The St. Louis Cardinals are visiting Boston for Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night at Fenway Park and the Red Sox come into the matchup as the home team after the AL won the all-star game and comes after an amazing turnaround from the Sox, who finished in last place in the east division last season.
The team lost over 90 games last season and now they have won 97 games as the American League east champions and it'll be the fourth time in history these two teams have played for a championship, with the Cards winning the first two before the Red Sox swept them out in 2004. The team has won eight straight World Series games since that matchup and in Game 1 on Wednesday, it will be a prime matchup of Jon Lester and Adam Wainwright going at it as starting pitchers.
The fact that Lester is starting the game is a great turnaround himself, as he was one of the players named in the "chicken and beer" incidents back in 2011 when the Red sox collapsed and missed the playoffs after leading the wild card heading into September. That collapse got Terry Francona hired and led to Bobby Valentine and that terrible season led to John Farrell and this magical one in 2013.
Lester admitted back in 2011 that the chicken and beer stuff was "wrong" and he was one of a number of players that were considered to be doing the wrong things down the stretch for the Red Sox. The team was up nine games in September for the wild card over Tampa Bay and on the final day of the season they played the Orioles and a rain delay pushed the game into the evening, which is when the Rays and Yankees also played. When it was all said and done, the Red Sox blew the game and the Rays came back against the Yankees minutes part, putting them in over the Sox and changing baseball fate.
Francona was fired after Lester and Josh Beckett along with John Lackey went 2-7 with a 6.45 ERA at the end of the season and that of course led to Valentine and the huge trade of Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford and now the team is looking back with smiles. The collapse was tough to swallow and so was a 90-loss season, but now the team is back in the World Series and the chicken and beer incidents seem like ages ago now.
The following game on Thursday could be just as electric, as Michael Wacha will take on crafty vet John Lackey and the rookie has been pitching some amazing ball this playoffs, going for two scoreless starts against the LA Dodgers in the NLCS and now he will face off in the World Series. Amazingly, just a year ago he was pitching in college and now he could be pitching in one of the biggest games of the year in all of baseball.
