I am amused when I see sportswriters make the comment that the Indian's bullpen is better than the Sox'. Chris has made the same mistake.

Comparing the team relief pitching stats, the Red Sox are better than the Indians in every meaningful category: ERA (3.1 vs 3.75), WHIP (1.2 vs 1.3); OBA (.226 vs .254). I'm not sure how the misconception came about but I've been reading and hearing it every day. Here's to hoping the Indians believe it, too!

Are you comparing all relievers? If you compare the top 2 non-closers (since you have to go through those guys to get to the closer).

CLE (Betancourt and Perez) ERA: 1.62, WHIP: 0.91; w/closer, WHIP:1.08

BOS (Delcarmen and Okajima) ERA: 2.15, WHIP: 0.99; w/closer, WHIP:0.91

Plus CLE's 1 and 2 starters average about 7 innings per game, while BOS's starters average about 6 innings per game. So expected WH (WHIP*expected IP) for non-closers in the bullpens are:

CLE=0.91; BOS=1.98

If you include closers:

CLE=2.16, BOS=2.97

Sounds like BOS has an advantage with their closer, but that's about it. Given the extra inning CLE gets from their starters, you would expect the BOS bullpen to give up 1 more run per game than CLE's bullpen.

Of course, this holds for games 1 and 2, not games 3 and 4 where CLE's pitchers go 6 innings per game instead of 7.

Your off a little. Carmona and Beckett both average about 6-2/3 innings per start. Sabathia is at 7, Schilling 6-1/3. Not a whole lot of difference and certainly not an inning difference. Plus, Papelbon can come in w/men on in the 8th if necessary and get out of it. I'm not so sure that Borowski can.

It's all moot if Cleveland's starters get run out of the game in the 5th, anyway...

The BOS bullpen looks a little bit weaker right now.

Sorry, that was gratiutious, but I couldn't help myself.

Though I am worried that Betancourt got hurt - it looked like he was stretching his back and shoulder on the mound.