This isn’t time for a rah-rah speech. The Sox have the home crowd and the momentum. Boston has come back before. They will do it again.
Enjoy the Videos!

And one more for good measure.

The Sox win tonight, the series is over.

Go Sox!

The Red Sox may have finally turned the corner on this series. Their offense began to show some signs of life, putting seven runs on the scoreboard. The Sox were patient at the plate, looking at a lot of pitches and capitalizing on C.C.’s mistakes. It was nice to see Pedroia bust out of his slump and Youk continue his great series. Boston had opportunities early in the game to jump out to a big lead, but a couple of bases-loaded double plays and Manny admiring his long single off the wall just a little too long thwarted the rallies.

Coco Crisp may have played his last game of the ALCS. He played another horrible game: 0 for 5, 2 strikeouts, 4 runners left on base, and he couldn’t get down a sacrifice bunt resulting in another key strikeout. How does Francona not sit this guy for game six? Maybe a game on the bench will light a fire under him and get him to refocus for the World Series. Even if Ellsbury comes in and stinks just like Coco, he is the Red Sox centerfielder of the future. Let’s get him some playoff experience.

Before Boston fans get too excited about last night, let’s remember that Chocolate Cake Sabathia was pitching. This guy was an All-Star this year. He is the front runner for the Cy Young award. But when the playoffs start, he turns to crap. Maybe the C.C. stands for Chokey Chunkbutt?

The Sox looked better last night, but they were the beneficiaries of several Cleveland mistakes: Grady Sizemore dropping Youk’s triple, passed balls, Rafael Perez throwing away a sure double play. All these things padded the Sox lead. Boston is going to have to play better the rest of the way.

I wish game six was tonight. Fenway Park. Crowd Buzzing. Schilling on the mound. Sox with some momentum.

Buckle up! This series is just getting started.

Big game in Cleveland tonight. Dice K is hoping to rebound from his ordinary performance against Anaheim in the ALDS. Cleveland, for some odd reason, is going with Jake Westbrook. I haven’t been this excited about a possible Boston rout since John Lackey pitched at Fenway.

Cleveland is a patient team that jumps on the fastball and can pile on runs. With Dice K on the mound, they are sure to get a healthy dose of off-speed pitches that paint the outside corner. Dice K doesn’t need to go out tonight and throw a no-hitter. He needs to play his game and mix up his pitches. If he pitches decent, the Red Sox will win.

Jake Westbrook, on the other hand, might be the worst game-three starter in the ALCS since the Red Sox started Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd in 1986. Westbrook gave up 9 hits and 6 runs in 5 innings against a mediocre team calling themselves the Yankees. Boston needs to get on this guy early in the game. This will keep the always-loud Cleveland fans quiet. And when the Indians resort to releasing another swarm of Lake Erie midges on the Sox, it will be too late.

Well… that’s five hours of my life that I will never get back. Thank you, Eric Gagne and Javy Lopez. The Sox losing by a touchdown in 11 innings was not what I envisioned for Game 2. This was supposed to be a duel between two big-game starting pitchers. Runs were supposed to be at a premium. Instead we saw two very patient teams at the plate and 19 runs on the scoreboard.

Both teams did a great job of not chasing pitches outside the strike zone, and they were forcing Schilling and Carmona to beat them. We all know how that ended up. Both pitchers lasted less than 5 innings, and this game became a battle of the bullpens. For 4 innings, both teams’ bullpens were on cruise control. It was like every pitcher that came into the game transformed into Mariano Rivera (the good one of 4 years ago, not the sucky one of recent memory) to shut down both teams’ hitters.

This was lining up perfectly for a dramatic 2004ish sequence to end the game. Bottom of the ninth inning, 2 outs. Pedroia draws a walk. Ellsbury comes in to pinch run and steals second base. Youkilis comes to bat with a runner in scoring position. This was supposed to be followed by a line drive into right field. Sox win. Instead, Youk battles for about 47 pitches and ends up smacking a line drive right at Grady Sizemore to end the inning.

Two things bothered me about this AB. First, Youk needed to play for the base hit. He needed to shorten his swing and just make decent contact. Instead he does a full out gorilla swing and drives it right at Sizemore. The second thing was that Sizemore did a cheesy fake dive to catch this ball. He was going all out to make it onto SportsCenter’s Top Ten Plays of the Day. Just catch the ball and get off the damn field.

