The Tribune

MLB.World.Series.Game.2.Live.Stream.2013.(Watch).Online.Free.Red.Sox.vs.Cardinals.Now The Red Sox will counter with John Lackey, who in his last start negated a dominant Justin Verlander by throwing 6 2/3 scoreless innings to help Boston to a 1-0 win over the Tigers in ALCS Game 3. Lackey, like Game 1′s dominant Red Sox starter Jon Lester, cut his World Series teeth by starting a championship clincher before he had a full season in the majors under his belt (Lackey in 2002 for the Angels, Lester in 2007 for the Sox) and is making his first World Series start since.

Also like Lester, Lackey has been far better at home than on the road this season, going 6-3 with a 2.47 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in 13 starts at Fenway Park. In his last start in Boston, back on Sept. 19, he pitched a complete game against the Orioles, yielding only one run and two hits. What’s more, just two Cardinals have faced Lackey before and those two, Holliday and the now-banged-up Beltran, are a combined 0-for-16 against him.

A win behind Lackey, thus negating both of St. Louis’ postseason pitching stars in Adam Wainwright and Wacha, would be close to a knockout blow by the Red Sox. However, if the Cardinals can even the Series Thursday night, the momentum would be on their side.

With the Series moving to St. Louis for Saturday’s Game 3, the Red Sox will lose the designated hitter and thus have to bench either David Ortiz or Mike Napoli, both of whom had extra-base hits and drove in three runs in Game 1. Boston will also be starting an ailing Clay Buchholz in Game 4. The Cardinals will then follow with Wainwright starting Game 5 at home, where he has been his most dominant this season, and on regular rest rather than the eight days off he had going into his dreadful Game 1.

Of course, for the Cardinals to salvage a split in Game 2, they’ll have to be comfortable on the field. They were clearly tight in Game 1, but hidden behind the 8-1 final score was the fact that seven of the nine men in their lineup reached base (Matt Adams and Pete Kozma being the exceptions) and that manager Mike Matheny got his top five set-up men (three of whom are rookies) into the game to shake off any World Series jitters. Add in Matt Holliday’s ninth-inning home run, which averted the shutout, and perhaps St. Louis can chalk up Game 1 as a fluke. If not, this could be an unexpectedly short series.

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