I can't even believe the Tigers are here again but they are and they send Anibal Sanchez to the mound who led the American League in ERA. Sanchez had a 2.44 ERA on the road, but over his last three starts he posted a 5.65 ERA. I think Sanchez is a bit over rated when you look at his road starts he's nearly walking 3 guys per 9 and he did not face a single team in the top 5 in hitting vs RHP all year and now he has to face the Red Sox who were #1 with a .818 OPS by a wide margin. He only faced 2 teams on the road ranked inside the top 10 so you could say he had the easy schedule. He will have his hands full with the Red Sox line up that just continues to make pitchers work for everything and we know about the Tigers struggles out of the bullpen.
The Red Sox send a Jon Lester to the mound who posted a 2.57 ERA in 13 starts since the All Star break. Lester has been dominant down the stretch and continued that into the post season with a great start vs. the Rays 7.2 innings and 2 ER. He has a 2.54 career ERA in 9 games in post season play with 7 starts. He's on extra rest here facing a Tigers team that's not itself offensively and was not very good vs LHP on the road only scoring 3.65 runs per 9. Lester had 3.03 ERA at home and allowed 1 ER over 7 innings in his home start vs. the Tigers. Lester comes into this game on extra rest and he's got 8 of 9 quality starts in that situation at home posting a 2.63 ERA overall. It all starts at the top of the line up and Ellsbury right now is 9-18 in the playoffs while Austin Jackson is 2-20 with 13K's.
