, if he's needed. The Sox might be ahead by more then 5 runs by then, so it might be someone else doing the closing, but there's no holding Pap's usage back now...not at this point of October baseball. But I don't want to get ahead of myself. My prediction for the series? Boston Red Sox in 6 (if not 5). There will be a full position by position look at the series in tomorrow morning's post, right here, bright and early. Until then, enjoy your Thursday, which features game one between the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks. I like Colorado to go straight to the World Series....in 5 games. They have everything....timely hitting, great pitching, and a bullpen that makes other teams envious. I wish them luck, but they won't beat their American League opponent.

Well, the day we've all been waiting for is approaching rapidly. At a little after 7pm EDT tomorrow night, Red Sox Nation and Red Sox International will collectively take a deep breath, exhale deeply, and buckle themselves in for step one on a staircase that ends abruptly at the World Series of baseball. And I can't wait.

Click on the title of this post for the Hartford Courant's Jeff Jacobs' informative article all about the intertwined, at least for now, fates of Mariano Rivera and Yankee skipper and skipper-to-be Joe Torre....great stuff. And thank you, Constant Readers, for always being here. For me. I appreciate it so much. Oh, I added a link to my link list, which is on your right. It's called THE BROOKS FILE, written by Connecticut's own Gerry Brooks. He's our NBC30 news anchor, along with the talented and lovely Lisa Carberg. He's a funny guy, a big big Red Sox fan, and just an all-around good person who we all love. Check out his everyday funny, topical and timely blog, and thank you Gerry, for your kind words. To my readers, my link list is on the right side of this page...just look right there, to the right! And click on THE BROOKS FILE! And then bookmark it!!! In the meantime, GO SOX. FOREVER.