• More Cowbell (UGH!). Boy oh boy is it going to be a long winter for yours truly. As if watching your team lose in Game 7 of the ALCS isn’t bad enough, how about living in the area of the team that knocked off your club? If you think that kinda sucks, you’d be dead on. And if that isn’t bad enough, what about having to shave an idiotic landing strip into your skull because of a bet you lost to a fellow writer/fan of the other team? [Bugs And Cranks]

• World Series Here We Come. The coldest story was to be told tonight. The Rays were done. History was against them, but history doesn't play baseball. This team has shown again and again how true that is. This was freaking amazing series and frankly you couldn't ask for more emotion and drama. Four more wins. That's all we need. Four more wins. I GOT NOTHING BUT FIDDLE CATS. [DRays Bay]

• Tears Telling Of Tek's Future. Dress it up however you’d like — Jason Varitek knows what is happening. His offense has diminished greatly. And now that he is set to become a free agent after the Rayhawks win the World Series, Tek may not be returning. You can hear it in his voice, you can see it in his eyes. When asked whether or not Game 7 of the ALCS was his last in a Red Sox uniform… well, you can see it for yourself. It’s only a 20 second clip: [The Boston Score]

• ESPN Featured Comment Of The Week, Special Edition. "Everyone waiting for the other shoe to drop on the Rays season, please pick up the first shoe." — Kagney13

• Why Are You Always Picking On Me?. Yesterday, I chronicled Dennis Eckersley’s whipping boy status during the TBS broadcasts of the ALCS. Well during the final broadcast for TBS after Game 7 of the ALCS, Eck was still not immune to any good natured ribbing as the fellas in the truck got him one more time. [Sox & Dawgs]

• The Question Facing Red Sox Fans Now Is ... Most glaring of all, Philadelphia needs this win for it's sporting fan base. The Rays? Let's just say they haven't exactly earned this as yet. That shiny new team merchandise you saw those 15 year old kids and 70 year old Grandparents wearing at 'the Trop' (can you believe they are going to hold series games at that monstrosity?) will be on show again. Endless shots of spotty faced Tampa teens sporting brand new Rays caps with the silver MLB merchandise label still shining bright on them, yeah that's a fan base alright. [Boston Irish]

• Tampa Bay Rays: 2008 AL Champs. For the 99.2% of Red Sox Nation that are actually good sports and classy. Well done. Great series. It means so much to dethrone such a great organization. It means so much that we took down the best. We are sure you guys will be back next season and it won't be any easier. For the other portion of the Pink Hat Nation that lacks class, we present a gift for you ... [Rays Index]

• Take Me Down. Six Underground. Oh and as for the World Series, I'm throwing my support behind the Phillies. The Rays are truly the story of the year—somewhere, Elijah Dukes is crying in his oatmeal—but I just can't root for a team from the AL East that ain't us. So here's hoping the Phils give the Rays some unholy hell. Especially that punk-ass Carl Crawford, who you know is just an injury away from boosting car stereos. [Surviving Grady]

• The Cowbell Kid Is Eating His Words Already. Good lord, he's back this morning with more. I'm surprised no animals were sacrificed in the making of this video. [Red Sox Monster]

• The Green Fields Of The Mind. By A. Bartlett Giamatti (abridged & told by baseball cards). [The Baseball Card Blog]

• I Left Early. JUST KIDDING! WOOHOOOO! I will post a really cool video I shot at Fenway Park here tonight before I go to bed. [UPDATE: Here it is:]. On the way home I heard a replay of Castiglione's call — incredible. You gotta hear it. Everyone who left early tonight—you'll never learn at this point! Please don't come back! Your "let's go Bruins" chants aren't funny, original, or appreciated by any real Red Sox fans. [Red Sox Fan From Pinstripe Territory]

• Comeback Kings Crown Rays. The Biggest Loser: Coach Joe Maddon numerous retarded moves.
It wasn’t his decision to start Scott Kazmir that wound up being his worst move of the night, but his choice to pitch around Jason Bay to get to Drew that will be second-guessed from here to eternity. [Bugs And Cranks]

• Comeback. Am I cocky heading in to a Game 6 at the Trop with a diminished Josh Beckett taking the hill after being shelled his last two times out? No, no I am not. But one of the biggest single-game comebacks in postseason history can't help but put a little spring back in your step. And I can't help but remember that famous line of Kevin Millar's: "Don't let us win tonight." [Cursed To First]

• FUCK. Son of a bitch. [DRays Bay]

• A Tale Of Two Games. I loved the post 7 inning shots of all the brand new Rays fans with their hands on their head wondering what was happening to their lead. That is the first time in 10 years anyone has every worn a Rays jersey in Fenway park, please don't try and convince me otherwise. [Inside The Monster]

