Boston Strongest, pt. 1

Ho-ly shit.

It's still not real.

I don't even know what I want to say, I just know that I have to say something about the most amazing postseason run ever.

First home team to win the World Series at Fenway in 95 years. Second team ever to win the World Series after finishing in last place the year before. Your World Series MVP? A guy who, in Game Five, went 3-for-4 and raised his World Series batting average by SIX points. Your Game Six winning pitcher? A guy who was hated in this city for three years, earning his ultimate redemption with a tip of the cap. The man who threw the final pitch? A 38-year-old who wasn't even the second guy you could see closing for this team. This all goes without mentioning Jon Lester's two near-identical performances of mastery, Shane Victorino's coming-out party in Game Six after sitting twice in St. Louis, Stephen Drew finally getting a hit (and then another), Mike Napoli showing us why he was signed, Jonny Gomes showing us why he was signed, EVERYONE on this team showing us why they were on the 2013 Boston Red Sox. And now, and forever more, there will be three more words added to that tagline - the 2013 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox. Read that one more time. WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS.

It doesn't feel like nine days since I predicted the exact outcome of this World Series. This World Series felt like one giant, long movie, where we went to bed and woke up thinking about the Red Sox, about the next game. It still doesn't seem real that it's over. I'm half expecting the Red Sox to find some other team to go play, but it's over. It was August 1st that I decided this team was winning the World Series. I didn't say that verbatim, but I said that "there [was] something about this Red Sox team..." This was the night that the Red Sox overcame a five-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Mariners. This was one of those games that defines seasons for teams, and there was no better example of the resiliency of this ball club than that game.

But this World Series was about the fact that no one could stop the Boston Red Sox. A 12-8, come-from-behind victory on September 6 against the Yankees was an example of that. Jon Lester beating Max Scherzer the day before a 20-run onslaught was an example of that. No matter what any team threw at the Red Sox, they were not going to be stopped.

Neither will me blogging about this. Anyone who has seen my Twitter, Facebook, or blog lately has noticed that it's been all Red Sox. There's a reason for that. This has been one of the most magical postseason runs for any team, and for the Red Sox to win the World Series at Fenway, after everything that this city has gone through this year, there's absolutely no better way to do it than that.

Cue the duckboats.

Breaking down the 2013 World Series

If you remember my postseason predictions well, you'll recall that I didn't really offer an explanation as to why the Red Sox would be crowned the 2013 World Series Champions. In fact, all I really wrote was "it's happening." While I certainly believe that to be true, here's the breakdown of the 109th Fall Classic, a rematch of the 1946, 1967, and 2004 World Series between the Red Sox and Cardinals.

Lineup
I meant to begin with the starting rotations, but the lineup affects too much in this. The Cardinals' righty-heavy rotation would lead one to believe that Daniel Nava sees a few starts for Boston, but one of the most important statistics of the postseason is that the Red Sox are 6-0 when Jonny Gomes starts in left field. Gomes hit .188 and struck out in 44% of his at-bats against Detroit, but simply put, the dude wins baseball games. I expect Red Sox manager John Farrell to stick with Gomes and rookie Xander Bogaerts, who demonstrated incredible plate discipline in his ALCS at-bats. St. Louis will be able to let RBI-machine Allen Craig DH, while the Red Sox have to lose Mike Napoli for at least a couple of games in St. Louis. (Farrell has already said that David Ortiz will play in the National League park.) The Red Sox lineup has been able to come through when they needed it most (think grand slams), but up-and-down, the Cardinals have fewer question marks.
Advantage: Cardinals

