On to Beantown to face the Sawx

As much as I'd like to continue to bask in the joy of shutting down the Yankees and shutting off Yankee fans - except for those still blaming the bugs - it's time to move on. There's more work to be done. And it will be difficult work indeed.

So here's my quick and dirty look at the upcoming ALCS.

I think for the pitching it works best if you go game-by-game.

Game 1: CC vs Beckett. Wow! This one has a chance to be completed in less than three hours, unless of course it goes into extra innings tied zip-zip.

This is the matchup of the top two Cy Young candidates. Not my top two mind you, but the "consensus" top two. I think there should be a top three, with Fausto added to the mix.

Anyway.

There's really no way to handicap this game and this one is as even as it gets.

Advantage: None

Game 2: Fausto vs Schilling

This matchup is every bit as good as that in Game 1.

Two pitchers with completely different styles at the opposite end of the age and experience spectrums will face off and could, quite easily, produce the same bottom line - a zero, or maybe a one or two.

Having missed time early on, Schilling is as fresh as the old geezer can be. And he's been as effective as ever all season.

Fausto, on the other hand, is in unchartered waters, having long-ago surpassed his IP totals for a single season. But I ask you, did he look tired last Friday?

Will the Fenway crowd get to him? It's possible. But look at how he has pitched this year after the potentially career-crushing experience he endured as short-term closer last year. And again, look at last Friday night?

As in the first game, this one will hinge on who gets a hit at the right time and makes all the plays in the field.

Advantage: None

Game 3: Westbrook vs Dice-K.

Matsuzaka had a miserable September but his overall body of work this season was solid. Still that miserable September carried over into the playoffs, as he was knocked out of his only ALDS start in the fifth inning.

Jake had an up-and-down year, with the bottom-line results that were acceptable at best. His September was not the washout that Dice-K put up, but it was just so-so. He too was sent packing early in his only ALDS outing. But Oh that August!

Will Dice-K continue to sputter as the innings continue to pile up on him? Will he pull it together for a game and pitch like the winner he was early in the year?

Which Westbrook will show up. The August Westbrook, or the September/October Westbrook?

Advantage: Red Sox

Game 4:

Byrd vs Wakefield

This comes down to three questions.

Will Wakefield's knuckler knuckle? Will he even pitch (sore back)? Will Byrd keep the Red Sox in the ballpark?

Fortunately this game is at The Jake. Jacobs field is not exactly the pitcher's haven that the Astrodome used to be, but it is a bit friendlier to flyball pitchers than Fenway and that should mitigate at least some of the damage. And Byrd was very good in his one outing against the Sox this year.

Advantage: Tribe

The Bullpens:

A you can see, the starting pitching matchups are not much of a barometer for the series. What about the bullpens?

Look at the set-up men and things look pretty good for the Tribe.

Jensen Lewis and the Raffies have been lights-out for weeks now. They carried that over into the ALDS.

For the Sox, Okajima and Gagne have been a disaster in the last six weeks or so, though Okajima did have a good ALCS.

The Red Sox middle relievers have been mostly solid all year. They compare favorably to Tom Mastny and Aaron Fultz, which is not hard to do. But the middle-inning guys may not be too important in this series. Many may not even saee the light of day. It will likely come down to the starters and the back end of the bullpens.

The 7th and 8th could be very dicey for the Red Sox, while the Tribe has a sturdy bridge to the ninth inning.

But, while not exactly the Alaskan Bridge to Nowhere, that bridge leads to JoBo. Wouldn't you much rather see Jonathan Papelbon waiting on the other side?

(Slate.com has a great rundown on the bullpens, calling Cleveland's "at once baseball's best and most anonymous," and asks - "four wins away from a World Series do they (the Tribe) have the guts to dump their closer." I recommend checking it out).

As for the offenses, I look at this series much as I did the series with the Yankees.

The Sox are clearly more explosive than the Tribe, especially with Manny and Ortiz as hot as they are. But the Tribe's ability to get two-out hits and to hit with runners in scoring position made them potent enough to support their outstanding pitching.

So where does all of this leave us?

On the edge of the couch, probably for all seven nights.

For an insightful, stats-filled breakdown of the pitching matchups see Pat Tabler's work at The DiaTribe.