• A Swing. A Study. Can we get an orderly queue to form, consisting of those who owe Mr Drew an apology? I want to see about half of Red Sox Nation in there. You too, Red Sox print media. Get in line. [Boston Irish]

• ALCS Game 5; Scenes from St. Petersburg. Shea Smith of Palm Harbor shows disappointment after the Tampa Bay Rays lost to the Boston Red Sox while watching the game at the Ferg's Sports Bar and Grill on Friday after midningt. [The Heater]

• Phillies Must Wait For Opponent As Red Sox Pull Off Thrilling Win. For the Phillies, it means they can continue to sit back and relax as it appears the Rays and Red Sox have a lot more to settle. Let them beat up on each other and let the Phillies take care of the worn-out winner. [Yard Barker]

• ALCS Game 4: Postgame Thread. Did you watch game four? Are you unhappy about it? Ask your doctor if Prozac this thread is right for you. Double-blind clinical studies have shown that concentrated randomness dulls the effect of postseason loss.

Game recap, in Haiku form:

He sets and he throws —
A knuckleball, high and flat;
Another home run.

[Over The Monster]

• Remember The Idiots. All right folks, we've been down but not out before, and hopefully, we can do it again. We are missing a few pieces,like Lowell and a 100% Ortiz, but the beauty of baseball is that its not over until yada yada yada. We as fans cant lose hope. Also, granted, Wake had a horrible game, but lets not hate. He has given the Sox plenty of solid games in the past, and he deserves some respect regardless of last night. So lets give Tampon Bay some serious Red Sox business for the next 3 games. Lets go, Red Sox, clap, clap, clap-clap-clap! [Big Papelbon]

• Maybe Rays Should Install One Of Those 'Monster' Things. THE GOOD: The Monster. Think we could get one of those in the Trop for next season? In 2 games the Rays have hit 7 home runs over the Monster and have added many more dents to its face...Chasing Tim Wakefield early. Too many at bats against a knuckleballer can mess with a player's swing. THE BAD: Red Sox fans with reverse Mohawks. Find it funny that those Sox fans could only "react" to something Rays fans were doing. Guess they couldn't come up with their own thing. [Rays Index]

• Must Be Hahd To Stay Warm, Sittin' On That Bench! Well, that game sucked. Many photos to come, but really the highlight of the evening was the extremely drunk/irate guy in the right field box section behind us who decided that he hated Rays relief pitcher JP Howell. [Blue Cats And Red Sox]

• The Sound Of Silence. Under those circumstances, I'd say silence is about the most appropriate — and not to mention the most dignified — reaction to watching your team getting its ass kicked in a nationally televised championship series. I don't know what else those TBS commentators are expecting. [Cursed To First]

• Apparently, These Necklace Things Have To Go. "Why do the Red Sox look so stagnant?" you might ask. "Even Kevin Youkilis' newly grown hobo beard isn't helping!" Fortunately, I think I've found the reason things have gone haywire. And friends, it comes to us from a weird source: WebMD.com. Apparently, a site once used primarily by hypochondriacs is now breaking news about Major League Baseball. Kinda sorta, anyway: [Red Sox Monster]

• Rays Romp Red Sox, Take 3-1 Series Advantage. WOW! Amazing! Incredible! Rays Win, Rays Win, Rays Win! Ok, so my thoughts are bit jumbled. Can you blame me?! If you saw what I saw you’re probably just as jumbled! What an amazing game! All facets of the game came together last night to culminate in a Rays romping of the “invincible” Red Sox 13-4. Yes, you read that correctly. The Tampa Bay Rays dismantled the Boston Red Sox in Fenway. Great to see Red Sox Nation spilling onto Yawkey Way before the 7th inning! [Rays]

• Got You Where I Want You. Excellent work, I say. By allowing ourselves to once again assume the role of Ned Beatty in Deliverance, by dropping our third straight playoff game to the Rays, and by being outscored 22-5 since the series came to Fenway, we have successfully lulled our opponent into a false sense of security. [Surviving Grady]

• Boston Vaginas Outhustled, Outworked, Outclassed. For a few moments this weekend, it looked like the Boston vaginas might have turned the tide of the Rayvolution. But come on — calling on Winston Churchill? Going bald? These are the actions of a fading dynasty desperate to keep alive a past that has passed them by. Kind of like tossing out 42-year-old impotent has-beens like Mike Timlin and Tim Wakefield to face the virile and potent young studs of our Devil Rays offense. [Bugs And Cranks]

What they're saying on the intertubes about Tampa Bay's 9-1 win over Boston in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

• Incorrect. The best part of the night was the Sox fan flipping off the TBS camera (something I've been planning for some time). Kudos to that fan. We have to let this network know how we feel. I feel like even if they were on our side, I'd still be pissed—something this blatant just isn't fair and isn't right. [A Red Sox Fan From Pinstripe Territory]

