The Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals are playing in spring training after matching up in the World Series last season and the Sox won and now this game starts up at 1:05 pm ET in the Grapefruit League and these two teams are favorites in the American and National Leagues as the season starts up this month.
The Red Sox obviously ended up as World Series champions and now they are trying to repeat and the Yankees come in looking to close the gap and that is why they spent money on names like Tanaka, McCann, Ellsbury and Beltran in the offseason. Ellsbury leaves the Red Sox after a number of productive seasons and now he will be on the other side of the heated rivalry with the Yankees.
The Red Sox don't mind since they won the championship and they come into the game on Wednesday after a loss to the Tampa Bay Rays and they next will play against the Miami Marlins. The Red Sox should once again be one of the strongest teams in the league and they come in after being ranked first or second in all the top categories, as they were first in runs, on base percentage and slugging last season and were second in batting average in the league. The pitching was solid too and they were third in quality starts and in the top half in ERA and batting average by opposing teams.
The Cards come in with a loss to the Detroit Tigers in their last game on Monday and they next play against the Minnesota Twins and they were one of the best teams in the league last season as well. The Cardinals finished third in the league in runs and fourth in batting average and they also were third in on base percentage. The young pitching was another reason why they were so good and they ended up fifth in the league in ERA and the top 10 in WHIP and they also were ranked 12th in batting average allowed.