Starting Rotation
Both teams won their respective League Championship Series in six games, which means that for the most part, they have complete freedom with their pitching rotations. For the Red Sox, it will likely be Jon Lester, John Lackey, Clay Buchholz, and Jake Peavy. The Cardinals will probably roll with Adam Wainwright, Michael Wacha, Joe Kelly, and Lance Lynn. Both teams were also tested in their respective LCS by facing good pitching; the Cardinals went 3-1 in games started by Clayton Kershaw or Zack Greinke, while Boston was a perfect 3-0 in games started by Max Scherzer or Justin Verlander. Of the combined six wins by the two teams, four of them were decided by one run. The pitchers for each of these pennant winners went toe-to-toe with some of the game's greats, and will do so for one final series. Clay Buchholz and Jake Peavy have been less-than-stellar this postseason, and the Cardinals take the advantage here, too.
Advantage: Cardinals

Bullpen
This one may be closer than one would think, but it still goes to Boston. Between Craig Breslow, Junichi Tazawa, and Koji Uehara, the Red Sox bullpen has been absolutely untouchable this postseason. One has to wonder if the wheels are close to falling off, but if the Red Sox relievers can hold on tight for one more series, they will be an important factor at the conclusion of games. The young Cardinals bullpen, comprised of Trevor Rosenthal, Seth Maness, and Carlos Martinez, has featured a bend-don't-break attitude throughout the postseason. They have done what they needed to, but Boston's bullpen is still the better of the two.
Advantage: Red Sox

Defense
We've seen the importance of defense throughout the playoffs - Wil Myers' misplayed fly ball in Game One of the ALDS; Jose Iglesias' error in Game Six of the ALCS that set up Shane Victorino's grand slam. The addition of Xander Bogaerts at third base means that most, if not all, ground balls to the left side of the infield will be played cleanly. Sure, Stephen Drew may not hit very well, but his defense is too valuable to not have him in the lineup. The Cardinals have the best defensive catcher in baseball in Yadier Molina, but the Red Sox will still aim to run and steal throughout the series. The advantage here goes to Boston only because of home field advantage and the intricacies of playing at Fenway Park. The Red Sox have played 86 games there in 2013, while the Cardinals' projected defense has played a combined 33 games in their careers at Fenway. Twenty-five of which being part of Carlos Beltran's seven years in the American League from 1998-2004.
Advantage: Red Sox

As you can see, this World Series breaks down relatively easily. Think back to the 2004 World Series. Was there any doubt the Red Sox were going to win after completing the comeback against the Yankees. How about 2007, when Boston overcame a 3-1 series deficit against Cleveland? Just last year, the San Fransisco Giants won three consecutive NLCS games to beat these same Cardinals in seven games, and then swept the Tigers in the World Series. Neither of these 2013 World Series teams is coming in on fire, but they've been playing sound baseball and have found ways to win games. So how do I end up with the Red Sox? They're the ones that have been finding ways all season, in the most unpredictable of ways. Boston has what it takes to win a final, grueling series. So do the Cardinals, but when all's said and done, the first song of the offseason will be "Dirty Water."
Prediction: Red Sox in 6

Letter from the editor

Hi friends,

Sorry that I've been relatively lackluster with the blog this month. One of my biggest fears with this blog is that it will slowly fade out of my life and I'll post once, maybe twice a month. I'm doing everything I can to push past that and blog at least several times a month, but it's not as easy as I'd like it to be. This is by no means a hiatus post, but merely something to pass the time. We've got a World Series in Boston, and there will be a blog post about that. Season Three of House is almost done being watched, so there will be a mega update to the House Best Episodes page. There are just some things that are getting in the way of me blogging as much as I want, so I have to take care of them first. In the meantime, enjoy this absolutely perfect album by Moonlit Sailor.

Until next time,
Matt

6 months, 6 thoughts

1. It feels like it was six weeks ago, let alone six months. Then again, it also feels like it's been way more than six months. That's what 's weird with these things, that they feel so recent and yet so far away in the past at the same time. Going home to Watertown has barely felt the same - driving past Vic and seeing styrofoam cups spelling out "Watertown Strong" in the fence is something I always make sure I do before I leave. And I don't know how long that will go on for. The cups may have left, the shirts may have left the windows of stores, but that feeling, that's gotta be around for a little while longer.

