“Red Sox, not State”; Or, “No, the W on the Red Cap does NOT stand for Shrub, it stands for the Nationals.”

Not so jittery anymore!

2007 AL Champions! We win the pennant!

Fox pointed out something I hadn’t remembered - Tito’s taking us to our 2nd WS in 4 years. I am *firmly* convinced that if we’d had Tito in 2002 or 2003…well now’s not the time.

When I think back on how I felt on Tuesday….never would have guessed. But I’m not surprised. Elimination games for us? That’s JUST where we want em baby!

I’m wicked jittery right now.

Wow. Paps got us out of that. Dice-K through 5, Okajima in the 6th & 7th, and Papelbon…

No elimination today!

Yep. Oh, and you’re worthless, Manny Delcarmen.

Also, Wake DID NOT pitch badly. I don’t care what the stats say. The bad-Manny gave up 2 of those runs, and in a sense ALL of them should be unearned because the ball bouncing off of Wake’s glove could have been called an error. In a regular season game, Tito lets Wake pitch out of the inning. It’s the post-season, so he pulled Wake. I’m fine with the decision. I don’t ever want to see MDC again. Irrational? I don’t care, and I’m REALLY NOT IN THE MOOD TO ARGUE.

(Nope. Obscenities back in.)

And now, A Yankees Haiku (written by a friend of my brother’s friend)

Sizemore’s rounding third
Here’s Damon’s throw to the plate
Bounce Bounce Bounce Bounce Bounce

Thank You*

*A voice rings “And what did you have to do with it, exactly?”**

**Quiet voice, or I’ll set the hounds on you. Or worse, I’ll set Julius*** on you.

***Lick lick lick lick lick.

Answer:Nothing Good.

Nothing good, that is, if you’re the Angels. We’re up 2-0 and on our way to CA. Rational note to Mike Scioscia: Take one too many chances on an extraordinary hitter like Manny Ramirez, and he will do something with them. Irrational note to Mike Scioscia: Dude. You called down the worst kind of baseball karma on yourself right there. What did you *think* was going to happen?

Well, I was going to make a preview post breaking down the matchups and noticing that Lackey did not have good numbers in Fenway, and that Beckett would likely take this game.

Aaaaaayyyyyuuuuuupppppp.

Beckett didn’t just take this game, he took it, slapped it around a bit, dressed it in a rookie hazing outfit, and sent the pictures to the Time: Man of the Year committee. There was never a time that he was not in control. Around the 4th or 5th inning, I began cursing that leadoff single because it was having the look of another “special” night. The other 3 hits were almost a relief. They were also totally irrelevant. Hard to play the running game when you can’t get on base, isn’t it.

If we’d somehow gotten Troy Glaus on the team, we’d have the 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 MVPS on the team.* Not that we need him - Mr. 2003 was right in view last night.

In other Red Sox news, Ortiz tied Varitek’s record for most post-season HRs. Tek I hate to break it to you, but the record’s about to be broken. Possibly as soon as Friday (Friday I meant Friday…nobody saw that, right?) night. (Tek won’t care, but I’m being polite.)

Youks’ first post-season hit is a HR.

Friday’s game is the game that most Red Sox mavens will allow that we might lose. Escobar (well in the Cy race) vs Matsuzaka (quite inconsistent towards the end). I think we’ll win, actually. I can’t find the stats, but I think Fenway bothers Escobar almost as much as it bothers Lackey. Free swingers like the Angels should help, not hinder, Daisuke, and he doesn’t have any particular trouble with steals that I recall. On the plus side for the Angels, they only used one bullpen man, and Ervin Santana looked surprisingly good. Possibly he’s finally coming back online, he’s been SO inconsistent this year. (Of course OUR bullpen is, oh yes, COMPLETELY rested…)

It’s also that this Angels team reminds me (and others, this isn’t original to me) of the 2005 Red Sox. Good enough to get there, injured down the stretch, enough bad luck and wariness to be beaten before they really started. And, I hope, running into a pitching juggernaut.

*(Er…..I’d have preferred the 2005, Jermaine Dye. Also there’s something deeply karmically unfair about David Eckstein having a WS MVP. And I’m not touching anything relating to Troy Glaus. Unless we go tangentially related and say that I liked Frank Thomas on tv last night, and he should go into commentating after his career finishes.)

Know how I was slightly worried? NEVER MIND.

2007 AL EAST CHAMPS! Homefield advantage for at least the ALDS. Bring on the Angels, baby. (Special tip of the cap to the Orioles, who scored 3 runs in the 9th off of Mariano Rivera to tie the game, and Melvin Mora who hit a walk-off *bunt* single in the 10th to finish off the Os.)

First off, congratulations to the Washington Nationals. They are at 72-87, which is *more* wins than last year. Sweet!

Then there’s the Red Sox. We’ve clinched (yes yes yes yes yes!) The magic number for the division is 2. I’m a bit concerned - the Yankees are not going to lose again this year (the Orioles? Please.) We’ve got Dice-K tomorrow (we need a good outing please,) Wake on Sat, and Schilling on Sun. Sunday shouldn’t be a problem - Curt is in full post-season form and Garza is fine like most Twins starters are (wow that scouting staff,) but nothing special. Not Santana, or Liriano for that matter (remember him?) Dice-K…who knows. Wake….really who knows. The bad stretch is due to come to an end. Just in time, right? 2 out of 3 is needed. It’s definitely doable, I’m just not sure we’ll actually do it. We should, but we’ll see. The problem is the one we had tonight - the Twins have an elite closer. This is not Al Reyes (that schmuck), Joe Nathan can pitch. He’s hung with Mo in the past as the best closer in the AL, and I suspect the reason we haven’t heard much about him this year is because the Twins have gone nowhere. So all of a sudden 9th inning comebacks are a problem. Witness tonight. Gardenhire is not stupid, and there’s nothing to save Nathan for. He’ll bring him out for 4 outs. Of course there’s nothing to risk his arm for either.

Or we can solve the problem by scoring lots of runs early, and never see Nathan again this year. I like that idea better.

Smashing. The temptation to light oneself on fire is nigh indescribable. Or better yet, light the Red Sox on fire. I understand there are laws against that sort of thing though, so I suppose we’ll refrain.

See, it’s only fun having a spoiler when it’s the Nats going against the Mets. NOT when it’s the Blue Jays against us.