The first five\u00c2\u00a0League\u00c2\u00a0Championship games have produced some thrilling action, with last night’s\/this morning’s game between the Dodgers and the Phillies on Five being a great case in point.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 L.A. knocked Jame Moyer out of the game early in what turned\u00c2\u00a0out to be\u00c2\u00a0a very heated contest, ending in a 7-2 victory for the Dodgers that reduced\u00c2\u00a0the Phillies’ lead in the NLCS\u00c2\u00a0to 2-1.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Either the Red Sox or the Rays will end the day with the same advantage in the ALCS.\u00c2\u00a0 British fans can find out which of the two takes a 2-1 series lead by following\u00c2\u00a0game three, an afternoon game from Fenway,\u00c2\u00a0live this evening.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
This series had all the makings of a six or seven game classic before it began and so far it has\u00c2\u00a0lived up to the hype.\u00c2\u00a0 They are two teams who have battled\u00c2\u00a0each other all season\u00c2\u00a0long in the AL East with little to separate them.\u00c2\u00a0 In an ideal world, the Rays would have wanted to enter Fenway with the cushion of 2-0 series lead, but a split was certainly no disaster for them.\u00c2\u00a0 The Red Sox would have taken this position had they been offered it before game one as well, although the way they lost game two will surely have left them thinking ‘what if’ on the plane ride to Boston.\u00c2\u00a0 Had they taken a 2-0 lead, it would have been very difficult for the Rays to\u00c2\u00a0dig themselves out of the hole\u00c2\u00a0and that might be the game that the Red Sox Nation look back on as being the pivotal moment once the series is over.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, a home sweep will take them back to the World Series to defend their crown and that’s a great position to be in.<\/p>\n
They also have the benefit of being able to start the home section of this series with the man they would most want to be sending out to the mound.\u00c2\u00a0 The basic pitching stats suggest that Daisuke Matsuzaka was the Red Sox’s best pitcher this season, but there’s no doubting that Jon Lester had an equally fine year.\u00c2\u00a0 Aside from one occasion in August when the Blue Jays pelted him for seven runs in 2.1 innings, the young left-hander was extremely impressive throughout the season<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 His no-hitter against the Royals will go down as one of the most memorable moments from 2008 and you wouldn’t be surprised if he added to that with another star performance tonight.\u00c2\u00a0 Lester pitched seven strong innings in both of his starts against the Angels during the ALDS, giving up just one unearned run in the process while striking out eleven and walking just three.<\/p>\n In opposition, Matt Garza will make his second postseason start for the Rays following his off-season trade from the Twins.\u00c2\u00a0 They had selected him in the first round of the 2005 draft, but he seemed to wear out his welcome in Minnesota without really being given a chance to prove himself at the Major League level.\u00c2\u00a0 When he left his second start for the Rays with an injury which he claimed had first flared up at the end of the previous season, something that was news to the Twins, you wondered whether Tampa Bay had taken a gamble on a talented but temperamental pitcher that they might end up regretting.\u00c2\u00a0 Such doubts were put to rest when he returned to the rotation and put together a solid year.\u00c2\u00a0 He had a shaky outing in the ALDS against the White Sox and the Rays will need him to find his best form again, with runs probably being at a premium against Lester.<\/p>\n It should be yet another great postseason game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first five\u00c2\u00a0League\u00c2\u00a0Championship games have produced some thrilling action, with last night’s\/this morning’s game between the Dodgers and the Phillies on Five being a great case in point.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 L.A. knocked Jame Moyer out of the game early in what turned\u00c2\u00a0out to be\u00c2\u00a0a very heated contest, ending in a 7-2 victory for the Dodgers that reduced\u00c2\u00a0the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[553],"class_list":["post-851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=851"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7318,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions\/7318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}