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It's been a rough start to the Series for the Cardinals, with 17 runs allowed in 2 games in Fenway. What is likely to happen when the Series moves to Busch Stadium, and the teams play without the DH?

Boston's offence seems to be tailor made for Fenway. Here are the team's home and away splits for the last 2 years:

2004 Home     Sox               .304/.378/.504
              Opponents         .255/.314/.406

2003 Home     Sox               .316/.392/.527
              Opponents         .261/.318/.407

2004 Away     Sox               .260/.342/.441
              Opponents         .256/.319/.410

2003 Away     Sox               .263/.328/.456
              Opponents         .265/.333/.412


Busch Stadium is tough on home run hitters. There were 170 homers hit there in 2004 by the Cardinals and their opponents, as compared with 213 on the road.

Bearing in mind that Busch is a difficult home-run park, the absence of one of their hitters from the lineup (Millar or Mueller) and the quality of St. Louis' defence, Boston will do very well to hit .250/.320/.400 over these 3 games. That translates to about 4 runs per game. St. Louis has been able to score over 5 per game (home and away), and the Boston starting pitching that they will be facing in these 3 games with the poor defence behind them should be no better than average.

Winning 5-4 with a homer, and a couple of runs manufactured National League style has always been the Cardinal way. With Walker, Pujols, Rolen and Edmunds at the heart of this Cardinal lineup, this team does not easily fit the image, reminding me of a great Yankee club instead. But, as Jared Diamond showed to us in Guns, Germs and Steel, geography plays a big part in history, and now that the Series moves to St. Louis, we may be about to see why.
Posted by Mike Green on Monday, October 25 2004 @ 11:42 AM EDT.
A tale of two cities | 6 comments | Create New Account
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Pistol - Monday, October 25 2004 @ 01:21 PM EDT (#23497) #
Bearing in mind that Busch is a difficult home-run park, the absence of one of their hitters from the lineup (Millar or Mueller)

I think it's decided that Millar is sitting out.

Of course the more fun option is Big Popi at 3b!
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Pistol - Monday, October 25 2004 @ 06:47 PM EDT (#23498) #
I hear their pillows weren't properly fluffed either.
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_Rob - Monday, October 25 2004 @ 06:52 PM EDT (#23499) #
Of course the more fun option is Big Popi at 3b!

Or...
1B Millar
2B Bellhorn
3B Mueller
SS Papi (Cabrera is the worst hitter, after all)

That would be a lot of fun, as would Ortiz catching Wakefield.
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_6-4-3 - Monday, October 25 2004 @ 09:25 PM EDT (#23500) #
Feh, nothing would be more fun than:

P- Wakefield
C- Varitek
1B- Millar
2B- Bellhorn
SS- Youkilis
3B- Mueller
LF- Ramirez
CF- Nixon
RF- Papi

As for the Red Sox / Cardinals hotel troubles, no comment is funnier than (After game 1, the Cards return to their hotel)

“We walked in there and there was pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers and wings,” La Russa said. “So, that was our guys’ first World Series experience.”

No, your guys' first World Series experience was getting beaten by a team that had a starter last little more than 3 innings (while walking three in a row), a blown save, 4 errors, and their star left-fielder almost hyperextend his knee. That was the first experience. Which was worse?
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_Hamboy - Monday, October 25 2004 @ 10:12 PM EDT (#23501) #
La Russa's comment:

That’s why I suggested that we make the Boston hotel in Jefferson City (Mo.).

he suggested that the Red Sox’s team buses unload at the Gateway Arch, about a half-mile from Busch Stadium, and have the players walk the rest of the trip.

Nice of him to turn the other cheek.... eesh...
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_Darth - Tuesday, October 26 2004 @ 04:38 AM EDT (#23502) #
Boston will not loose Millar. Most likely, he will get an at bat each game, so it's like their loosing 3/4 - 4/5 units of Millar. Another factor is that his at bat will be in a key situation, with runners on base, so his one ab will be more valuable that your typical ab.

Most likely you loose 3/4 of a Millar and 1/4 of a Ortize (when Doug Mencajfelsdarjitze subs in)
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