2. A decent amount of time after 9/11, when I could fully grasp everything that went on, I became slightly fascinated with all of the different stories of people in the World Trade Center, those who made it, those who didn't, and everyone else involved in their own way on that Tuesday morning. The same thing happened with this, where I have a little bit of a pull towards browsing around Wikipedia and finding out little details about what happened that day. But it's always felt forbidden, as though I have to make sure no one's watching before I click around.

3. From this point on, every day is one that's on the "next year" half of 2013/2014 Marathon Mondays. (Editor's Note: Marathon Monday of 2014 is actually April 21, so there still a few days before being halfway there.) Point is, I think that everything after the first couple of weeks since the attack has been part of the healing process. People are meeting their saviors, their fellow runners or volunteers, and whatever sense of normalcy that can be returned is slowly being built back. It sucks that "normal" might not ever be the same for a lot of people, but everyone has persisted so far.

4. If you talk to anyone who was there on April 15, there's no doubt in anyone's mind that they're going to be there next year. Everyone who made it at least halfway through the marathon has automatically qualified for the 2014 race, but there will be even more people than were there this year. And I think that speaks to the pride people want to share with everyone involved in this. With everything that's happened in the past six months, everyone has to have had some source of happiness, reconcile, pride, whatever you wanna call it. And I think that there's no better way to display it than by being at the finish line in 2014.

5. As much hate as there is in the world, that we could see in just ten seconds, there's even more love. I went through both sides of this within three days, and one side has certainly won out six months later. There's nothing I can say next without tying into my next point, so...

6. One of the biggest ways that I've seen the good side of things has been through sports, especially the Red Sox and Bruins. Bringing out the first responders, the survivors, everybody involved with this has brought everyone together and made everyone closer. There's a special place in the hearts of many people for sports, but that's even bigger with all of this, and everything that's been done. We rode the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Final in June, and we're riding the Red Sox through the playoffs in October. As much as things have changed, there are things that we know will always be around.

4 reasons why the Red Sox won the ALDS

The Red Sox clinched a trip to the ALCS last night, beating the Rays 3-1 in Game Four, and 3-1 in the series. They will face the winner of Detroit and Oakland, who play in Game Five tomorrow night. We'll deal with the ALCS when we get there (Games One and Two are Saturday and Sunday, respectively, at Fenway), but for now, here are four reasons why the Red Sox are in their first ALCS since 2008:

1. Jacoby Ellsbury and Shane Victorino have led off for the Red Sox for most of the 2013 season, and they lead off this list, as well. The pair was simply superb during this series, going a combined 15-of-32 (.469) with 9 runs and 5 stolen bases. They were the catalysts of many a Red Sox rally, and this was no more evident than near the end of Game Four. Ellsbury went from first to third after stealing and advancing on a wild pitch, and in the same at bat, Victorino plated Ellsbury on an infield single, using his speed to beat out a throw from Yunel Escobar.

2. In the rare instances that the Red Sox weren't getting production from these two, they were able to find it from any given player in the lineup. In the first game of the series, a 12-2 Boston victory, every batter in the lineup had a hit and scored a run, only the third time in history that the feat had been accomplished. Players had their clutch moments; the loudest was David Ortiz smacking two homers off David Price, the most recent being Xander Bogaerts' 7th-inning walk to set up the reversal of one-run leads.

3. The pitching staff as a cohesive unit was reliable for maybe the first time since 2007. Lester took the ball in Game One and delivered a stellar outing. John Lackey, while his start was mediocre at best, held the lead for the Red Sox against the Rays' best starter, David Price. Buchholz labored in his six innings, but his only mistake was the game-tying home run to Evan Longoria. And last night, Jake Peavy held the Rays to one run in 5.2 innings to set up the Breslow/Tazawa/Uehara bullpen pecking order.

