If we should happen to win Game 6, who's our WS MVP?

[Dojji]

Just curious what the consensus is. We have two VERY good candidates, and I'd be hard pressed to pick one of them

[Youk Of The Nation]

I can't even really choose. Making the argument for one would involve ignoring the argument for the other. Can Co-MVPs be a thing?

[Dojji]

Don't think it does. The argument would go, "X has been fantastic, but Y has been that little bit better."

 

but yeah, I'd have a tough time choosing one or the other. Hopefully Ortiz makes it academic in game 6 with 7 RBI's or something,

[TedWilliams101]

Screw it, how about no MVP being awarded, rather, just reflect the entire team effort. Otherwise, I think it should be split between Lester, Ortiz, and Koji. Heck, would it be bad from to see Ortiz bring a chainsaw out to the field and cut that award up and hand it out to team mates? Damn individual awards in a team sport...

[Orange Juiced]

Koji has been fantastic. Lester has been phenomenal. But Ortiz has been historically great. His performance right now is up there as one of the great World Series performances in the history of the sport. Can't deny him that.

 

What I think would be more interesting is if it goes 7, and Lester pitches 2-3 innings in relief in game 7 and picks up a win. What do you do THEN?

[Palodios]

The Red Sox lost a game with Koji on the mound. For a guy who throws so few innings, I don't think this is his series.

 

Lester has been historically good this postseason. He deserves plenty of accolades, but that award is Ortiz's award to win. If he continues to hit like he has, it is his. If he is meh for the rest of the series and/or Lester pitches some shutdown innings in either games 6 or 7 it could swing his way.

[Palodios]

World Series Cy Young Award?

[sk7326]

Koji was the easy ALCS MVP: 1 win, 3 saves ... and (the key) two extreme-leverage saves. (you don't give him as much credit for the clincher, holding a 3 run lead for 3 outs is something he can do in his sleep)

 

Here Uehara has been less urgent - 2 run leads both times, though last night the four out save. There are better candidates.

 

Ortiz has BEEN the Red Sox offense for long stretches this series - Lester has given 2 dominant starts, but Game 1 was also a blowout. Doesn't reduce the effectiveness of the starts, but it might be enough to inch Ortiz ahead of him. After all, a guy batting .700 in a 6-game series is pretty insane.

[Bellhorn04]

Co-MVP's - Lester & Ortiz.

[Jasonbay44]

It's very close between Ortiz/Lester, I'd give it to Ortiz right now though, he has literally been pretty much all of Sox offense

[sk7326]

But more importantly - 2 games left ... in 2011, Mike Napoli had the MVP clinched for a long, long time ...

[sk7326]

Also - this is not enough to win an MVP, but a couple of staff-saving performances by Doubront cannot be ignored when the Red Sox equivalent of Tommy Points are being handed out. He might have as good a case as Uehara to date.

[BornToRun]

I vote Lester and Ortiz as co-MVP's.

[yeszir]

Ortiz. What he's been doing is pretty much literally unheard of. Lester has been fantastic but we've seen amazing WS starts before

[redsoxrules]

There's only 2 choices. Ortiz or Lester

[InfernoOrangeSS]

Ortiz.

[redsoxrules]

Only way Ortiz does not win it ,if this goes 7 games and he goes ofer the final 2 games and Lester gets a couple of scoreless innings in game 7 .

[jung]

I think Ortiz would have to continue in the vein he has been in for Game 6 at this point to elevate himself past Jon. Who knows...if this went 7 Jon might pitch again at some point. But right now today....it would be Lester for me.

 

Take the loser in game 5 for example. Wainwright, their ace this year gave up a run in the first inning and cracked in the 7th inning. That was it and that was all it took for him to end up on the losing end of game 5. Jon made about three bad pitches the entire game, one going yard. In a series stamped by pitching and defense, Lester has been the most dominant pitcher and it has not even been close. So I go Lester today but I am not going to vote because Ortiz is close enough to him that he could do something in game 6 or possibly game 7 to change things. I don't know. He may never see another pitch worth swinging at in a WS game.

