Sox v Sawx

Talk about a little postseason tune-up in August. Coming off a 2-1 series win in the Bronx, Chicago now heads to Beantown to face Boston for 3. In the Yankees - White Sox series, both teams combined to score 11 runs in three games. All of them were one run games and surprise, surprise, the team with a 26 and 14 record in one run games won 2 of them. The Yankees lineup is as potent as Boston's top to bottom and the ChiSox showed that the age old adage of good pitching beats good hitting to be true once again. This series should be no different. Chicago throws its two aces against Boston in the first two games of the series, a bullet New York dodged, but it ended up not mattering for the Bombers. The difference is that while New York has been up and down, Boston has really caught fire lately especially at home. They hold a 5 game lead in the East, have won 12 of their last 14 and have won 11 in a row at Fenway. Make no mistake, this team thrives at home; but the atmosphere can't be anymore hostile than Yankee Stadium with the Yanks down by one 2 men on for Bernie; or top of the 10th tie game with Mariano on the mound. Pick either one or both - they both happened in the last 3 days and the White Sox came out on top. This team just has a way of winning. So once again I'm taking the White Sox to take 2 of 3 in a possible ALCS preview. First a basic outline then the game by game preview. Pitching : ChiSox Hitting: Red Sox Bullpen/ Closer : ChiSox

Game 1 pits Mark Buehrle against former Chicago pitcher David Wells. Buehrle is a Cy Young candidate with a 14-5 mark and 2.69 ERA. Wells is 9-5 with a 4.45 ERA that can still get him 12-15 wins with that offense. Buerhle hasn't exactly been lights out after the All-Star break but he's on his way back to form and tonight we'll see how he handles Manny, Ortiz and the Boston faithful. Wells just doesn't impress me. Did this guy really throw a perfect game? Plus the bullpen for this club is a joke. Edge: White Sox
Game 2 is Jon Garland and Tim Wakefield. Wakefield had his knuckleball hit around last time against the sox July 22 giving up 7 ER in 5.2 IP. In the same game Garland held the BoSox to just 2 ER in 6.2 IP. Clear Edge : ChiSox
Game 3 : How long will El Duque's arm hold up? One pitch to A-rod in the first inning kept him from beating the Yankees, but Duque looked good in his Bronx return. But what Chicago has to be thinking is how much can they throw him to make sure he doesn't tire out by the playoffs but at the same time doesn't have to shake the rust off come October. He faces off against Matt Clement who pitched to a no decision in Chicago in July allowing 4 ER in 6.2 IP. Duque got the loss last time out against Boston but pitched well allowing only 2 runs in 6.2 IP. The biggest part of this series again is how Chicago's bullpen performs in crunch time in a very hostile Boston environment. They passed with flying colors in New York allowing just 1 ER in six innings of work. I'll give Boston the edge in game 3 just because their "ace" is pitching.