4. The Red Sox caught breaks. The Wil Myers missed fly ball in Game One was a big one, but between all of the borderline calls, wild pitches, and key plays, the Red Sox were far ahead of Tampa Bay in all facets of intangibles. The baseball gods were good to the Red Sox in this series, which could come as a surprise given the fact that TBS could do nothing but talk about the Rays' elimination game success in the past week. However, the Red Sox were too much for Tampa to handle, and Boston will head back to the ALCS.

Top 10 Glee songs

Despite the fact that I haven't watched consecutive episodes of Glee since the start of its second season (2011), there are still a decent number of songs that I've loved from the show. Using memory, and this nice database, here are my top ten songs from Glee.

Honorable mention: "Just The Way You Are" Yes, I'm doing this backwards, because I actually want to do this in order. Makes sense, right? Coming in just shy of the top ten is "Just The Way You Are." A theme that I found in these eleven songs is that there's a ton of emotion put into each performance, whether it be for heartwarming or heartbreaking reasons. (There may be one exception that isn't on the heart spectrum.) This is just a nice little tune that was put together well, so it gets some recognition here.

10. "Keep Holding On" This is just a good song, I really like how this sounds. It's fun to harmonize to and pretend that I'm still decent at singing, but that's really all I have to say about it.

9. "Roots Before Branches" Had I stuck with the show through the end of the third season, I would have probably ranked this higher. Having only seen it on YouTube and out of context of the entire season, this song just barely makes the cut. Really powerful song, and incredibly well done.

8. "Homeward Bound / Home" Another song that I discovered after I stopped watching Glee, but this is another song that was insanely well put together. Philip Phillip's "Home" is this upbeat, happy song, but Glee took it and completely changed that, and it sounds really good, almost like you're being teased for a faster version.

7. "Creep" This is the one song that doesn't fit into the really happy or really sad category, but it might turn out to be the most powerful on this list. The fact that Lea Michele can hit those insanely high notes without falsetto is just unreal. Seriously, that's what makes this song amazing. Just imagine how much more I love the next six songs then...unfortunately I can't find a performance video, but here's the breakup scene that leads to the song.

6. "The Only Exception" This is where it starts to get all sad and everything, with these next four songs. This is the kind of performance that made me quasi-fall in love with Rachel Berry during the first season of Glee (despite this performance coming in Season Two). The performance video also has a high amount of characters staring off into space, which is indicative of the emotional significance of this song.

5. "The Scientist" Again, I didn't see this live, but knowing that this was in the middle of all of the turmoil that every character was going through, you can tell how emotionally charged of a song this is, too. "The Scientist" is an amazing song on its own, and the cover that Glee did is amazing as well.

4. "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" Alright, I'm a total sucker for this one. It's one thousand percent the harmony at the end (3:48 in the link). This is also a great example of the video actually pushing forth a storyline, instead of just being an outlet for the storyline to break into song. That might make no sense to anyone other than me in this moment, but I'm sticking with it.

3. "No Air" This was, if I remember correctly, the first song that I loved on Glee. All the way back in Season One, this one just has some really cool harmonies for a song that I had never heard before. I remember listening to this on my iPod and being able to tease out different parts in the melodies. It's a really good song for a show that hadn't really developed an identity yet.

T-1. "Faithfully" I just couldn't keep this song off the top spot, I really couldn't. If I come up with these rankings ten times, this is probably on its own at the top probably six of those times. This just isn't one of them. This song came at the end of the first season, and was pretty much the song that set Finn and Rachel off to be what they ended up becoming. Or something like that. It's an awesome song to sing, fun to play on piano, and fun to watch. I'm telling you, six times out of ten, this is alone at the top of the list. Just not right now.

T-1. "Somebody To Love" Let it be known that this is not the Justin Bieber version. This is the Queen version, and might have been the second song I came to love on Glee. This breaks the trend in my rankings of horribly saddening songs, and ends on a positive note. It's a fun song that's really fun to sing, and is just such a classic that it was pretty much the number one contender from the moment I decided to blog about this. So, with that, "Somebody To Love" takes the top spot on my Glee best songs rankings...for now.

