Home Sweet Home by Jared Carrabis
Red Sox Ready For Final Home Stand

155 games down, seven to go. The last seven games of the regular season for the Boston Red Sox are set to be played all at Fenway Park where the local nine hold a 55-22 record. The Red Sox welcome the Cleveland Indians to Fenway Park for four games followed by the final series of the season to be played against the New York Yankees. The Red Sox have a chance to clinch a playoff spot Monday night at Fenway Park that would end a postseason run by the New York Yankees that has seen them enter October every season since 1993 (not counting 1994 which was cut short by the player's strike).


The Red Sox last played the Cleveland Indians in a series in the middle of April. The tribe has not yet paid a visit to Fenway Park in 2008, thus making this four game series their first trip to Fenway Park since the 2007 American League Championship Series. Ironically, the Red Sox celebrated on their home field in the previous game these two teams met in Boston and if all goes according to plan, it very well could happen again on Monday night.


The Cleveland Indians did not have the rebound season that Indians fans had hoped for and will miss the playoffs entirely in 2008 but the Red Sox still have everything to play for in this series with the Tampa Bay Rays just a game and a half away with seven games to go and of course Boston would love to get the clinching of a playoff spot out of the way as early as possible. Luckily for Boston they will not have to travel anywhere for the remaining seven games on the schedule and are settled in at home, ready to play their best baseball before entering October.


With the Red Sox magic number down to one, who would you send to the mound? Well, if you said "Josh Beckett", you're in luck. The Red Sox have the potential to be popping bottles in the clubhouse tonight if Josh Beckett can continue to shut down opponents like he has been since his return from the disabled list. Luckily, Ryan Garko will be in town (we all know how much he loves champagne).


Since Josh Beckett has returned to the rotation from the disabled list he has dominated the opposition giving up just two runs in the nineteen innings he has pitched in those three starts. In his last start against the Tampa Bay Rays he gave up just one run (home run to Carlos Pena) but lasted eight innings giving up three hits all night and struck out eight.


In last years American League Championship Series, Josh Beckett defeated the Cleveland Indians twice in a best of seven series in which all seven games were needed. Beckett tossed fourteen innings combined in games one and five posting a 1.93 ERA in the series while striking out eighteen batters earning him the series MVP. Here's to a soaking wet clubhouse that reeks of alcohol by nights end.

Published on September 22, 2008

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