The St. Louis Cardinals are now down 1-0 in the World Series after the Boston Red Sox embarrassed them on Wednesday at Fenway Park and now the team will turn to a rookie that has been one of their best pitchers all postseason in Michael Wacha, who will start Game 2 against veteran John Lackey on Thursday night.
Wacha comes into the World Series after being lights out in the National League Championship Series and for once that is a literal term. According to ESPN.com, Wacha became the first rookie pitcher to have two scoreless starts in the same postseason series and now he will go for his third straight scoreless start in the playoffs and that will be a very tough test for a rookie pitcher at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox. The two teams have not played in years, meaning the Sox have never seen Wacha throw live and that could be a huge advantage for the Cardinals, who really need one after losing Game 1 8-1 on Wednesday despite a nice grand slam robbing catch from Carlos Beltran.
Wacha comes in for the crucial Game 2 matchup and it's amazing to think that just a year ago this kid was pitching in college for Texas A&M and now he is in the Fall Classic. The Red Sox will counter with John Lackey after their ace Jon Lester defeated Adam Wainwright and Lackey is coming off a fantastic start as well. Lackey came in for the Red Sox and was able to go pitch for pitch with Justin Verlander, tossing over six innings of scoreless ball in Game 3 of that series to give the Red Sox a 2-1 advantage and that helped them win it and now he will try for 2-0 on Thursday at Fenway.
Wacha comes in with some filthy stats this postseason, as he has given up just a 0.43 ERA and he also nearly had a no-hitter against the Pirates earlier in the playoffs. Wacha has some great pitches and his fastball is very solid and he has only given up one earned run this postseason in three games started and he has gone over six innings in each of those starts so far in the postseason. He had a no-hit bid broken up in the regular season as well and now he will get the chance to do it on national television. ESPN.com writes that his changeup has been very effective and he could use that again on the Red Sox, who are prone to strike out on that pitch.
John Farrell opted to go with Lackey over Clay Buchholz and said that while it's nothing physical, he felt more comfortable with Lackey on the mound in game 2. Buchholz was injured during the season and could be a bit nagged up still, which is one reason why some have speculated that Felix Doubront could get some action after him in the game. Either way, Game 2 will come down to Wacha for the Cardinals and it could be electric again, as he goes for his third straight postseason start without allowing any runs.