2013 American League Championship Series Preview

After a long and grueling regular season and the divisional round of the playoffs, the American League Championship series is set to go between the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox. For the third consecutive year, the Tigers will play in the American League Championship Series. They clinched their berth with a 3-0 win over the Athletics in ALDS Game 5 on Thursday night. The Red Sox clinched their ALCS spot -- their first since 2008 -- with a win over the Rays in Game 4 of their ALDS matchup earlier this week.

The Red Sox have made it to the ALCS for the 5th time since 2000, winning two titles. The Tigers have played in now their third straight ALCS and 4th since 2000. Since 2000 the Tigers have made it to the World Series twice, and they lost both of them.

The Tigers and Red Sox are not division rivals, so they only played seven times during the regular season. The Tigers won four of the seven -- three of four at Comerica Park but only one of three at Fenway Park. The Red Sox outscored them 43-35 in the seven games, however. The best-of-7 ALCS starts Saturday night in Boston. These were the two highest-scoring teams in the AL this year, so expect to see a bunch of runs regardless of who's on the mound.

Here's the date, time and location of every scheduled game of this series:
October 12 Detroit Tigers vs. Boston Red Sox 8PM
October 13 Detroit Tigers vs. Boston Red Sox 8PM
October 15 Boston Red Sox vs. Detroit Tigers 4PM
October 16 Boston Red Sox vs. Detroit Tigers 8PM
October 17† Boston Red Sox vs. Detroit Tigers 8PM
October 19† Detroit Tigers vs. Boston Red Sox 4:30PM
October 20† Detroit Tigers vs. Boston Red Sox 8PM

The offenses are going to be involved in a slugfesst. that is pretty much a given with these two ball clubs. The Red Sox have an advantage in a few fielding positions, except 3rd base. Lets face it Miguel Cabrara is the best 3rd baseman in the American League. Pitching sort of balances itself out in this series. Detroit has an edge in starting pitching, especially near the top of that rotation. Boston though has a better bullpen, except for maybe the closer spot.

The Red Sox definitely have that look of being unbeatable right now. They score a ton of runs and they do a great job of preventing them as well. That said, I think the Tigers have the two best pitchers (Scherzer and Verlander) as well as the best position player (Cabrera) in the series on their roster. In a short series where star power gets more of a chance to shine than sheer depth, I think Detroit has a bit of an advantage. This series should be an awful lot of fun and I don't see it ending early. I'll take the Tigers in seven.