A World Series Weekend

Ah, it's Saturday, still dark with heavy showers coming down, feeding the thirsty greenery. Sorta nice, though. But it's a good thing the Sox are out in Denver, for Fenway Park is a soaked place, with more rain to come starting up again in the early evening. And in roughly 14 hours, it will be World Series time, as the Sox try to win one of the next two games so that Josh Beckett can pitch for the whole kitten caboodle (first time I ever typed that!) on Monday evening. The World Championship is staring us right in the face, eyeball to eyeball. Daisuke Matsuzaka will face Josh Fogg at 8:35 PM EDT. Fogg has turned into a reliable starter for the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies rookie shortstop, Troy Tulowitzki, had this to say about the two games played so far, a 13-1 Red Sox romp and a 2-1 Red Sox nailbiter......

"I credit their pitchers. They've done a great job so far. Hopefully we can get our bats going and make it a series. We just need to get going as a team here, get some momentum going, carry it over to each game. If you look at the first game, when you put up as many runs as they did, it's tough. If you're not swinging the bat, you're not going to win. The other game, they pitched really well."

Peter here, and Troy, you hit the nail on the head. And this, from AFP, about our Saturday starter.....

"The 27-year-old right-hander from Tokyo will become the first Japanese starting pitcher in World Series history on Saturday when he tries to give Boston a 3-0 lead over Colorado in Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven final."

The Sox lineup, top to bottom, is very selective and will not swing at anything but a pitch to their liking. Remember the three bases loaded walks in game one. All those runs didn't score solely because of singles and doubles....the Sox hitters wore down the opposing pitchers, just as they've done all season long.

Most importantly, Terry Francona has made his mind up on the lineup for these DH-less games. David Ortiz will play first base and red hot Kevin Youkilis will sit. Ellsbury will lead off with Pedroia batting second. The rest of the order remains the same, with the exception of Daisuke batting ninth. Maybe being able to pitch to the Colorado pitchers will help Daisuke to spin a great one. It will be the biggest start of his life, and he'll be ready. In fact, we're ALL ready for game three, with Paps and Okajima OK to go, if needed. Don't be surprised if Tito doesn't use Oki, though, for he did throw 2 1/3 innings. He only needed 29 pitches in that span, so I expect to see him, if needed. In World Series times, you go with your best.

Click on the title of this post for the Herald's Jeff Horrigan's article with the latest from Denver. Enjoy your Saturday, just a prelude for tonight's festivities. As always, thanks for being here, and your comments are welcomed and WILL be answered. GO SOX. Forever (but especially tonight!!).