2013 Major League Baseball Championship Game 6: Cardinals @ Red Sox

Well, the highlight could turn out to be American Celtic punk music group Dropkick Murphys singing the national anthem, especially if you’re a Cards fan.

In Monday’s game the Sox scored in the Top of the 1st off a 1 Out Double followed by another for an RBI.  In the 4th the Cards tied it up on a Solo Shot.  Then in the 7th the Sox put it away with a 1 Out Single, a Walk, an RBI Double, and an RBI Single.  Red Sox 3 – 1, lead Series 3 – 2.

Now the Cards have to win 2 straight at Fenway which will not be easy.

Facing elimination tonight’s lineup features Allen Craig at DH replaced at 1st by Matt Adams for the Cardinals with Daniel Descalso replacing the error prone Pete Kozma at Short and Jon Jay instead of Shane Robinson in Center.  The Sox will DH David Ortiz substituting Mike Napoli at 1st and replace Daniel Nava with Shane Victorino in Right.

Boston will start John Lackey (10 – 13, 3.52 ERA R).  He’s not much better than that in the post-season, he lost Game 2 last Thursday at Fenway in this same matchup and is 2 – 1 with 16 hits and 7 runs in 19 and a 3rd innings for an ERA of 3.36 (6.75 in the loss).  He’ll be countered by rookie phenom Michael Wacha (4 – 1, 2.78 ERA R) who is 4 – 0 in the playoffs with 11 hits and 3 runs in 27 innings for a still stunningly low (anything less than 1.0 is pretty gosh darn stunning) ERA of 0.98.

Now if it wasn’t for Thursday’s game I might be more pessimistic about the Cardinal’s prospects for extending the Series to 7.  They are facing elimination in one of the quirkiest Parks in all Baseball, but Lackey is no prize.  I would expect Sox Manager John Farrell to tap the Bullpen early if he gets into trouble, but the Sox Bullpen is no prize either.  I suspect instead he’s playing for a deciding Game 7 tomorrow when he’ll probably start Peavy against Kelly.

But, since I do naturally favor the Senior League over the Junior and the Cards are most in need of the help (and the video is so much more entertaining), tonight the Rally Squirrel will make what could be his last appearance this season.