« Here at Fenway.....Finally
Main
Sox Quick Hits / Photo »
October 11, 2007
By KEVIN McNAMARA
BOSTON - Most Boston baseball people are assuming that Josh Beckett sewed up this year's Cy Young award weeks ago when he won his 20th game. Not so fast.
You can't rule out C.C. Sabathia. At all. In fact, Friday night's Beckett-C.C. Sabathia matchup in Game One gives baseball fans an inside look at the two top contenders.
The numbers are very close between the A.L.'s top righty (Beckett) and lefty (Sabathia). Beckett's 20 wins are nice but Sabathia went 19-7 and had a better ERA (3.21 to 3.27) in nearly 40 more innings. Sabathia struck out 209 batters, Beckett 194. Opponent's batting average was .245 against Beckett and .259 against Sabathia. Beckett walks more hitters and is more prone to surrender home runs.
Just to throw a further match on the fire, you could make a case that Cleveland's Game Two starter, Fausto Carmona, is the best pitcher in this series. Carmona went 19-8 with a 3.06 ERA in the regular season. Only the Angels' John Lackey (3.01) owned a better ERA in the American League.
Carmona is also coming in very hot after shutting down the Yankees with a 9-inning, 3-hit, 1-run gem in Game Two of the ALDS.
Posted by Kevin 
at 12:44 PM to McNamara
| Permalink
Anon | October 12, 2007 9:49 AM link
Verducci (in SI.com) also argued in favor of Sabathia over Beckett because he pitched 40 more innings (thereby saving his bullpen 40 innings). The problem with that argument is that Beckett was on the 15 day DL beginning on the day after the Mother's Day miracle. So, that's about 2-3 starts fewer right off the top.