It’s Circle Time!

This is the series. After this winter, this is the series that was circled. The two winners of the off-season. The two favorites to make the World Series. They get to meet in a little preview. Too bad the actual season didn’t live up to the hype. I mean, the Sox ruined it all by getting off to that slow start.

Wait, no they didn’t. Going into tonight’s match-up, no team in baseball has more wins than the Phillies. No team other than the Phillies has more wins than the Red Sox. There’s even the benefit of a fantastic pitching match-up. Cliff Lee faces Josh Beckett. This isn’t one of those annoying previews that would never happen. You get that a lot with the Yankees match-ups since they play each other so often. It’s always CC Sabathia against Andrew Miller, or Jon Lester against Freddy Garcia. You have to throw out the results since that match-up would never happen in the playoffs. But, there’s every chance that Beckett-Lee would be the World Series game two starters. Pretty impressive as far as previews go.

So, how does the series end up? Well, the Sox sweep, of course. Tonight? I like the way Beckett’s been throwing the ball this year, naturally. Will the long rest help or hurt? I think Beckett is the type of guy who can get into the game pretty quickly. If he makes it through the early part, it will be a big boost. As for Lee, he scares me, but not enough. It should be a tight game. Hopefully the few bats left in the Red Sox line-up can do enough. This should be fun.

Although, not for Phillies fans.