ALCS Preview: Red Sox vs Indians

The Red Sox advanced to the ALCS by handling the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 3 games. Boston outscored Anaheim by an impressive 19-4 margin in that series and were lead by great pitching performances by Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling.

The Indians move on as a result of taking down the New York Yankees in 4 games despite a below par performance by CC Sabathia in Game 1. The Indians were able to win Sabathia's start and they took Game 2 after Fausto Carmona tossed a gem. The Yankees battled back in Game 3, but Paul Byrd and the Indians were too much in Game 4.

Now, the two winners will square off and fight for the right to advance to the 2007 World Series to play the winner of Colorado/Arizona. Boston took the season series against Cleveland, but then again so did the New York Yankees. This should be a good one, but who has the edge to move on?

Offense: The questions revolving around Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz have been answered as both look like they are in top form after great performances in the ALDS against the Angels. Youkilis appears to be getting back to 100% as well (he hit a homerun of his own in Game 1 to start things for the Red Sox).

The Indians have a great core of offensive players as well including Grady Sizemore, Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez, Kenny Lofton, and Ryan Garko.

In the regular season, the Red Sox were 3rd in runs scored. The Indians finished 6th in that department. Boston also has a slight edge on the bases as they were in the middle of the pack in stolen bases. By comparison, the Indians finished near the bottom.

One thing that could be in the Indians favor: They hit more homeruns in the regular season and arguably have a better 1-2 pitching punch.

We'll give Boston the edge in the offense department.

Starting Pitching: The Red Sox finished 1st in the American League in team ERA, while the Indians finished 3rd. The fact of the matter, however, is that CC Sabathia and Fausto Carmona will likely get the ball at least two times apiece and their ERAs were lower than that of Boston's #1 and #2 starters (Beckett and Schilling).

Sabathia was very shaky in his start against the Yankees, but Fausto Carmona was lights out as usual. Meanwhile, Curt Schilling's postseason resume suggests that he may be one of the best postseason pitchers of all time. Josh Beckett is also quickly establishing himself as a big game pitcher as well. Beckett has 3 career postseason shutouts at 27 years ofage.

Jake Westbrook will start Game 3 for the Indians and will face Daisuke Matsuzaka. In Game 4, it appears that Tim Wakefield will make the start against Paul Byrd. The Red Sox need to beat Westbrook and Byrd to give themselves a good chance at moving on to the World Series.

This is very close, Cleveland's 1-2 punch had better numbers in the regular season but Boston's top two starters are proven commodities in the postseason. I'm going to say that starting pitching is even only because of a lack of postseason experience for Carmona and Sabathia.

Bullpen: Boston also has a slight edge in the bullpen; however, with the emergence of Rafael Perez and the continued dominance of Rafael Betancourt, that gap could be closing. The big difference lies in the closer. The Red Sox have Jonathan Papelbon (DHL Delivery Man of the Year) closing out their games, while the Indians have an often shaky Joe Borowski doing the job for them. It will be interesting to see if any of the games are decided by blown saves.

Other Factors: Boston has been very good defensively all year long. Cleveland hasn't been bad, but the Red Sox have undoubtedly been better in that department.

Terry Francona continues to push all of the right buttons in the postseason. He seems to turn into a different type of manager once October rolls around. He managed the bullpen in Game 2 of the ALDS brilliantly and it was a huge factor in the team's victory. Francona also used Jacoby Ellsbury very well off the bench in the ALDS.

Hideki Okajima answered some of the concerns about his arm, but Eric Gagne only drew 1 inning in the ALDS and gave up an earned run. The question of how effective he can be is still in the air. Luckily for the Red Sox, Manny Delcarmen and Mike Timlin have pitched well all year long and are capable of picking up the slack if Gagne can't. In fact, I think Francona might look to Delcarmen before looking to Gagne in this series, as he did in the ALCS.

Prediction: Red Sox in 7 games. They have the homefield advantage and the postseason experience. They also appear to have a plan against Sabathia as it appears that the only lefthanded starter in Sabathia's game will be David Ortiz. Bobby Kielty will play in place of JD Drew because of past history against Sabathia and the fact that Sabathia absolutely devours lefthanded hitters.