World Series Preview --

by Orod412

The 104th Fall Classic gets underway tonight, as the Colorado Rockies take on the Boston Red Sox.

The Rockies have yet to lose in these playoffs, sweeping the Phillies and the Diamondbacks to reach their first World Series in franchise history.

The Red Sox meanwhile came back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Indians to reach their 2 nd World Series in three years.

Here’s a closer look at the Rox and Sox matchup.

Lineup While on paper names like David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell might give you the impression that Boston has a vastly superior lineup, the Red Sox and Rockies are pretty evenly matched. Considering the fact that Colorado is forced to bat their pitcher ninth, the Red Sox have only outscored the Rockies by a measly 0.7 runs per game this season. Boston’s hitters, especially Ortiz and Ramirez, hit the cover off of the ball in the ALCS. Between Manny being Manny and making odd comments, he is hitting .400 with four homers and 14 RBI. Big Papi meanwhile is hitting .387 with three homers. Watching them hit in the thin air of Colorado will be interesting to say the least.

The Rockies meanwhile need Todd Helton, who’s waited 1,578 games to get into the playoffs, to start hitting. He only has 4 hits in his last 26 at bats, and only 1 RBI. That’s not going to cut it. Rookie shortstop Troy Tulowitzki also needs to get going, hitting only .179 with a homer and 2 RBI’s in the playoffs. Luckily for the Rox, he isn’t taking his batting woes onto the field, as he continues to play spectacular defense. The Rockies definitely got a boost from NLCS MVP Matt Holiday, who was able to rebound from a poor division series into a spectacular NLCS, belting a pair of homers and 4 RBI while hitting .333. Edge: Red Sox

Starting Pitching Josh Beckett owns October. In his nine career postseason games, Beckett is 5-2 with a 1.78 ERA. His wicked hook (Boston pun intended) and off-speed pitches are nearly un-hittable. He’s followed by Schilling, who still has the capacity to shut down an offense and pitch deep into a ball game, and Dice-K, who has struggled in his first career postseason. The Red Sox decided to leave knuckleballer Tim Wakefield off of the roster and will instead probably go with Jon Lester as their Game 4 starter. They still have the option of throwing Beckett out there for Game 4 on three days rest however, and with the way he’s been pitching, Boston will surely want him on the mound as much as possible.

Colorado counters with Jeff Francis, who has pitched phenomenally this postseason going 2-0 with a 2.13 ERA. He’s followed by Franklin Morales and Ubaldo Jimenez, two rookies who have carried their own weight and pitched well. The Rockies rotation looks to get a boost with the return of Aaron Cook, who had been sidelined since early August with an oblique injury. Cook was the Rockies opening day starter, but hasn’t pitched in quite some time. Edge: Red Sox

Bullpen The Rockies bullpen has been helped by increasing reliability of former closer Brian Fuentes. After losing his job to current closer Manny Corpas, Fuentes has been shaky at times, but showed some resiliency against the Indians. He’s going to need to remain consistent otherwise the Rockies will be forced to bring in Corpas early, which has hurt them in the past.

The Red Sox pen has been solid with Okajima setting up Jonathan Papelbon, who recorded the last out of the ALCS. When those two are on their game, they form as solid a back end of a bullpen as any in baseball. However, by leaving starter Tim Wakefield off of the roster, it appears that the Sox will leave Eric Gagne on it meaning that he might see some work during the Fall Classic, something Red Sox fans certainly don’t want to see. Edge: Rockies

Bench With Coco Crisp giving the Red Sox absolutely nothing on offense, they turned to Jacoby Ellsbury, who has played much better. Having him in the lineup leaves Crisp on the bench however, who is useless aside from being a defensive replacement. Bobby Kielty should also see some playing time as he continues to platoon with J.D. Drew.

Colorado’s bench doesn’t look great on paper, but have produced nonetheless. Corey Sullivan and Ryan Spilborghs could spell Willy Taveras if needed, and Seth Smith’s bloop single in Game 4 of the NLCS drove in a few runs which should help his confidence as a pinch hitter. Edge: Red Sox

Managers The Rockies Clint Hurdle should have gone to Vegas during the Rockies nine day layoff between the NLCS and World Series, because every move he’s made this postseason has worked out. If he’s found any weakness in Boston, he’s going to capitalize on it. Well liked by the players and fans, the national audience is starting to take notice that Hurdle is not to be taken lightly.

Terry Francona has just about reached cult status in Boston after leading the Sox to their second pennant in three years. He seems to have too much faith in his players, leaving Coco Crisp in the lineup despite his offensive struggles, and pitching Gagne in tough situations when he’s proven he can’t be relied on. Edge: Rockies

Intangibles The Rockies have now won 21 of their last 22 games. To say their run has been nothing short of remarkable is an understatement. While a layoff between the division series and the NLCS didn’t hurt them, a nine game layoff between winning the LCS and the World Series certainly has to put a damper on their momentum. With the Red Sox coming back from 3-1, the momentum is definitely on their side heading into tonight. With that said, the Rockies surely will remember beating the Red Sox in two out of three earlier this year in June at Fenway. In that series, The Rox outscored Boston 20-5 and gave Beckett his first loss of the year. With that fresh in their memory, the Rockies know they can hang with the Sox, boosting their already high confidence. At the same time, Boston knows they can come back from huge series deficits, and with the American League winning the All-Star game, the Sox have home field advantage, arguably the greatest in the game. Edge: Red Sox

Prediction While the Red Sox seem to have the edge in nearly every category, the Rockies have shown that they simply find ways to win. They’ve been written out before and seem to have destiny on their side. Surely they didn’t want to have was such a long layoff while they were so hot, but their confidence remains at an all time high. They haven’t trailed by more than 1 run all postseason, their pitching has kept them in ballgames, and every night they have a different guy coming up big. With the offenses for both clubs so evenly matched, pitching will determine who will win the series. Beckett has been completely dominant, so the Rockies will need to find a way to jump on him early as they did back in June. Beckett can’t pitch every game though, and that alone gives Colorado a shot. I will say that if the Rockies are to win this series, they will have to do it in 5 games, because Boston is a completely different team at home. A clinching Game 6 or 7 in Fenway is the last thing the Rockies want to deal with. Winner: Rockies in 5

--originally found on TheBigOz.com--