John Donovan of "Sports Illustrated" praised both teams for how unexpected their reaching the World Series was, saying that they were "not supposed to be here". He also called the series a "blast from the past" because both teams were very old franchises and had twice previously met in the World Series. In a breakdown of how the two teams matched up, he concluded that the edge was with the Red Sox in pitching and the Cardinals in defense and batting. Ultimately he concluded that Schilling and Martinez would be the "key to Series" and that the Red Sox would win in six games. Jim Molony of MLB.com, said he expected the series to play out very differently from the last time the two teams met in the World Series in . This was because both team offenses had been some of the best in the league during the season, while pitching had been very dominant in 1967.