This was of course followed by Gagne and Lopez making their grand entrances in the most important inning of the series. For me, this was like watching two cars speeding right at each other. I knew it wasn’t going to end well for either one, but strangely I couldn’t look away at the impending collision. We all know what happened next. Gagne gets our hopes up with a quick strikeout. This is the point when I actually thought for a second that Gagne might pitch a decent inning for once. Poof! End of the illusion. A single to Sizemore and a walk to Asdrubal “I have too many consonants in my first name” Cabrera, and Gagne is out of the game. He now has the rest of the night free to scare the children of Boston with his nasty facial hair. Lopez enters and gives up a quick RBI single to Nixon. The flood gates open, and a close, hard-fought game turns into a blowout.

A wise man once wrote, “Said woman take it slow, It’ll work itself out fine. All we need is just a little patience.” O.K. that was Axl Rose, but the point is, I’m out of patience with Gagne. He has been given every opportunity to succeed and has failed miserably every time. Gagne, you were welcomed to the jungle… you can leave now.

It’s hard to get too excited about the Boston Red Sox playing the Cleveland Indians in the ALCS. How do we root against these guys? The Indians play hard. They have some great pitchers and some legitimate All-Stars. They have loyal fans. And they are not the Yankees.

But, it’s the playoffs. Winner goes to the World Series. Time to leave it all out on the field. And it’s time to show Cleveland why Boston has, and will always have, the better team and more passionate fans. Boston fans have been way too quiet prior to this series. If the Yankees were coming to town, Sox fans would already have been on a four-day bender of cheap beer and trash talk. The question I have is this: Why show any restraint against this team and their fans? Let’s make this the most hostile environment they have ever played in. Boston has been in this position before and as recently as 2004. Heck, every home game at Fenway has a playoff feel to it. This whole experience is new to the Indians. They are young and primed to be overwhelmed by the playoff atmosphere. The Sox and their fans need to make the most of this home-field advantage and start the series with a sweep of the first two games.

The Indians have a young lineup featuring the always-dangerous Grady Sizemore. This guy is a complete five-tool player. Mix in Travis Hafner, Ryan Garko, and the ageless wonder Kenny Lofton and you have a team that can hurt you in many ways. Cleveland is coming off a big series with New York where they smacked the Yankees around. They played well in that series, getting great performances by Fausto Carmona and the Lake Erie Midges, but let’s be honest: the Yankees sucked. They definitely did not play like the team that went on a tear after the All Star break. How bad was it for the Yankees? Derek Jeter batted .176 and hit into 3 double plays. This guy is supposed to be Mr. October, and he looked more like A-Rod than A-Rod. Anytime you can beat New York 3 out of 4 games it’s impressive. The Indians are a good team, but they are positioned for a letdown.

Let’s look at the game one starters: Josh Beckett vs. C.C. Sabathia

These are two 27-year-old potential Cy Young winners who have carried their teams and been the aces of their respective staffs. The difference between the two is that Beckett is smarter, more fiery, and is a past World Series MVP. Beckett has already thrown three complete-game shutouts in the playoffs during his career. That is the second most EVER! Beckett lives for these games.

C.C. Sabathia is a big pitcher. When I say big, I mean FAT. This guy is 6′5″, 250 lbs. He should be playing tight-end for the Browns. Have you seen this guy lately? Hat crooked on his head, pants that look like they are used to cover the Goodyear blimp. He does not look like a professional athlete. I wonder if C.C. stands for Chocolate Cake.

I break down the rest of the match-ups like this:

Offense: Papi, Lowell, and a resurgent Manny vs. Sizemore, Hafner, and Garko. Advantage, Boston.

Speed: Julio Lugo and Coco Crisp vs. Grady Sizemore and Kenny Lofton. Slight edge to Cleveland.

Team Defense: Coco, Youkilis, Pedroia, Lowell, and Varitek vs. Sizemore, Peralta, and Garko. Edge Boston.

Starting pitching: Beckett, Schilling, and Dice K vs. Sabathia, Carmona and Westbrook. I want to see how Chocolate Cake and Carmona do on the big stage. Slight Edge to Boston.

Bullpen: Borowski vs. Papelbon. Borowski has been effective all year long, but he doesn’t intimidate anybody. Papelbon is the best closer in baseball. Advantage Boston.

There you have it. Boston will outclass, out-pitch and outperform Cleveland this series. They have the clutch performers and the experience on their side.

Remember you heard it here first.

Game one of the American League Divisional Series is scheduled to start on Wednesday. Everyone knows that the Boston Red Sox are going to win. The Fair or Foul question of the week is:

How many games is it going to take for the Red Sox to advance to the ALCS?