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If Beckett regains form against Rays in ALCS, Francona will look like genius Red Sox manager Terry Francona is gambling that Josh Beckett will regain command of his pitches late in the ALCS. It’s hard to envision anything other than an American League Championship Series filled with close games decided by pitching and defense. That’s how it was during the AL East dogfight between the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox, and as Rays manager Joe Maddon said the other day, “I think you can expect a lot of what you saw in the regular season; I do.’’ Of the 18 games the Red Sox and Rays have played (10-8 Rays), eight were decided by two runs or less, and three more were three-run games. And in those 18 games, one side scored three runs or less 14 times, and there were two shutouts and two 2-1 games. The trends were even stronger at... [read full story]
