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Fenway Park was the place to be Thursday night. Not only were the 35,000 seats filled to capacity, but another 5,000 fans had standing-room only seats to see the momentous occasion. The stage was set. The Sox had a 14-3 lead on the Orioles with two outs left in the ninth, and any moment now the place was going to erupt. Goosebumps formed on my arms as I sat in my uncomfortable grandstand seat, and watched Ramiro Mendoza throw a called strike-three to clinch the Red Sox’s first playoff birth since 1999.
I’ve been to some great games at Fenway Park, but never have I been as excited as during Thursday’s game, when I high-fived a total stranger sitting two rows in front of me. The seats may have been too expensive, and the hot dog that I ate in the third inning may have been 10 bucks, but it was hard to care at that point. Playoff baseball is back in Boston and this is truly a special time. What Red Sox fan wouldn’t feel anything but jubilation and gratitude for a team that gave us a hell of a regular season and made us forget about the past few years of Dan Duquette disappointment?
Perhaps more special than anything else was having the Sox share the celebration with the fans. Kevin Millar sang a live rendition of “Born in the U.S.A.” David Ortiz danced on the mound and John Henry hauled off of a wine bottle. What a night!
However, the journey for a World Series has only begun, and the Red Sox are well aware of that. The Sox start their quest Wednesday afternoon when they play the Oakland Athletics in Oakland for game one of the American League Division Series. The Sox and the Athletics played seven games against each other this year with the Sox losing four of those seven games. The pitching matchup for game one should be a doozy, with Pedro Martinez matching up with Oakland’s ace Tim Hudson.
Hudson and the rest of the Oakland pitching staff are a concern for the Sox, who only hit .266 as a team against the A’s this season. It is an old saying in baseball that “Offense wins games, but defense wins championships.” However, it is hard to bet against the Red Sox offense the way they have been swinging the bat lately.
Oakland had one of the best pitching staffs in the league, but the biggest playoff factor may lie in the loss of Mark Mulder a few months ago. The A’s all-star left-hander is gone for the season due to severe tendinitis. The loss of Mulder makes the Oakland staff much weaker than it has been in the past few years. The A’s plan on using a staff of Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Ted Lilly, who have all pitched extremely well as of late.
The key for the Sox to win this series is to have a third starting pitcher step up and pitch well. Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe have been automatic as of late, but it is unclear as to whether Tim Wakefield, Jeff Suppan or John Burkett will be given the chance to give a spark to the pitching staff in the postseason. Tim Wakefield is scheduled to pitch game three, but it is all based upon which one of those guys pitches well enough in the final Tampa Bay series. The offense will be able to hit this Oakland staff, and I believe Pedro and Derek Lowe will continue their dominance against a sub-par Oakland offense.
Most importantly, the Sox need to at least split the first two games in Oakland, to avoid coming back to Fenway with the dreaded 0-2 deficit. If the Sox come back to Fenway in good shape, Oakland may be in a heap of trouble, especially with the way the Sox have been playing in Boston.
We have a Red Sox playoff team in October. I suggest you buckle your seat belts and enjoy the ride. By the way, Red Sox ALCS tickets go on sale today at 6 a.m. I’m certainly going to put my money on those, because every player in that Red Sox dugout expects to get past Oakland. We’ve believed in these guys all season. They believe in a World Series. We should too.
