The 2003 ALCS presents two teams with very versatile offenses. The two teams hit for average; this means if they go up against pitchers with great control, they can still put baserunners on. The get on base; if the pitcher doesn't have good control, they're willing to take pitches and create run scoring situations through walks. They hit for power; if a pitcher is totally shutting them down, one mistake can turn the game around. You saw this last one on Monday night in Oakland with Manny's HR.

The Yankees, however, are more versatile at actually winning games. As noted before, the Red Sox have troubles on the road, going only 42-39. They also don't do well when a left starts against them, going 26-27 on the year. The Yankees, however, played .600 ball whether a lefty or right started against them (they did very well against lefties), and they had the best road record in the American League. The environment of the game matters more to the Red Sox than the Yankees.

And I believe this gives the Yankees an advantage. The Yankees rotation, for example, has Andy Pettitte starting two games in Yankee Stadium, forcing the Red Sox to go against a lefty on the road. The Yankees ability to play well on the road gave them five of the nine games played in Boston this year.

The key for the Red Sox is to put the ball in play against the starters. The porous Yankee defense will give them runs. And runs will force Torre to his suspect middle relief. However, the old men of the Yankees rotation will be very well rested, so I suspect they'll be at the top of their game, and that means lots of strikeouts and few walks. The Sox will have to look to hit the mistakes.

The Red Sox defense isn't much better, so the Yankees would be advised to try to make contact against the Sox pitchers as well. But the real key will be getting seven innings out of the starters, so they can bring in Rivera to finish off the games.

On another note, Clemens-Pedro in game 3 probably means Pedro-Clemens in game 7. I'd love to see the series go seven just for that.

It's going to be a wild one, fasten your seat belts!

Update: Stephen Kramer rightly points out that if the Yankees were 5-4 at Fenway, then the Red Sox were 5-5 at Yankee Stadium. The Red Sox were 3-2 when the Yankees started Clemens or Mussina, 2-3 when they started Pettitte or Wells.