The Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals are in a rematch for the 2013 World Series after previously playing years ago and with days left until the big game on Wednesday, here are some interesting questions both teams will have to deal with: can Koji Uehara continue his stellar play? Can the Red Sox win with Xander Bogaerts playing 3B? Can the Cardinals young pitching hold up?
These are just some questions and there are plenty more moving ahead. Joe Kelly and Michael Wacha were very good for the Cardinals and now they will be in the World Series and with Wacha looking deadly, he might be the most important player for the Cardas. The team knows what it has in Adam Wainwright and Wacha could end up starting in Game 2 and after starting two scoreless games, he will have some attention.
Koji Uehara has been having an amazing regular season and playoffs and now it will remain to be seen whether he can keep it up in the World Series. He was nearly unhittable in the regular season and closed out the Tigers and now he will be on the biggest stage after previously being there for the Rangers. This season in the playoffs he has a 1.00 ERAS with five saves and 13 Ks and it will be interesting to see how he pitches the rest of the way.
Allen Craig was injured and now the Cardinals have a huge decision to make about activating him for the World Series, as he was a productive player with nearly 100 RBIs and he was absent and felt it during the NLCS when the Cards needed some bench. The Red Sox also have to decide about Xander Bogaerts and whether he will play against the Cardinals over Will Middlebrooks.
Can the Red Sox continue to win 1-0 games? Back last week when the Boston Red Sox stole back their home field advantage, defeating the Detroit Tigers in a 1-0 thriller to take a 2-1 lead in the American League Championship Series the win was historic for the Sox, as it was just their third win ever in team postseason history by that score. The team is now in the World Series against the Cardinals, here is a look back on that game with the 1-0 win and some history behind it.
According to ESPN.com, the Red Sox have won three 1-0 games in team history and the last one came against the New York Mets in the World Series in 1986 and now they have done it again. The Red Sox were a few outs away from going down 2-0 at home against the Tigers in the series, but after being down 5-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, David Ortiz changed all that. It's amazing to think how close the Red Sox were to going down two games in the series before hitting the road, but after John Lackey was able to match Justin Verlander pitch for pitch for long enough, the Red Sox prevailed.
Verlander was looking strong throughout the game, but the Red Sox were able to sneak a home run by Mike Napoli in the seventh inning and that was all they needed. The Tigers had their chances with Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder up with men on, but the Red Sox bullpen, a strength all season, continued to be just that as Junichi Tazawa and Koji Uehara came in to close things out. Lackey was strong for the Red Sox and now the team has the advantage heading into game 4 of the series.
Napoli was due for a hit after going 0-for-6 in the series with six strikeouts and a walk and now Verlander finally had his streak of not allowing a run to end at over 30, which started back during the season against the Seattle Mariners and now the Tigers will have to rebound to get back into things. The Red Sox will have Jake Peavy on the mound for the next game and the Tigers will counter with Doug Fister.