World Series Game 3: Lots of ways to win

The Red Sox have won three World Series games three different ways. Game 1 was an old fashioned ass kicking. Game 2 was a classic pitchers duel. Game 3, in the thin air, was a baby slugfest. We score 6, you score 5, we then come back and pound your vaunted former closer/current setup guy with another 4 runs to salt the game away. It bodes well for Boston’s future that all three of the linchpins of the Game 3 win are rookies: Daisuke Matsuzaka (5 1/3 innings, 3 hits, 2 runs, 5 strikeouts, plus a 2 out, 2 run single), Jacoby Ellsbury (4 for 5, 3 doubles, 2 RBI) and Dustin Pedroia (3 for 5, 2 RBI).

The 2007 Colorado Rockies are not the 2004 Boston Red Sox. They’re not coming back from a 3-0 deficit. This Rockies team doesn’t have the pitching, the hitting, or the ability to be anything other than what they are: a team that wouldn’t have even made it into the American League playoffs

Now, we’re one win away from finishing what’s been a lopsided series. Game 4’s starters are Jon Lester and Aaron Cook. It’s impossible to handicap this matchup, given that one (Lester) only made 11 regular season starts and hasn’t pitched since September, and the other one (Cook) hasn’t been seen on a mound since August 10. Anyone who tells you that they *know* what’s going to happen is frankly lying. It can’t be predicted, as there’s no data.

What we do know is that Boston is hitting reliably and Colorado isn’t. Boston has outscored Colorado 25-7 in three games. In the 6th inning of game 3, the Rockies scored two runs. That was the first time in 29 innings that they’d strung together more than 1 run in the same inning. The last time they’d done it was the bottom of the 4th of NLCS Game 4 against the pathetic Diamondbacks. The Red Sox have scored two or more runs 24 times in the 2007 postseason. 24 different innings of multiple runs.

Sit back and enjoy game 4, because a Red Sox loss would only set up another appearance by Josh Beckett.