By now, we're all familiar with the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox.
Both organizations won 96 games in the American League, not an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination, and both teams had significant disappointments this season.
For the Indians, Josh Barfield and Cliff Lee were terrible, Travis Hafner has been extremely underwhelming, and even Grady Sizemore experienced a decline in production since last year. J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo have performed poorly for the Red Sox, while Curt Schilling and Daisuke Matsuzaka have also been mildly disappointing.
Despite these setbacks, the Red Sox and Indians are far and away the best two teams in baseball.
With that in mind, let's look at five key matchups that will determine the outcome of this American League Championship Series.
1. The Indians' strike-throwers vs. Boston's patient hitters. One of the main strengths of the Red Sox lineup is its patience: it sees a ton of pitches and works a lot of walks. The main strength of the Indians' pitching staff - especially the pitchers who will be used most in this series - is its ability to throw strikes. C.C. Sabathia, Fausto Carmona, Paul Byrd, Rafael Betancourt and Rafael Perez combined to pitch 787 innings and allow only 150 walks this season, for a per-inning average of 1.7. In comparison, the ever-patient Red Sox averaged 4.25 walks per game this season.
2. Eric Wedge vs. common sense. Joe Borowski is not a bad pitcher, but he's also not a good one. And he certainly should not be trusted with a one- or two-run lead in the ninth inning against the meat of the Red Sox' order. Will Eric Wedge use him correctly, or will he let JoeBlow live up to his nickname?
3. Daisuke Matsuzaka vs. patient hitters. The Indians saw more pitches per plate appearance this season than every team in baseball except for the Red Sox. Dice-K has had control problems recently, something which could haunt him against the patient Indians' lineup. If the Indians can raise his pitch count and knock him out early, even if they only score a couple of runs, their lineup should be able to feast on the Sox' middle relievers.
4. Hideki Okajima vs. lefties. Two of the Indians' best hitters - Sizemore and Hafner - are left handed. So is Boston reliever Hideki Okajima. Although this seems like it would be a big advantage for the Red Sox late in games, lefties (.645 OPS) have hit Okajima better this year than righties (.507). Meanwhile, Sizemore is only marginally worse against lefties (.812) than righties (.873), and Hafner's splits are nearly identical no matter who he faces (.836 OPS against lefties, .838 against righties).
5. Josh Beckett vs. the weather. This one is tricky. As the series stands, Josh Beckett could potentially pitch Game 4 on three days' rest and then be lined up to pitch Game 7 on full rest, but if tonight's game gets rained out, which may certainly be the case, the game will be played tomorrow.
If Game 2 is rescheduled for Sunday and Games 3 and 4 are left in place Monday and Tuesday, Beckett would only be able to pitch once more during the series. If, on the other hand, Major League Baseball chooses to change Monday to an off-day instead of Wednesday, Beckett would still be able to pitch three times in the series.
These teams are so evenly matched that it is easy to envision many scenarios for how this series plays out. Since both teams are so good and have so few weaknesses, this series has the potential to be one of the most entertaining and well-played playoff series in recent memory.
