A few people responded to my plea to start Lester in game 6 with a familiar refrain:
If you start Lester in game 6, what do you do in game 7?
My response:
GAME SEVEN?
There IS NO Game Seven!
There is ONLY game six!
It's a one game playoff.
What exactly are we saving for? If the Red Sox lose tonight, Lester can pitch on 5 months rest!
You have to play each game like it is the last one because IT COULD BE!!!
And you can't hold off the best team that you can field to save for a game this is not guaranteed.
In 2004, the Red Sox went into game 7 with no clue who they'd start.
Tito went with Lowe, who pitched wonderfully... but he got to that bridge when it mattered.
I'll give two other examples.
In the 1987 NLCS with the series between St. Louis and San Francisco tied at 3... Giants manager Roger Craig had a choice between Atlee Hammaker and Mike Krukow for game 7.
He went with Hammaker despite the fact that Krukow's complete game victory stymied the Cardinals in game 4.
Hammaker got rocked.
When asked why he went with Hammaker, Craig responded that he had Krukow penciled in for Game 1 of the World Series.
Well guess what? Krukow watched game 1 from his La-Z Boy!
And lest we forget last year Lou Piniella pulling Carlos Zambrano early so he could be fresh for game 4 of the Division Series... only to see the Cubs get swept.
He was quite fresh in spring training.
There is no guarantee for a game 7... so put the best team on the field NOW! And if they need to start Gil Velazquez in game 7, I'm sure he's rested too!
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