Big Game

I haven't blogged in over a week! Remember when I claimed I was going to blog every day? And remember when I tried to blog in real time during the post-season games? Ah, memories...

Clearly, the intensity of the post-season is too much for me to take. I can barely sit still, let alone blog during a game. As for blogging post-game, I'm far to wired afterwards for that. Evidently, the extra hour before the start tonight is giving me extra time to blog.

My friend Matt (the Red Sox fan) said that Red Sox Nation are overreacting, as they usually do, about being down. He said you'd think they were a game away from losing it all, or in a four game deficit. I told him that Cleveland fans are actually acting the same way, because we know better than to get excited about anything until well after it's happened.

Tonight's a big game. Let's face facts, we have no idea what we're going to get from C.C. Thursday night, but we do know what we'll get from Beckett. I'm sure our hitters will adust after what they saw in Game 1, but there's still no way for us to know what Sabathia will do. Personally, I think he'll be on. Wedge made a comment recently about the fact that C.C. is overthrowing and that part of that is because he's had so much extra time between starts. I think that's a valid point.

Regardless, the last thing we want is to go back to Boston down 3-2. Hell, even going back to Boston UP 3-2 is going to be tough. But at the very least we need to insure three wins in our pocket if/when we go back on the road. That third win needs to come tonight.

The Tribe has a good record against Wakefield, but we haven't seen him this year, which means we've got guys on the roster who have probably never faced a knuckleballer before. I would expect to see Nixon in right again, at least to start (or perhaps Michaels). We'll know early on how it's going to play out, as Wakefield is usually one extreme or the other. Let's hope we see a call to the bullpen by the Red Sox after three innings.

On the flip side, Paul Byrd was fantastic against the Red Sox the one time he faced them this year. Yes, we've seen so far in the post-season that regular season results don't mean much, but the fact that he's already faced this line-up once is a big plus. He also gets Mirabelli instead of Varitek, which is probably a plus.

I wonder if Shoppach will hit Wakefield better than Garko. At the very least, Shoppach would have taken BP with Wakefield when he was in Boston. Again, I don't know if Garko has even ever faced a knuckleballer before.

Big game. I'm trying to keep myself in check.