After a seemingly endless layoff, the Red Sox will finally get back to work Friday afternoon.
Their opponent in the American League division series is one Red Sox Nation knows well. Boston and Tampa Bay played one another 19 times this season, and six of those contests were decided by a mere one run.
It has been a bit of a journey already for the Rays, who took care of the Rangers in a one-game tiebreaker before dispatching Terry Francona‘s upstart Indians in the Wednesday’s wild-card game.
Tampa Bay allowed just two runs between those two victories, proving that the team’s perennial strength — pitching — is just as dominant as ever.
The Red Sox will see Matt Moore and David Price — Tampa’s top two starters — in Games 1 and 2 of what NESN.com’s Zack Cox and Ricky Doyle both believe will be a battle of a series. The matchup between the two division foes was the centerpiece of this week’s MLB podcast, with the hosts also touching on the electric atmosphere surrounding this week’s win-or-go-home wild-card round and offering their predictions for which teams will emerge as baseball’s final four.
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