Rocked

The first game of the World Series decisively went the way of the Red Sox in a 13-1 thrashing of the hottest team in baseball.

Terry Francona, evidently is given to understatement. "I thought the whole night we did a good job taking what [they] gave us, laying off pitches out of the zone," said the Boston manager. A good job? Every Boston starter with the exception of Mike Lowell had at least one RBI, and Lowell still doubled, walked twice and scored a run. Every Boston starter with the exception of Jacoby Ellsbury had a hit, and he still had a run scored and a RBI.

Rockies manager Clint Hurdle in his post game comments said that the Rockies are, "a no excuse ball club." Were I a fan of the C-Rocks, I would be thinking this morning that there was no excuse for that performance last night.

From the first inning until the Rockies pitching put up donuts from the sixth inning on, Colorado held the Sox scoreless in only the third inning and of the innings in which the Sox scored, only the second wasn't a multi-run inning.

A lot has been written recently about how good the Rockies pitching was this year. Several pundits said that the Rockies led the National League in ERA. As a matter of fact, ESPN's Jason Stark gives the Rockies an advantage both at the plate and in the rotation for the series.

From what I have been able to find, they were eighth out of 16 National League clubs in ERA with a 4.32 team ERA. Their hitters, however, led the NL with a .280 batting average in what is generally considered the MLB JV.

The Sox, on the other hand, led the AL with a 3.87 team ERA, and were fifth in the AL with a .279 batting average. Overall, the Red Sox had the second best pitching in the majors.

Stark even pointed out that the Rockies had more players in their lineup with more than 80 RBI's than the Sox. He didn't, however, point out that the Sox were fourth in the majors in RBI production with 829. The Rockies were fifth with 823...once again, playing in the inferior NL.

With the possibility of their mojo having been broken, even shattered last night, the Rockies might have a tough uphill fight to bring the first World Series trophy back to Colorado. I'm not saying it can't happen, but it's looking like the Red Sox are going to have the same sort of series against the Rockies they had against the Cardinals.

Sorry, Mr. Helton, maybe if the trade had worked out...