Rafaela reminds me a lot, both physically and the way he covers CF, of Paul Blair, who manned CF for the O's. That's about as good a compliment one could give to a CF.
Btw, the only good thing I can say about the BRUINS in these PO's is Jeremy Swayman. No goalie in recent memory has gotten less defensive support in these PO's, and yet he's near the top in goalie stats among PO goalies.
Isn't the cliche "pitching and defense win championships'' still valid? I guess having a respectable offense was implied. Anyway, the SOX have two of the three ingredients necessary.
Eflin(RH) vs Crawford
Duran
Abreu
Wong
Devers
O'Neill(DH)
Smith
Grissom
Gonzalez
Rafaela
Maybe some SOX offense will show up tonight; maybe not. Eflin's not a bad pitcher.
SOX starting pitching has been consistently good. Andrew Bailey has had a lot to do with that. His success with the Giants was no fluke.
Go SOX!
Gonzalez(SS)
Refsnyder(DH)
O'Neill
Devers
Wong
Cooper
Grissom
Duran
Rafaela
Gore(LH) vs Bello
Hopefully, the SOX and BRUINS can both win today and not make this a repeat of Friday.
Of the two I believe the SOX have a slightly better chance at victory today than the overmatched BRUINS.