Game Preview: Sox @ Cleveland GM3

Beckett (13-3, 3.41) vs. Carmona (12-4, 3.44)
Jacobs Field 705

While last night's matchup between two of the best starters in the league had 'pitcher's duel' written all over it, and ultimately delivered on that promise, conversely tonight's game looks like a mismatch.

How than be, you say, when both teams are throwing another pair of excellent starters out there, Boston's Josh Beckett, who leads the majors in wins and is 9th in the AL in ERA, and Cleveland's Fausto Carmona, who ranks 2nd in the league in wins and 10th in ERA?

Simple, because the Sox are so far inside Carmona's head they can tell him what he's thinking.

Sure Carmona is a quality starter this year, but RSN cannot forget what he was last season--namely an atrocious reliever who got lit up like a Macanudo nearly every time he tried to close a game, a streak that began when David Ortiz hit a three-run homer off him in the 9th inning of a game on July 31st that won the game for Boston, 9-8.

Two nights later Fausto allowed a bases loaded double to Mark Loretta to blow a 5-4 Cleveland lead as the Sox won 6-5, a demoralizing defeat for Carmona and the Tribe; it was his second of three consecutive blown saves that dropped his record to 1-6.

By the end of the season Carmona's record had fallen to 1-10, and in the offseason the Indians pulled a Julian Tavarez with him, flipping the flammable reliever into a starter.

To his credit Carmona has responded much better than Julie did, but something tells me that in the back of his mind lingers a little gremlin whispering "this is the team that crushed your spirit last season, and they want to do it again", and it will be up to Fausto to overcome those demons and defeat the team that hastened his demise as a closer.

With Beckett a modest 2-2 with a 4.68 ERA in his last four starts, he should be plenty motivated to put the alternate win/loss string behind him and start heading towards 20-something victories that will get him a shot at winning his first Cy Young.

Carmona will be motivated, too.

But those little mind gremlins are tough to ignore.

Go Sox!