Projo Sox Blog

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The Red Sox now know what they had already guessed: they will start their playoff series against the Los Angeles Angels Thursday, and the New York Yankees will play the other division series Wednesday.

As the team with the best record in the league, the Yankees had the privilege of choosing which of two postseason series schedules they prefered. New York picked a series with games Wednesday and Friday, pushing the Red Sox to a Thursday-Friday schedule.

The Red Sox and Angels already assumed they would be starting Thursday, so the official announcement didn't make much of an impact.

"I think we thought we would do this all along. No, it doesn't really change anything," said Terry Francona. "We had our meeting today, and we think we know how we feel about things. We'll go through our workout. We'll talk to our players. We'll check on some guys' health, and we'll put our roster together."

Angels game 1 starter John Lackey said he was preparing for a Thursday start regardless, but could have accomodated Wednesday if the Yankees did the unexpected.

"We kind of assumed it was Thursday," Lackey said. "We've kind of been shooting for that from the get-go. But even if it was Wednesday, I still would have had an extra day [of rest]. So I'm going to be plenty rested either way."

Both Sox-Angels games will begin at 9:37 p.m. Eastern time.

-- DANIEL BARBARISI

 Tags  Boston Red Sox Dan Barbarisi John Lackey Los Angeles Angels Terry Francona

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