The Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox are two of the oldest franchises in professional sports. Before the latest realignment in Major League Baseball, they were rivals in the American League East and provided for some great games.
Surprisingly, they have never faced each other in a playoff series.
This season, the Detroit-Boston matchup has been pretty even. The Tigers took three of four at Comerica Park, but Boston took two of three at Fenway, including a 20-4 whitewash of last year's American League champs.
After finishing last in the American League East in 2012, the Red Sox underwent some changes in the offseason that shot them to the top of the American League. Manager John Farrell was traded to Boston from Toronto, and Mike Napoli and Shane Victorino were brought in to add some offensive spark.
The Red Sox have a very well-rounded pitching rotation: Jon Lester, an improved John Lackey, Clay Buchholz, and Jake Peavy. Peavy was acquired from the Chicago White Sox this summer in a three-way trade that also sent star rookie Jose Iglesias to the Tigers.
The Tigers have one of the best rotations in baseball and should be able to keep some of the Boston bats in check. It is unclear what the rotation will look like in the ALCS, but the best bet would be that Max Scherzer and Anibal Sanchez start the first two games in Fenway, followed by Justin Verlander and then Doug Fister back in Motown.
While the Tigers boast names like Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, and Victor Martinez, Boston may have the most explosive playoff performer of the past decade in designated hitter David Ortiz.
Ortiz had a monster series against the Tampa Bay Rays, and it appears as if nobody can slow him down. He will be up against some of the best arms in the world in this series, and it should provide for some excellent baseball.
Napoli is another guy that the Tigers may have trouble shutting down. He tore up Detroit as a Texas Ranger in the 2011 ALCS and has been hitting the ball hard again.
This should be a higher-scoring series than the series with Oakland. The Tiger bats are finally coming around, Boston's pitching rotation is not as consistent as Oakland's, and Fenway Park is much more of a hitter's park than O.co Coliseum; however, Boston's lineup is much more explosive than Oakland's.
This should be an incredible ALCS and it will be very hard to predict. These two have arguably been the best playoff teams in the American League in the past ten years, combining for four World Series appearances.
If the Tigers can keep improving offensively and Scherzer and Verlander pitch like they did against the Athletics, Detroit has a good chance of returning to the World Series for the second consecutive year. If they falter, however, there is little room for error against a very dangerous Boston Red Sox team.