The Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals are slated for Game 1 of the World Series at Fenway Park and the game will be on FOX at 8:00 PM and features a fantastic pitching matchup between Adam Wainwright and Jon Lester, two ace pitchers for their teams.
The Red Sox are hosting the first two games of the series after the American League won the All-Star game and the Cardinals can't have too much beef, as each team had 97 wins this season. This is the first time since back in the 90s that the two top teams in each league advanced to the World Series and that was when the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves did it in 1999 and now this rematch of the 2004 World Series will feature that again. The Red Sox have won eight of their last eight World Series games after sweeping both the Cardinals in 2004 and the Rockies in 2007 and now David Ortiz will get his first crack at the Cardinals against Yadier Molina, the only two players left from that series.
The championship over the Cardinals in 2004 seemed like destiny and it ended the curse for the Red Sox after they did not win the World Series since 1918. The team now has the second best postseason percentage since that season according to ESPN.com and the team also is trying to become the first since the Yankees to have three straight sweeps for championships. The second game of the series will have John Lackey going up against Michael Wacha and that could end up being the best of the series and that comes before Clay Buchholz and Joe Kelly and the final matchup set so far is Jake Peavy and Lance Lynn for Game 4.
Wacha comes in setting records as a rookie after pitching two straight scoreless starts against the Dodgers and Lackey comes in after outdueling Justin Verlander in the ALCS. The Cardinals will be relying on young starters more than the Red Sox and they have been doing that all season. Amazingly enough, Mike Matheny was part of the Cardinals World Series team and now he is manager, leaving him, David Ortiz and Yadier Molina as primary people left over from that series matchup.
The Red Sox won the AL East division despite having finished in last place and they are the first team since 1990 to do that according to ESPN.com. The team fired manager Bobby Valentine and hired John Farrell and now they are back just two seasons removed from the collapse and the chicken and beer antics and clearly having Farrell there has been a steadying presence. The franchises have deep history and the beards now will be taking on the classy birds for the Fall Classic.