[Palodios]

It's very close between Ortiz/Lester, I'd give it to Ortiz right now though, he has literally been pretty much all of Sox offense

 

You could make a similar case that Lester has literally been all the pitching. The Red Sox have 9 postseason wins, and he has 4 of them. The only game he has lost was a 0-1 game. Compare his postseason to guys like Price, Wainright, Kershaw, the "bonafide" aces, and it shows how impressive he has been. Hell, look at the failures of Peavy and Buchholz, and it shows just how important he has been to this team. Did I mention that Detroit and St Louis were #2 and #3 in runs scored in the regular season?

 

If Ortiz wins the MVP -- which would be similarly well-deserved -- he needs to go to trophys.com and order Lester a World Series Cy Young, because what he has done is nothing short of masterful.

[Beaneater]

Obviously Ortiz and Lester are 1-2, with Ortiz getting the nod because he is annihilating the Cards' pitchers at an unprecedented level. Like many others have said, Lester gets a further bump if he throws a few quality innings in a hypothetical-and-not-going-to-happen-because-John-Lackey Game 7.

 

Just want to put some Ross love out there. Is he the WS MVP? No, not with what Papi and Jon are doing. But he's taken a staff that could have been spooked after two bad, bad losses and he's guided them to consistent excellence. 3 ERs over 3 games with him behind the dish, if my memory serves. Not to mention the fact that he has come up big with the bat too. Ross is my #3.

[Bellhorn04]

Last time there were co-MVP's was 2001 - Schilling & Randy Johnson.

[iortiz]

Would be unfair to me name only one. Of course Ortiz is the first name that come up to my mind but I can't forget Koji, Lester and even Lackey, assuming that he wins the #6 against Wacha.

[jad]

There likely have been WS performances comparable to Lester's. But has anyone ever hit over .700 for a long series? (Have to check Mr. October on this.)

[Jacoby_Ellsbury]

Yeah, real f***ing terrific mojo here.

[jad]

OK. Found it. Reggie won the MVP hitting a legendary .450. Ortiz is almost .300 pts higher.

[sk7326]

There likely have been WS performances comparable to Lester's. But has anyone ever hit over .700 for a long series? (Have to check Mr. October on this.)

 

Billy Hatcher, 1990 WS

Jeffrey Leonard, 1987 NLCS for San Francisco were 2 WOWs

 

Also Carlos Beltran, 2004 NLCS was pretty incredible also

[User Name]

Would be unfair to me name only one. Of course Ortiz is the first name that come up to my mind but I can't forget Koji, Lester and even Lackey, assuming that he wins the #6 against Wacha.

 

Yeah, we definitely can't forget the man who is the best closer in baseball right now, Koji Uehara.

[soxfan17881]

I just can't vote against Ortiz. I mean, Koji is amazing, but Papi has been other-worldly in this series.

[Station 13]

Lester delivers a crucial game 5 to head home, hard to top that.

[jung]

I would probably swing over to Ortiz if he does something like drives in the winning run in game 6 or something like that. But for me regardless of how fantastic Ortiz has been so far, Lester has controlled this post season and has been the dominant figure in this WS. He beat Wainwright in game 1 and IMO had pressured Wainwright and Methany right over the edge by game 5. Who knows, it is entirely possible that the stupidity we are hearing from Methany and Wainwright after game 5 really has its genesis in the pressure Lester has brought to bear in two straight WS starts now.

 

Make no mistake about it, Wainwright cracked last night. Maybe for that matter Methany cracked as well under the relentless pressure of Lester on the mound. He made far fewer bad pitches especially last night than Wainwright made. If Wainwright thinks he was hitting good spots against a LH power hitter (and I actually think Wainwright thinks he was) he is sorely mistaken. I guess emphasis should be on the "sorely" at this point.

 

I suspect, both Wainwright and Methany were convinced that Lester could in fact be every bit as good in game 5 as he was in game 1 and they were right. In fact Lester was better in game 5 than he was in game 1.

 

However, since there seems no bottom to Methany's inability to deal with the importance of Ortiz to the Red Sox batting order, I suspect that even now there is the possibility that the Cards will continue to pitch to him giving Ortiz the opportunity to surge past Lester even in my mind. Maybe they have scouted him poorly and just do not understand that David is going to get to the kinds of pitches he is seeing in the locations he is seeing them in...even off the plate he is going to get to them. It is a great hitting performance without question. However I just do not have any idea what the f*** Methany is doing. Overlay being a Red Sox fan onto the Cards experience to this point in the WS. Would we not be going completely nuts on Methany at this point?