Red Sox: Best National League Team

The 4th game of the World Series is in about the 6th inning at the moment, and Boston is up 3-0, so it looks like they're about to win the World Series easily.

Now, I normally prefer National League teams to American League teams, partly because I've always been an Expos fan so those are the teams I'm familiar with. But also because there's a perceptable difference in the style of play between the two leagues. In the National League, of course, the pitcher still has to hit in the lineup, instead of teams getting to use a designated hitter. This difference, for some reason or another, makes the position of the manager much more important to the outcome of a game. Instead of potentially having an entire lineup of players who can just stand there and swing away and hope to get a home run, the manager has to strategize to try and get the pitcher either on base or to advance the runners that are alraedy there by bunting.

For some reason this difference results in a ripple effect which makes National League games more often about hitting line drives, getting on base, stealing bases, sacrifice flies and other basics of baseball, while American league games are stereotypically more about slugfests.

But the two teams playing against each other tonight seem to have their roles reversed. Boston has great pitching, multiple gold-glove winning defence and no single stand-out hitter expected to produce the majority of the runs.

St. Louis, on the other hand, have fairly mediocre pitching, and big bats from Puholds and Walker. St. Louis' pitching weakness is really what's doing them in in this series, giving up too many 2-out runs and many more hits than the Red Sox pitchers.

If it wasn't for the colossal number of errors Boston has been making I would be extremely happy with how they've been playing.

Of course part of this theory about the Expos style of play might be because of the number of former Expos on the team, specifically Pedro (all is forgiven), Orlando Cabrera as well as a bunch of other recently-national league players, like Schilling. Not to mention, of course, former Expo from back in the day manager Terry Francona. (Edmonton Sun article:
Francona's All Grown Up)

Of course there are as many exceptions to the NL / AL 'styles' as there are examples of it, but I'm just happy that the team I want to win is playing baseball i like to watch. Now just stop dropping the ball.

Edit: WHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! GO SOX!!!!





.. and you gotta love the Boston Globe logo fun: