Red Sox To Face Tigers In The ALCS

With a 3-0 win over the A's last night, the Detroit Tigers punched their ticket to play the Red Sox in the ALCS.  As I stated yesterday, I was pulling for the A's, but the Red Sox playing the Tigers is also exciting.  These are two teams with storied franchises with superstars, great pitching, and managers that demand respect.

Photo from SteveTheUmp.com

The series starts tomorrow night at 7:30 PM Eastern on FOX.  I can only imagine what the atmosphere is going to be like at Fenway Park tomorrow night.  If anyone is attending the game, I'd love to hear how it is.

The rest of the ALCS schedule is as follows:

Game 2: at Boston, Sunday, October 13th at 8:00 PM ET, on FOX
Game 3: at Detroit, Tuesday, October 15th at 4:00 PM ET, on FOX
Game 4: at Detroit, Wednesday, October 16th at 8:00 PM ET, on FOX
Game 5 (if needed): at Detroit, Thursday, October 17th at 8:00 PM ET, on FOX
Game 6 (if needed): at Boston, Saturday, October 19th at 4:30 PM ET, on FOX
Game 7 (If needed): at Boston, Sunday, October 20th at 8:00 PM ET, on FOX

How do the Red Sox and Tigers compare?  I went into this a little in yesterday's post, but I was mostly comparing the A's and the Tigers.  Let's take a look at these he Tigers in how the compare to the Red Sox:

Pitching

The Tigers probable rotation (with their 2013 season stats following):

Tigers
Game 1)  Anibal Sanchez (14-8, 2.57 ERA, 1.154 WHIP, 3.74 SO/BB)
Game 2)  Max Scherzer (21-3, 2.90 ERA, 0.970 WHIP, 4.29 SO/BB)
Game 3)  Doug Fister (14-9, 3.67 ERA, 1.308 WHIP, 3.61 SO/BB)
Game 4)  Justin Verlander (13-12, 3.46 ERA, 1.315 WHIP, 2.89 SO/BB)

Some projections show Fister and Verlander switched, but I'm thinking since Verlander pitched 8.0 innings last night, they'll give him the extra rest.  If you recall, Tampa Bays' Price was in a similar position before his Game 2 start against Boston last Saturday.  Price didn't fair too well, and I'm sure Tigers' manager Leyland has taken note of that.

Red Sox
Game 1)  Jon Lester (15-8, 3.75 ERA, 1.294 WHIP, 2.64 SO/BB)
Game 2)  John Lackey (10-13, 3.52 ERA, 1.157 WHIP, 4.03 SO/BB)
Game 3)  Clay Buchholz (12-1, 1.74 ERA, 1.025 WHIP, 2.67 SO/BB)
Game 4)  Jake Peavy with Red Sox (4-1, 4.04 ERA, 1.160 WHIP, 2.37 SO/BB)

John Farrell has not announced the rotation at the time of this posting, so this is just a guess based on the ALDS rotation.  I've read that Lackey and Buchholz may be switched around, which I think may be best with Scherzer slotted for Game 2 for the Tigers.

Offense

For offense, I'm going to take the 3 "top" offensive threats for each team; otherwise, we could be here all day.  

Tigers

Miguel Cabrera: .348 BA, 44 HR, 137 RBI, 103 R, 94 SO, 90 BB, 3 SB

Prince Fielder:  .279 BA, 25 HR, 106 RBI, 82 R, 117 SO, 75 BB, 1 SB

Torii Hunter:  .304 BA, 17 HR, 84 RBI, 90 R, 113 SO, 26 BB, 3 SB

Austin Jackson lead the Tigers in 8 stolen bases for the season.  Some of the Tigers best hitters, Omar Infante and Jhonny Peralta, played only 118 and 107 respectively.  

Red Sox

David Ortiz:  .309 BA, 30 HR, 103 RBI, 84 R, 88 SO, 76 BB, 4 SB

Mike Napoli: .259 BA, 23 HR, 92 RBI, 70 R, 187 SO, 73 BB, 1 SB

Dustin Pedroia:  .301 BA, 9 HR, 84 RBI, 91 R, 75 SO, 73 BB, 17 SB

Jacoby Ellsbury had 52 stolen bases for the season, which lead the Majors.  Daniel Nava had a .303 batting average in 134 games for the Red Sox.

I'm not going to go out on a limb and say the Red Sox have the advantage over the Tigers in the ALCS.  Cabrera lead most of the offensive categories this season, but he had been slumping towards the end of the season.  The Red Sox need to get on base, manufacture runs, and have some great pitching performances to win these games against the Tigers.  Hopefully, they wind up on top at the end of the ALCS and head to the World Series.