The Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians are all knotted up at one game apiece in their American League Championship Series. Which makes Boston the huge favorite to win it all.

Huh? Check out the World Series odds. At press time, Boston was the big chalk at 27-20, followed by the Colorado Rockies at 8-5. Cleveland was next at 11-5, with the Arizona Diamondbacks bringing up the rear at 17-1. This was before Game 3 of the NLCS – the Rockies won the first two games in Arizona.

The perceived problem with Cleveland is their Nos. 3 and 4 starting pitchers, Jake Westbrook (4.40 xFIP) and Paul Byrd (4.96 xFIP). But look at Boston. Daisuke Matsuzaka appears spent, pitching just two quality starts in his last nine appearances, while projected Game 4 starter Tim Wakefield has a 5.16 xFIP and missed the ALDS and had a cortisone shot in his shoulder. Nothing will be easy for either team.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 7:21 pm and is filed under Baseball Betting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.