who will win the 2008 american league championship series (alcs) ... as a lifelong boston red sox fan ... of course i'm hoping my team wins ... but as a more objective baseball fan ... i really have no idea ... the boston red sox and tampa bay rays are two very good baseball teams ... and they are very evenly matched ... if the old adage that "pitching and defense" win in october is true ... it would go a long way toward explaining the dead heat ... both teams have great pitching and solid defenseat season's end ... the red sox were ranked 3rd in the al in defense (85 errors <> .986 fielding percentage) ... the rays 4th (90 <> .985) ... tampa bay was 2nd in the al in pitcher's earned run average (3.82) ... boston was 4th (4.01) ... rays pitchers walked 526 ... red sox pitchers 548 ... exclude daisuke from this category and the red sox win ... lol ... tampa pitchers struck out 1,143 ... red sox pitchers 1,185 ... the red sox have their three aces ... daisuke matsuzaka (18-3/2.90) <> jon lester (16-6/3.21) <> josh beckett (12-10/4.03) ... the rays starting rotation is four deep ... james shields (14-8/3.56) <> scott kasmir (12-8/3.48) <> matt garza (11-9/3.70) <> andy sonnanstine (13-9/4.38) ... the red sox are veterans of postseason play ... the rays are a talented and energetic group of young athletes with a special momentum on their side
before the just concluded alds ... a lot was made of the fact the los angeles angels of anaheim had won 100 games ... well, if la won 100 in the weakass american league west ... tampa bay's 97 wins in the highly competitive american league east probably translates to 105 wins out west ... they really are that good
who will win ... that's why they play the games ... and the games of this alcs should be fun to watch
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