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Red Sox, Rockies set to kick off Fall Classic

Oct 24, 2007 - 2:12 PM By PA SportsTicker

The Colorado Rockies are on a historic surge. But to continue their winning ways, they'll have to beat Josh Beckett.

The Rockies visit Beckett and the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday in Game One of the World Series.

Colorado has won 21 of its last 22 games, sweeping through the first two rounds of the postseason. All that success earned the Rockies an eight-day layoff before the Fall Classic, the longest wait for any team in postseason history.

Beckett is an imposing pitcher to face for a team that has been playing every day. For a team coming off an eight-day layoff, the 27-year-old's customary 97 mile per hour fastball will likely seem a tick faster.

Beckett nabbed the American League Championship Series MVP award after going 2-0 while allowing three runs in 14 combined innings. Overall, the ace righthander has allowed three runs in 23 innings this postseason, striking out 26 while issuing just one walk.

"I think I've been doing the same thing in October that I was doing during the season," Beckett said. "Just comes down to executing pitches. They always say it's easy when you've got all your stuff going for you."

Colorado got the better of Beckett during the regular season, pounding him for six runs and 10 hits in five innings here on June 14 to break up a 9-0 start to the season.

Beckett's opponent in that June 14 was Rockies' Game One starter Jeff Francis. The lefthander dominated Boston's offense, holding the Red Sox to seven hits and no runs in five frames while striking out six and issuing a pair of walks to earn the win.

Francis has earned the Game One win in each of Colorado's first two postseason series, allowing a total of three runs and 11 hits in 12 2/3 frames.

Despite that success, Francis still seems to be the overlooked member of the pitching matchup on Wednesday, with his team acting as the overlooked part of the Series.

"We're fine with it, I know that," the lefthander said. "I mean, I think we just go out and try to win games, and if people take notice, then they will. If we win enough games, people will be coming out to watch and TV stations will be coming out to broadcast.

"That's the big thing, the media coverage. I'm sure the Red Sox are used to this every day, but we've never seen anything like this."

One person who has taken notice is Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona, who was asked Tuesday if the Rockies were even on the radar this season.

"I know enough about them now to know that they've won a lot of games out of a lot of games, and they feel really good about themselves," Francona said. "I mean, when we played them, they were the most important thing on our radar. They handled us in two of the three games."

Colorado beat Boston two of three at Fenway in mid-June, pounding Game Two starter Curt Schilling along with Beckett.

"I believe we're going to play good. We won two out of three here and hopefully we can at least win one here and then go home," Colorado catcher Yorvit Torrealba said. "In all the playoffs this year, we've started on the road and we've done really well and I don't see this any different.

"We're going to go out there and play our game and play our baseball, basically."

During their streak, the Rockies have hit .294 with 136 runs while pitching to a 2.80 ERA. Brad Hawpe and MVP candidate Matt Holliday have each hit .387 during the span, with Hawpe contributing four homers, 22 RBI and 16 walks and Holliday clubbing nine homers and driving in 23 runs.

The Red Sox have a few sluggers of their own getting hot at the right time as well. No. 2 hitter Kevin Youkilis set an LCS record by batting .500 for a seven-game series and sluggers David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez have combined to reach base 51 times in 90 postseason plate appearances.