Wow. I was surprised to see that the Red Sox scored more runs in the first four innings than the Rockies had allowed to the Diamondbacks in the entire NLCS.
Actually, there's still a part of me that's surprised to see the Sox are still playing at all. I believed that they could come back from the 3-1 deficit to the Indians, but I'm not so cocky as to say I expected it would happen. Despite what many people believe about Red Sox fans, we're still not terribly accustomed to this whole winning thing.
Beckett looked great (yes, again) but I cringed at the sight of him taking the mound in the seventh inning. I don't care if his pitch count was low, I want him as rested as possible for Game 5. For anyone who occasionally looks at Lugo and wishes the Sox had kept Hanley Ramirez, there is nothing more valuable to a team looking to win the World Series than a pitcher who can dominate in the postseason.
How great was it to see Pedroia go deep in his first at bat? Unbelievable. How could anyone not like this guy?
I'm more and more impressed with Ortiz the more I watch him in the playoffs. He's making amazing adjustments given the problem with his knee by coming out of his standard crouch while still smacking singles and doubles. Even though he's far from a speedster, he's been going full throttle on the basepaths, almost to the point where people I was watching the game with were begging him to coast a little bit. With that said, I still loved seeing him score from first base on Manny's "single" the other night. And speaking of that play...
Why can't science produce a remote that would allow us all to mute Tim McCarver? I think that every Red Sox fan would agree that Manny should run hard and should have legged out a double. The outrage from McCarver makes it sound like Manny dug up Abner Doubleday's grave and shat on his remains. It's so much fun watching the games in a room with fifty or sixty other Red Sox fans where you can barely hear the announcers, but you can always hear people say things like "Did McCarver just say that last pitch was a gyroball?!? Seriously?!?" or "Shut the <expletive_deleted> up, McCarver". It's nice to know I'm not the only person who feels this way about his broadcasting ... er ... tendencies.
It was really sad to hear that Wakefield is still having problems and won't pitch in the World Series. I enjoyed Bob Ryan's piece in today's Globe about Wakefield and what he's given to the team this year and in his time with the Red Sox. The article sort of hints at the fact that Wake may have thrown his last pitch. Let's all hope that's not the case and that he's back on the mound next year.
Right now I hope the Red Sox get a good night's sleep, get back to the ballpark tomorrow and get back to business. A good friend was worried during the game that the players and the fans might get a little too cocky given that the game was a blowout. Fox showed a stat about the biggest wins in Game 1 of the World Series (I think) and showed that both times a team had won Game 1 by 11 runs that the team that won Game 1 had ultimately lost the series. I don't want this to turn into the 1985 NBA Finals where the Celtics obliterated the Lakers in Game 1, but then lost four of the next five.
What's the baseball saying about momentum again? Momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher. Let's hope Schilling continues to add to his postseason resume.
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