After the Boston Red Sox’s Game Two Loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday, left fielder Jonny Gomes’s most talked about locker room quote was, “Nobody expected us to sweep.” Well, one guy certainly did (Me). The destiny of the Red Sox is completely in their own hands and they let an easy win slip through their fingers all because manager John Farrell pulled John Lackey out a few pitches too early with one out and runner on first and second base in the seventh inning. The Cardinals do deserve a bit of credit as Matt Carpenter and Carlos Beltran knocked Red Sox reliever Craig Breslow around, but nothing about it seemed like the Red Sox couldn’t rebound from their mistakes until Trevor Rosenthal recorded the final strike out on Daniel Nava to even up the series. So it’s on to St. Louis we go with the Cardinals hosting the next three games. The first leg of the stay features a pair of roughed up pitchers in the postseason, Jake Peavy for the Red Sox and Joe Kelly for the Cardinals. Both will need to figure out a way to be stellar tonight.

Of the two, Peavy has the worst luck on his side entering this game. In his career he has yet to register a win in the postseason dating back to 2005 as a member of the San Diego Padres, although his first round matchup against the Tampa Bay Rays this season was rather extraordinary. As a former triple crown, Cy Young-winning pitcher in the National League Peavy has a slight advantage over Kelly in that he knows how to manage a game against a NL team; however, this is certainly not the kind of Cardinals team that he matched up against prior to his trade to the Chicago White Sox back in 2009. Peavy only has nine games of experience against the Cardinals in his career in which he has gone 3-4 with a 2.97 ERA and 61 strikeouts. As long as he can keep his strikeouts high and his ERA down, he should be fine, but that’s easier said than done. As shown in his last appearance against the Detroit Tigers in the American league Championship Series, Peavy struggles against high-powered offensive teams. And when he does, he really struggles to the tune of seven earned runs in three innings. The Cardinals finished the regular season with the best run differential in the NL for a reason, so it will be up to the Red Sox offensive to tag Kelly for as many runs as possible. How will they do that? Left-handed hitting. David Ortiz will be taking over at first base and Mike Napoli will be hitting the bench. As risky as this may seem for the Red Sox, it’s actually the best scenario. Ortiz has only made one error at first base since 2007 and his bat is too high of a value to pull from the lineup. As for Napoli, as great as he has been in Game One and the 2011 World Series against the Cardinals, his knees are too much of a liability to put him in as the team’s catcher, which is why it will be more beneficial for the switch-hitting Jarrod Saltalamacchia to remain as the backstop. One guy who really needs to step up is Stephen Drew. While his defense has been stellar, his offense has been in the garbage. This game, of all games is the one where he really needs to prove his worth.

Luckily for Kelly the Cardinals bats have woken up. Holliday has been the undisputed catalyst of the offense for the Red Birds thus far, and the rib contusion Beltran suffered in Game One is hardly slowing him down. All the rest of the team really needs to do is not collapse on the defensive side of the ball in order to give Kelly a chance to build a level of confidence and go deep into this game. In three games this season Kelly has been borderline unstoppable against the AL. In three games he has pitched 11 1/3 innings, striking out seven while only allowing one run (0.79 ERA) on eight hits and four walks. What should be pointed out is that Kelly didn’t start any of those games. It’s hard to say how this will affect him in his start tonight, but if his performance against the Los Angeles Dodgers is any bit of an example, he’s in for a rough night.

Neither pitcher really has what it takes to dominate a game. Both pitchers were great during the regular season; however, the postseason has been their kryptonite. Expect the offense for both teams to come out hot and for each teams’ bullpen to get some work in early late in fourth inning for the Red Sox and possibly early in the fifth inning for the Cardinals. If the score is close by the time the sixth inning rolls around it’s quite possible that the Cardinals will take a lead in the series mainly for the fact that their bullpen is stronger and a few of the Red Sox relief pitchers are prone to giving up late-inning runs with the exception of Koji Uehara. However, if the Red Sox are able to get an early lead off of Kelly and the Cardinals, the series will be in their favor. It’s all a bit of a mess, but only because this matchup is riddled with inconsistency.