Sometimes cliches are right. For example, the one that says
"a team will only go as far in the postseason as its pitching will take it " was once again proven true in the 109th Fall Classic. Neither the Red Sox nor the Cardinals hit much (Boston .211; St. Louis .224), but the pitching stats told the real story. Red Sox hurlers posted a 1.84 ERA over the six games, while Cardinal pitchers limped home with a 4.15 mark. And despite his fine performance in Game Two,
Michael Wacha actually ended up with the
worst ERA on the Redbird staff (7.45). Outside of
Craig Breslow, Boston's arms were stellar—with
Jon Lester leading the way among starters with a 0.59 ERA. Moreover,
Koji Uehara,
Junichi Tazawa,
Felix Doubront and
Brandon Workman combined to throw 15 innings
giving up one earned run and only 8 hits. The offense found just enough "moments" to deliver big hits to put
The Carmine Hose over the top—but the 8th World Series title was clearly a 'Call To Arms'.