Predicting the 2013 MLB playoffs

Well, 2012 wasn't the year for the Red Sox, nor was it for my playoff predictions. After failing to successfully predict an LCS team, I set out this postseason to actually get one right. Hopefully many, because I'm convinced that 2013 is the year for something besides my playoff picks.

League Division Series

Red Sox vs. Indians

I don't care if you have the best record in baseball - when you're playing a team that has won 11 games in a row (assuming Cleveland beats the Rays in the wild-card game), you get scared. That being said, the only team who could stop the Red Sox this year was the Baltimore Orioles. Cleveland's pitching is no match for the best offense in baseball, and the Red Sox move on.

Athletics vs. Tigers

In a rematch of the 2012 ALDS, Oakland enters the 2013 playoffs as that team-no-one-realized-was-good. Seriously though, their oldest everyday player is Coco Crisp (33), and the only player older than him who has done anything is Bartolo Colon.  Detroit stumbles into the postseason but will prevail against the A's, relying on their strong pitching to get them to the ALCS.

Cardinals vs. Pirates

Pittsburgh makes it to the playoffs for the first time since I was ten months old, but only lasts a few games. I don't know what it is about the Cardinals, but they just win when it matters. I completely trust in everything that franchise does. One player gets hurt? Slide in his EXACT REPLACEMENT who actually performs better. (See: Pujols, Albert.) Saint Louis moves on to a third-straight NLCS on the heels of being that team-everyone-knows-is-good-and-hates-as-a-result.

Braves vs. Dodgers

This series would probably last 15 games if the MLB let it. The Braves and Dodgers (respectively) are third and fourth in the NL in OPS, first and second in ERA, second and fourth in WHIP and saves, and third and second in opponents' OPS. My gut says Los Angeles, and that's what I initially wrote down. In by far the hardest series to predict, I stand by my decision to put the Dodgers in the NCLS.

League Championship Series
Red Sox vs. Tigers
Boston lost the season series to Detroit 4-3, but took home a 2-1 advantage in the more recent series, including a 20-4 victory, and handing Max Scherzer his second loss of the season. Detroit, however, is still good. So good that they were the favorites to come out of the American League in the preseason. So good that their lineup depth and pitching rotation make them an easy pick to move on. But this Red Sox team has what it takes to win a brutally tough series, and that's what this will be. No win will come easily as there are spectacular pitching matchups up and down this series. Home field will help Boston, who is in the playoffs for the first time since being swept by the Angels in 2009. After a week-long battle, Boston handles the righty-heavy rotation of the Tigers, and returns to the World Series.

Cardinals vs. Dodgers
The Dodgers are a flashy team, and have certainly drawn their fair share of media hype this summer. It's been deserving, but the Cardinals have stayed in front of an extremely competitive NL Central for the majority of the second half of the season. These teams are similar in that they will get production from the players they can expect it from. Adam Wainwright and Clayton Kershaw won't throw stinkers in this series. But the difference between these two teams is that one team can get production from a slew of players that one normally wouldn't ask for, and that team is the St. Louis Cardinals. When players such as Matt Adams and Joe Kelly perform as they have this season, you win games. The Cardinals win enough to move on to a rematch of the 2004 World Series.

World Series
Red Sox vs. Cardinals
It's happening.

No, seriously, that's all I'm "officially" putting for my explanation of my World Series pick. While this has certainly been an MLB playoff predictions post, it has also served as a "The Red Sox are winning the World Series" post. It's the Jonny Gomes factor. He epitomizes everything that the 2004 team stood for. The beard, the punting the helmet, that time where he ate ice during a postgame interview...the guy is a winner. He makes winning happen on any team he is on. This team has what it takes to win the World Series, and will go through any team it faces to do so. Boston takes home the World Series in one of the most exciting playoffs in recent memory.