Red Sox One Game From Sweep
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Ellsbury, Pedroia and Dice K Drive in 6 Runs
On a night when Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were a combined 1 for 8, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Daisuke Matsuzaka drove in 6 of the 10 Red Sox runs showing the team can still win when Manny and Big Papi have an off night but it wasn't really an offnight for Big Papi as he did drive in a run.
Ellsbury, Pedroia and Matsuzaka had 8 of the 15 hits by the Red Sox. Matsuzaka pitched well giving up only three hits in 5 1/3 innings. Hideki Okajima gave up a three run home run to Matt Holliday and the Rockies closed the gap to 6-5, but then the Red Sox bats came alive again and scored four more runs off of Brian Fuentes and LaTroy Hawkins in the last two innings of the contest.
Rockies starter Josh Fogg was rocked for 6 runs and 10 hits in only 2 2/3 innings giving him a 20.25 ERA for the series. Even if Rockies can win tonight they still will have to face Josh Beckett in Game 5.
Jon Lester and Aaron Cook will face each other tonight as they both make their first starts of the postseason, so it is hard to predict with Lester having pitched only 3 2/3 innings during the postseason and Cook is a real question mark having not pitched at all since August 10th.
The Red Sox have now outscored the Rockies 25-7 and have outhit them .352 to .222. The Red Sox have 16 doubles to 4 by the Rockies. Red Sox now have four chances to win one game while the Rockies have to win four in a row against the Red Sox, and I can't see that happening when they will have to face Beckett and Curt Schilling again if the World Series does go seven games.
Red Sox pitchers have a 2.33 ERA while Rockies pitchers have a 9.00 ERA. So it has not only been a lack of hitting but the pitching also has been a major disappointment also.
World Series Hitting Statistics
J.D. Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Matt Holliday lead in hits with 5 each. Ellsbury and David Ortiz lead in doubles with 3 each. Holliday and Pedroia have hit the only home runs of the series. Pedroia and Jason Varitek lead in RBI's with 4 each. Pedroia surprisingly is leading all hitters with 9 total bases. Brad Hawpe leads in strikeouts with 8 in 13 at bats. Drew and Julio Lugo lead in OBP with identical .538 OBP. Ellsbury leads in slugging with a .667 percentage while Pedroia is next with .643 mark. Drew leads in batting average at .455 with Ellsbury at .417 and Julio Lugo at .400 the only other players hitting over .400.
World Series Pitching Statistics
Josh Beckett has best ERA with a 1.29 mark while Curt Schilling is next with a 1.69 ERA. Jonathan Papelbon leads in saves with the only 2 saves of the World Series. Josh Fogg and Jeff Francis lead in most hits allowed with 10 each. Franklin Morales leads in most runs allowed with 7 with teammates Fogg and Jeff Francis having allowed 6 each. Those three Rockies pitchers have given up 19 runs in 9 2/3 innings.
No Rockies starter has finished the fifth inning giving an indication of how ineffective their starting pitching has been with no Rockie starter getting a quality start. Daisuke Matsuzaka leads all pitchers in opponent's batting average with a .158 average against his offerings.
MVP Pick If Pedroia has a good game tonight and Red Sox win he would be the logical choice for MVP. Beckett might win MVP if he pitches and wins the fifth game if Rockies win tonight.
