By Sean McAdam
Special to ESPN.com
Momentum, Earl Weaver once said, is the next day's starting pitcher.
Using that analogy, both the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland A's are well-positioned to move forward as they head to a Game 5 showdown in their American League Division Series tonight, tied at two games apiece. The Red Sox will start Pedro Martinez while the A's will go with lefty Barry Zito.
Between them, Martinez and Zito have won three of the last four Cy Young Awards in the American League. Each won 14 games this season.
But if the pitching matchup rates a tossup, the Red Sox hold two clear edges.
After throwing a season-high 130-pitches in a Game 1 no-decision, Martinez will be working on regular rest. Zito, on the other hand, will be pitching with just three days' rest.
Moreover, the edge clearly swung Boston's way over the weekend. After the A's took the first two games of the series at home -- including a 5-4, 12-inning win in Game 1 which seemed to send the Red Sox into a day-after tailspin -- the Sox reboounded at Fenway Park with dramatic last at-bat victories, the kind which typified their season.
Over the course of the season, the Sox won nearly one-quarter of their games in their final turn at bat. Now that October is here, the Red Sox aren't about to mess with the formula.
"We've been fighting and scratching all season long,'' said Boston Game 4 starter John Burkett.
Until David Ortiz' two-run double in the eighth inning Sunday, the Sox still hadn't demonstrated the ability to produce the big hit when they needed it most. In four games, they have exactly three hits with runners in scoring position.
Ortiz' hit was his first of any kind. Cleanup hitter Manny Ramirez has been limited to two singles, thanks to brilliant work by the Oakland advance scouts and pitching coach Rick Peterson.
If the offense remains a question mark, no such doubt surrounds Martinez, who was so eager to contribute before Game 5 that he told manager Grady Little that he was available for Game 3.
In the bottom of the eighth inning of Game 3, Fenway buzzed with the sight of Martinez warming in the bullpen. If the Sox had managed to score in the bottom of the inning, Martinez would have been called upon to get the final three outs.
They didn't, so he wasn't. But it was the thought that counted. Martinez offered his services again Sunday, but Little, though perhaps sorely tempted, politely refused.
"I can't make myself do that,'' said Little.
Martinez has pitched only one Game 5 Division Series game before. In 1999, after coming out of a Game 1 start with a back strain, he returned with six no-hit innings, despite being unable to top 87 mph with his fastball.
Tonight, the Sox will have him from the start.
"It's a great feeling, knowing we've got our best guy on the mound,'' said second baseman Todd Walker. "That's what we wanted.''
Meanwhile, the A's turn to Zito, who completely stifled the Red Sox bats with seven innings of one-run ball in Game 2. Zito will have the added edge of throwing in the twilight shadows -- the game will have a 5 p.m. local start time in the Bay Area -- making his overhand hammer curve that much more difficult to pick up.
But that might be mitigated by the fact that Zito will be, for the first time in his career, pitching on just three days' rest. The A's were already shorthanded when the series began, having lost lefty Mark Mulder with a fracture in his right hip in August.
Sunday, Tim Hudson left after just one inning with a strained oblique muscle, leaving Zito as the lone healthy ace of Oakland's Big Three.
"They have to feel comfortable with Barry going for them,'' said Red Sox reliever Alan Embree, "Even on short rest, he's no slouch. He has a Cy.''
"We didn't do a very good job against him last time,'' acknowledged Walker. "We've got to do better.''
Finally, the A's confidence level must be questioned. In each of their last three Division Series appearances, Oakland held a series lead -- leading the New York Yankees one-game-to-none in 2000, 2-0 in 2001 and taking a 2-to-1 edge over the Minnesota Twins last October. Each time, the A's lost the fifth and deciding game.
Sunday's Game 4 loss to the Red Sox, in fact, was the A's eighth straight defeat with a chance to send a team home for good.
"We know how hard it is just to win one game,'' said shortstop Miguel Tejada.
The manner in which the A's dropped the two games at Fenway can't be of any comfort. Saturday, they forfeited two runs when Tejada and Eric Byrnes failed to touch home plate. Sunday, closer Keith Foulke, blew just his second save since the All-Star break. Both have come against the Sox.
But the A's owned the best home record in the American League, and have already beaten the Sox twice in two tries there.
"They've got to come to our house now,'' said outfielder Jose Guillen. "It's a different story there.''
After three failed tries at Game 5, the A's could use a different ending.
Sean McAdam of the Providence (R.I.) Journal covers baseball for ESPN.com.