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Reporter's query: Seeking stories from World Series »
October 23, 2007
Click here to listen to today's edition of projo SoxTalk with Sean McAdam. The topics: Game Seven on Sunday night, the resurgence of Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis; whether the Red Sox or the Rockies have more momentum entering the Fall Classic; how the young Rockies will handle the Fenway pressure cooker; unfamiliar faces on the Colorado staff; overall edge to the Red Sox; and the workout schedule today.
Following are some excerpts from Sean's comments.
On Joel Skinner holding Kenny Lofton at third Sunday night: "It certainly seems like it changed the game, because Lofton would have scored the tying run. It turns out that Casey Blake grounds into the double play on the next at-bat, and the Red Sox get out of it with some help from third-base coach Joel Skinner. Consequently Blake makes that error at third, and maybe that's because he's thinking about the play that didn't get made and the double play that he hit into in the top of the inning. It's hard to say; you can't really rewind the tape and assume that things are going to unfold the same way, but certainly whatever momentum Cleveland had going into the top of the seventh seemed to completely dissipate after the error in judgment by Skinner."
Would you rather be the well-rested Rockies or the surging Red Sox? "I think the Red Sox' situation is probably more advantageous. Two days off seems just about right -- enough time to catch your brearth so that you're not playing one game right after another. You're at home, so you don't have to change cities until later this week. Conversely, the eight days [of rest for Colorado] does seem excessive. Obviously there's nothing the Rockies can do about that -- that resulted from their sweeping the Diamondbacks in the NLCS and being a very dominant team. But you would think that, for a team without a lot of playoff experience and a lot of guys there for the first time, the eight days might be a lot of sitting around and maybe thinking about things a little too much. If I could pick A or B, I think the Red Sox are a bit more fortunate in their timing."
Prediction: "I don't think there's much question -- I don't think I'm being parochial here -- that the Red Sox have more talent on paper. They have more experience, they have more power, they have an edge in the closer's role, their rotation is deeper and more experienced. But we've seen before -- last year a Detroit Tigers team seemed to be clearly superior to the St. Louis Cardinals, and they lost the World Series. So it isn't all about talent and who looks better on paper this time of year; it's who plays the game better, who's playing better when the series begins, momentum, a lot of the intangibles. I expect a pretty competitive series, although I think the Red Sox will eventually prevail."
Posted by Mike McDermott 
at 10:46 AM to McAdam
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