Red Sox ALCS Pitching Rotation Thoughts...

Who starts game one against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night? Knowing the answer to that will help all the other rotation questions become clearer. It looks like the Sox will start Daisuke Matsuzaka on Friday down in Florida, with Beckett to follow. Matsuzaka will face James Shields, who is a tough customer. Jon Lester will open up the Fenway Park trio of games by starting game three, with Wakefield (NOT Byrd) to follow. That way Lester, clearly the best Red Sox pitcher on the planet, would be in line to start game seven, if there is a need for a game seven. Why not pitch Jon in game one? Simple...he would be pitching on three days rest, and with a long series in store, that is not necessary. Ex-ace Josh Beckett said this about Lester...

"Shit, he's a man," Beckett said when asked of Lester's performance in the ALDS. "There ain't nobody who wants to face him right now.

Well put, Josh. Right now, Lester is one of the top lefthanders in all of baseball. Why, do you ask, will he not be slated to pitch game two in St. Petersburg? It will have been a long time since Beckett has had multiple starts of any kind. Holding him back does not make any sense. Hopefully, the Sox can take one of two (if not both, but at least one...you know me-Mr. Optimistic) before coming back to Boston. Having Lester start the home opener of the series just makes all the sense in the world, especially if the Sox are in desperate straits. P.S. They won't be.

I see the world champions winning the whole thing in six or seven games, probably seven...the Rays are simply too good a club to put away any more quickly, if at all. And what a series it should be! Two teams that intensely dislike each other, one an upstart long shot and one that is defending their world championship. But remember this...over 162 games, the Rays had the second best record in the American League. They used to be pushovers, a "put the game in the win column" type of team. NOT ANYMORE. Please remember that.

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