Monday, October 6, 2008

ALDS Game 3: Angels 5, Sox 4

These Sox-Angels games are turning into Sox-Yankees games of a few years back, in that they take forever. The game ended post-1am last night, er, today. While the score was close, the Sox were lucky not to get blown out -- indeed, if you add up the individual hits, walks, etc. and figure out what the score 'should' have been, the Angels won 9-3 (If you have no idea what this means, think of it this way: it is possible to hit 9 doubles in a game and not score a single run, if you hit one an inning, but by the law of averages, that is not likely to occur. So, you can figure out what the score should have been had you not gotten lucky/unlucky with the spacing out of your hits and such. Basically, just an objective way of saying the Angels totally outplayed the Sox in game 3).

The good news for the Sox is that a rested Jon Lester is going. The bad news is that all the reliable bullpen arms were used last night, including Papelbon for two innings. When Beckett went out early last night, I was surprised not to see Byrd -- I mean, isn't that exactly what he is for, not blowing out your bullpen? The Angels have the same problem, so I would imagine that whomever's starter can go longer has a huge advantage (well, even moreso than usual). If Lester and Lackey falter, look for this to be another very long game, and probably higher scoring. Wouldn't you just love to see a 2 and half hour 2-1 pitchers duel? Is that too much to ask?