Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox: World Series Preview?

The Philadelphia Phillies begin their interleague series with the Boston Red Sox tonight.

Philadelphia has the best record in baseball while Boston has the third best (the Yankees are in between).

It is definitely possible that this series could be an early preview of what the World Series is going to look like.

However, since these teams haven't played yet, let's see how the teams matchup; not for this series, but for October if this scenario plays out.

Starting Pitching—Advantage: Phillies

Although there has been a recent injury to Roy Oswalt that has landed him on the DL until August, the Phillies still have the big three of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels. The Red Sox can counter that with Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and Clay Buchholz who are definitely solid in their own right.

The fate of these front three pitchers for each team will largely determine how the series goes even though there will probably be a fourth pitcher in a World Series rotation.

Nevertheless, the Phillies trio has a combined ERA of 2.58 whereas the Red Sox three have a combined ERA of 3.01. The Phillies starting pitching will have the advantage if these two teams meet in October.

Taking the fourth pitcher into consideration as well, the Phillies will have an even bigger advantage if Oswalt is able to return by then because the rest of the Red Sox starters have not played well recently.

Bullpen—Advantage: Draw

The reason that I call this a draw is because the Phillies bullpen has been phenomenal so far this season. However, some of the chief arms such as Antonio Bastardo and Michael Stutes do not have big game experience yet.

If the Red Sox can get to Jonathan Papelbon, they will be nearly unstoppable. In his postseason career, he has an ERA of 1.00. In fact, until last season, he had never given up an earned run in the postseason.

Overall, I think that the Phillies bullpen has done better so far this season, but this seems to be a draw in October because of Boston's experience.

Batting—Advantage: Red Sox

The Red Sox have a 31 point advantage in batting average (.277 versus .246). I know that some of this can be attributed to having a designated hitter as opposed to letting the pitcher bat.

However, by looking at the batting averages of all of the typical starters for both teams, if you match them up by position, Jimmy Rollins is the only one that has an average advantage over his counterpart Jed Lowrie.

The Red Sox have also out-muscled the Phillies hitting 87 home runs as opposed to 64 for the Phillies.

Even if you take out David Ortiz because he is normally the DH, the Red Sox still have 70 home runs as opposed to 64. As much as the Phillies have the advantage in pitching, the Red Sox have the advantage in batting.

So Who Wins?

I would have to say that the advantage lies with the Phillies.

Part of the reason for this is that the World Series is not right now. The Phillies bats have been unusually cold so far this year.

I believe that by October the bats will have heated up enough to lessen the advantage that the Red Sox have in batting, and when that is combined with their already stronger pitching staff, it seems as if the Phillies will have the overall advantage if this was the matchup.