Dragnet playoffs: Angels at Sox

Let’s get the engines revving folks, the playoffs are officially on.

Tonight, well, this evening? Or should we just call it this supper-time? Whatever. Red Sox fans get to watch a potential Cy Young winner head to the mound for Boston, facing off against a legitimate ace from the left coast. Here, as always, is your Baseball-Reference preview.

Josh Beckett goes back to the mound in the playoffs for the first time since 2003. Think he’s excited to be back on the big stage? It won’t take long to find out.

That, of course, is where the home field Fenway factor kicks in. Because unlike Josh Beckett, who’s been outstanding at home all year (we’re forgetting about that last throw-in start against the Twins), Jon Lackey’s starts in Boston have been an unabetted disaster.

How much of a disaster, you ask? Try 0-2 with an ERA above 8. Ouch.

The question becomes one of big game performance, and whether Lackey can put aside those frustrations in the heat of the moment. Beckett certainly has in the past - see 2003, Yankees - but Lackey is a bit less battle-proven.

That doesn’t mean he won’t right his personal pitching ship in the Fens tonight. It just means that Boston’s fans could become a factor, which is exactly what Terry Francona, Theo Epstein and the rest of the Red Sox organization had to be hoping for in gaining home field advantage with the league’s best record in the season’s closing days.

For his part, Beckett certainly seems to be focused. He claims to be patterning his postseason routine after Curt Schilling’s circa 2001 and 2004. He knows how much each batter makes a difference from his own experience in 2003, and he’s had to wait three years to get back near the stage he was on then in Florida.

Now that he has the stage, with the three-ring circus that is a postseason Fenway atmosphere circling around him, will Beckett turn up the heat as he has in the past?

We’re about to find out. Buckle up folks, what Sox fans hope will be a long ride starts. Now.

– Cameron Smith