Series preview: Sox @ Cleveland

Red Sox (7-6) at Cleveland Indians (5-7)
2 game series at Progressive Field

Game 1 Monday 7PM ESPN
Lester (1-2, 4.50) vs. Westbrook (1-1, 2.76)
Game 2 Tuesday 7PM
Wakefield (1-0, 3.27) vs. Byrd (0-2, 11.05)

What to watch for: Sox return to the scene of 2007 ALCS
Bitter Cleveland fans will be booing in full force tonight as the Red Sox make their first trip back to the Jake by the Lake, now renamed Progressive Field, for the first time since staging their miraculous comeback from a 3-1 deficit in the 2007 American League Championship Series.

Who to watch for: DH Travis Hafner
The slugger known as Pronk has yet to get off this season (2HR, 8BI), so you know it's just a matter of time before he starts mashing. Hopefully that time won't be this series.

Preview:
The name of the ballpark may have changed, but the Sox hope the good feelings they have from the last time they played here are still lingering as they take on the Indians tonight in a rematch of the ALCS.

Every Nation member worth his membership card knows that the Sox came back from a 3 games to 1 deficit to win the series last fall, using that emotional win as a spring board to a World Series sweep of the over matched Rockies. But the odd thing about that is that despite the outcome of the postseason for both clubs, neither team made many significant changes in the offseason.

That lack of turnover will make this series all the more interesting, as basically the same cast of characters will face each other in this mini 2-game set. Of course Mike Lowell will not participate, and unfortunately Boston won't face CC Sabathia or Fausto Carmona, whom they treated like human pinatas in their four ALCS starts.

The Sox will have to face Jake Westbrook, the righty who did pitch well against them in Cleveland's Game 3 victory and pitched pretty decently but took the loss in the Gme 7, series-clinching triumph. So you can bet revenge will be on his mind when he takes the hill tonight.

Meanwhile Boston starter Jon Lester will return to the site of one of his most memorable professional moments. It was here last July 23rd that Lester returned to the majors after battling cancer and missing the better part of a year while receiving treatments, and he pitched a gem (6IP, 5H, 2ER, 3BB, 5K) in front of his parents and fans, becoming an inspiration for millions of cancer survivors world wide.

But all that won't matter tonight. All that matters is both teams, who shared the ML lead with 96 victories last season, are struggling to find their footing this early in the season, mired in mediocrity and riddles with slumping superstars (Ortiz & Sabathia) and more questions than answers.

Of course not all the answers will be found in this micro series, the only 2 games Boston is scheduled to play in Cleveland this season.

But they know they'd better get their acts together if the want to meet again here in October.