lafko06's Blog

"When it comes down to it, they have more pressure than we do. They're the defending champions. We're a Team that finished in last place last year."

That's a quote from the Rays starting pitcher for Game 6 James Shields. For some one with no pressure he sure is talking about "Pressure".  In my view he is feeling the pressure of the game 5 meltdown and has some things to deal with.

How did he feel about being pushed back to Game 6?

Can he handle the home fans and the Sox offense?

If he struggles early will he be throwing fat strikes to try to get outs that the Sox can take advantage of?

This could be his "Lester" moment. A good pitcher who has a few mistakes that get taken out of the yard.

Can he live up to the "Big Game" label?

I think he'll be a little tight early and struggle. He would have been the Game 1 pitcher of the World Series if they held on to Game 5. With  7 outs left his mindset had to be favoring that and then he was crushed and now has to try to win it at home. The Sox went to Yankee stadium and handled the Yankee's in 2004 so the Trop won't scare them at all.

By the way what got him the title "Big Game"? According to his quote they are a last place team so how many Big Games could they have?