ALCS: Red Sox @ Tigers Game 4 Preview

The first three games of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) have made this series one of the most highly contested and entertaining championship series of all time.

Each of the three games have been decided by one mistake that leads to one run.  In the last game of the series for example, it was Justin Verlander who handed Boston Red Sox first baseman Mike Napoli an accidental down-the-middle pitch that led to a Red Sox 1-0 lead in the seventh.  That lead was good enough to give them the game.

The Red Sox now have a 2-1 advantage over the Detroit Tigers.  Despite this advantage in the numbers,  the Sox and Tigers are still in a dead heat for the AL Championship.  Over three games the Red Sox have scored seven runs compared to the Tigers six.  That is just one way to illustrate how highly-contested and evenly matched this series is, despite the Red Sox’s series advantage.

The Tigers will get to play at home in Game 4.  However, the idea of  home-field advantage seems to be nonexistent in this series, with each team already beating the other on their opponent’s home turf.  So the game will likely come down to which team slips up first, which is an uneasy determinate to a bettor.

The Red Sox will be turning to Jake Peavy to pitch them into a huge 3-1 lead in the series.  The veteran right-hander was acquired by Boston before the trade deadline in order to beef up their pitching rotation for the playoffs.  Now Peavy will need to do the job he was brought in to do.

Peavy has never pitched in an ALCS game before.  He has no experience with this type of pressure.  He did, however, give up only one run over 5 2/3 innings in Game 3 of the ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Dough Fister does not have a blistering fastball that registers in the upper 90s like Verlander.  Nor does he register strikeout after strike out like Max Scherzer, but he can still be just as dominating as his Tigers cohorts with a different style.  He forces batters to make poor contact with the ball and lets his teammates finish the job.

In his last outing, Fister gave up three runs to the Oakland As in Game 4 of that series.  However, he has shutout the Red Sox before and away from home, no less, back on Labor Day.

Regardless of where you go, the sportsbooks all have this game being held under some tight odds, with a moneyline set at 10 points apart at all the top betting sites. The game is tonight at 8 p.m. ET.  It will be aired nationally on FOX.