2007 World Series Game 2

The Colorado Rockies came into this year's World Series winning 21 out of their last 22 games and swept both the Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks. What does last night's drubbing at the hands of the Boston Red Sox mean for Colorado's psyche and can they bounce back for Game 2? I'll breakdown what went wrong and look into some of the reasons that could have been behind the Game 1 blowout.

First, let us examine the LAYOFF. Colorado breezed through their National League opponents and then sat and watched the Cleveland Indians take a commanding 3 games to 1 lead over the Red Sox. With Cleveland's top 2 pitchers, both Cy Young award candidates, coming around in the rotation, it seemed like the Indians would win one of the next 2 games. When the Red Sox pushed the series to the limit, the Colorado players must have begun to feel some pressure. Not only were they now sitting for a handful of days, but they knew they would be waiting nearly another whole week before playing again and instead of playing the Indians, a team like themselves with little playoff experience, now they were facing the vaunted Boston Red Sox. A battle-hardened team with much post-season experience. A team that is built to take on and compete with the best in baseball.

Now layoffs are funny things. Managers don't like to discuss how a layoff affects a team, but last night's game made it very obvious. A pitcher can be too strong after a long layoff and control is often the issue. They become a little wild, but mostly their location in the strike zone suffers, especially their fastball, which tends to stay up in the zone. A perfect example of how a long layoff hurts a pitcher... Chien Ming Wang of the Yankees. Game 1 in the series against the Indians, pitching with 8 days off, Wang couldn't get his sinker to sink enough and the Yank's ace was shelled. Last night, Jeff Francis was missing his spots and the hot-hitting Red Sox squad werel over him.

The Rockies offense was also very quiet. Clearly, they weren't ready to compete in Fenway Park last night against the brilliant Josh Beckett. In my opinion, the layoff had much to do with the lopsided score last night. Now that the Rockies hitters have had a game to acclimate, they should be better prepared for tonight's contest. One does have to wonder what a layoff, followed up with a big loss does to the psyche of the Rockies team as a whole. Surely they don't have the momentum they had after sweeping their way the the National League playoffs. Their edge is gone and they may be wondering if their sharpness is also.

Now in defense of the Rockies, the Boston Red Sox sent a probable playoff MVP candidate to the hill last night and once again Josh Beckett was brilliant. The Red Sox play well behind him and know that Beckett will not allow many runs, which makes the Boston offense so dangerous. When the Sox don't have the pressure to score a lot of runs, they are a very potent offense. The Boston offense that was in a slumber in the 1st 4 games of the series with Cleveland, was hitting on almost all cylinders by Game 6 and by Game 7, it wasn't hard to see which team had the momentum going their way. Last night, Boston's offense picked right up where they had left off in Cleveland. A sharp offense vs a pitcher that wasn't sharp usually equals a blowout.

In Game 2, Curt Schilling goes to the mound for the Red Sox, taking on Ubaldo Jimenez. Schilling is 10-2 in post game starts and he was much sharper in his Game 6 start vs Cleveland than he had been in his previous playoff starts this season. At 41, he can no longer fire a 97 mph fastball past hitters, but he's wily enough to bob and weave his way through opposing lineups. Ubaldo Jimenez is a 23 yo rookie, with about 17 starts under his belt. His heater can reach triple digits and he's been sharp in the playoffs, allowing only 2 runs in 11.1 innings pitched. Once again the layoff issue, coupled with a rookie pitcher starting a World Series game in Fenway Park come into play. Jimenez has the stuff to keep the Rockies in the game. He can throw the ball past hitters and in a small ballpark like Fenway, having that ability to make hitters swing and miss looms very large. Whether a 23 year old can do such a thing in this setting is more of a factor than his 100 mph fastball.

If I was a bettor, I'd be looking real hard at an over game in this spot. Schilling is 41, his "stuff" can leave him at any time and the Rockies have had success against him this year. I think the Rockies offense will awaken, though I don't think they'll score the 7 or 8 runs I think they'll need to win. As previously mentioned, Jimenez is only 23 and has little major league experience. The fact that the Red Sox have never seen him before may work in his favor... the 1st time though the batting order. I do think the excitement of starting a World Series game and the long layoff will work against him. He'll over-throw and end up getting himself into hitter's counts. His control is suspect and having to throw strikes to some of these Red Sox hitters, with runners on and in a small park could prove fatal to his and the Rockies overall success in this series.

I like the Red Sox to win, I would look to make a run-line play, if I were wagering. I think you'll get close to even money on the run-line and I would take the over 10 runs. The Rockies bats won't be shutdown by Schilling and they should get about half of those 10 runs themselves. Take over the total and the Red Sox on the run-line tonight. Boston wins Game 2 by the score of 8 to 5.