They have exposed the Cardinals for what they are -- a great offensive and defensive team trying to win a championship with a mediocre group of starters. They are the late 1990s Indians revisited, and I trust you know how many championships that team won.
Here is the line for the three St. Louis starters in this series: 11 1/3 innings, 20 hits, 15 runs, 15 earned runs, 8 walks, and 8 strikeouts. And here are the combined lines for Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez in Games 2 and 3: 13 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 10 K.Game 1 was the aberration, and we all knew it. The Red Sox were fortunate to win it. That was the bonus W. The real World Series was going to begin in Game 2, when Terry Francona was looking forward to writing Schilling's name on the lineup card. Schilling, and then Pedro in Game 3 . . . let's see what the Cardinals can do with them. The answer was just about nothing. The Cardinals were limited to one classically unearned run against Schilling (two-out error by Bill Mueller), and they got nothing at all against Pedro, who tossed three-hit, shutout ball over seven innings last night in a 4-1 victory that produced a string of words never before written by anyone covering the Boston Red Sox: The Boston Red Sox are now up, 3-0, in a World Series and can close it out tonight.
Was not this the grand vision when Young Theo journeyed to Phoenix for Thanksgiving dinner, Chez Schilling? Match Schilling with Pedro in the certified Big Games, the ones played when the leaves are falling, and see what happens. The No. 1 reason the Red Sox have gone 0 for 86 since that 1918 World Series has been pitching. The other team has usually had the big pitcher, or pitchers.
Not this time.
