The Boston Red Sox are gearing up for their first game against the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series on Wednesday night and while that game will be at Fenway Park, the team has some big decisions to make going forward, as Game 3, 4 and 5 will be in Busch Stadium, meaning David Ortiz may have to start at first base for the squad.
According to SI.com, manager John Farrell plans to use Ortiz at first base for the matchups in St. Louis and while he won't start every game, he will play at the position along with Mike Napoli to keep his bat in the lineup. Ortiz has done this many times before, so it will be nothing new and while he is hitting just .200 in the postseason, Boston knows they need Big Papi's bat in the lineup as much as possible to keep the Cardinals honest.
Ortiz is the lone player left on the Red Sox from their last championship over the Cardinals and this now marks the fourth time the two historic franchises have met, with Boston winning the last one in a sweep back in 2004 that broke the Babe Ruth curse. Ortiz can handle the position well and he has three home runs and eight RBI in the playoffs this year, including the huge grand slam in the ALCS. The team is matchup up with the Cardinals as two teams that won 97 games and it marks the first time since 1999 that the top seeds in each league advanced to the final matchup in the World Series.
Ortiz is one of the best hitters in the lineup and the two teams will match up with Jon Lester and Adam Wainwright on the mound in game 1 before Michael Wacha and John Lackey go at it in game 2 and then Joe Kelly and Clay Buchholz will matchup in game 3. The battle of the bullpens will be interesting to watch as well and the Red Sox have home field advantage after the AL won the All-Star game for the series.