• Recap: Jon Lester Is The Best Pitcher In Baseball. Math: B.J. Upton + Evan Longoria = Rest of AL East Crying. Pena + Rocco = Smiles. Crawford = Varitek Headache. Navi = Base Hit Automation Robotical Apparatus 8000. [DRays Bay]

• Rays Win Game 3, Up 2-1 @ Fenway. All credit to the Rays. That being said, we sucked eggs today. Lester wasn't Lester and I'm actually going to give him a pass on this, personally. No, NG, he wasn't sucking momentum. Do you guys remember the last time Lester threw more than 160+ innings in a season? That's right, it was never. If he's hitting a wall w/r/t command, I'm not sure it's something we can blame him for. He certainly didn't look like he was pitching hurt, unlike Becks. Just wasn't locating. [Over The Monster]

• Some Sort Of Homecoming — Rays Run Over Sox 9-1. So hopefully last night was the part of the movie where Clubber Lang really lets Rocky have it, only to find that Rocky still has a little juice left in the tank in later rounds. Between the Pats Sunday night clobbering by the Chargers and last nights Game 3 loss to the Rays there hasn't been too much sporting joy in the greater New England area in the past few days. [Sawxblog]

• Rays Rock Sox; Take 2-1 Lead In Series. I don’t want to get into a whole big thing here, but Tommy and I were talking last night and he brought up a good point about Upton. Maybe I’m being a bit of a homer, but there hasn’t been as big of a media crush on Upton this postseason as there should be. The guy is playing with what basically amounts to one arm, and is crushing the ball. What if someone like Dustin Pedroia or Kevin Youkilis was hitting home runs with one arm at the pace that Upton is? There would be 50 stories a day written about how courageous they are, etc. As much as people hate to admit it race does still play an issue in our society. I know I’m going to get flack for this, but I guarentee you if Upton was white he would be getting far more attention for what he’s doing, and that’s a shame. [Outs Per Swing]

• Guarantee. I know I say this all the time, but it’s so true that it’s absolutely infuriating. The minute Mike Timlin sets foot on the mound; no, not even. The minute Mike Timlin sets foot out of the bullpen, you can mark that down as a loss. I knew it was over the minute Tito picked up the phone. And that’s a shame, because everyone played eleven innings of textbook baseball. [Boston Soul]

• With All Due Respect to Ryan Garko, Champagne Tastes Much Sweeter At Home. Of all the things I'll miss about the ALCS broadcast, one has got to be the frequent shots of Indians GM Mark Shapiro and his apparently Paxil-addicted trophy wife (pictured above). Every time the cameras caught these two, they were frozen in the exact same poses — Shapiro furrowing his brow and reflecting on how he's gonna explain this latest collapse, and the missus looking glassy-eyed at nothing in particular, her thoughts likely shifting between, "If we lose, will we have to sell the hovercraft?" and "Man, do I like vanilla." [Surviving Grady]

• The End. 162 regular season games. 11 playoff games. Approximately 550 hours of baseball. All changed by five minutes in time. Facing the 12-year-old Jacoby Ellsbury, Senor Slo-Mo induced a grounder to Blake, who booted it, allowing the "tweenie" to lead off the inning standing on second. After Julio Lugo sacrificed Ellsbury to third, Dustin Pedroia (all 130 pounds of him) stepped to the plate and, with one swing, ended the Indians' season. Plenty of time (that's all we have now) to discuss the fantastic ride that the 2007 Cleveland Indians took us on and what lies ahead for this young, talented team of players. [The Diatribe]

• Rox And Sox 2007 World Series, It's On. Wonder how smart Tito looks to the guys that hacked him in Philly now? 3 post seasons, 2 world series appearances in 4 years here. Nice to know he gets that last laugh. Starting Wednesday it's on. [38 Pitches]

• The Tag Or Joel Skinner? (Message Board) what the F**K is it with us??? Why can't we ever, ever, ever, EVER just WIN???? [The Disappointment Zone]

• Don't Wake Me. For the record, I was wearing my "JD" Red Sox t-shirt, along with a pair of cheap-o Red Sox earrings...all while watching the game next to my Jacoby Ellsbury bobblehead doll and sipping from the same bottle of Caberknuckle — for all of the last three games. Hey, it worked! [Red Sox Chick]

• There's Only One Choke-tober. Nothing save memories of The Skinner, the newest image to add to the Cleveland Sports Misery Pantheon. That's in honor of third-base coach Joel Skinner, who held Kenny Lofton at third base when Franklin Gutierrez roped a ball down the third base line that banged off the facing of the stands and landed 30 feet in front of Manny Ramirez. As Lofton rounded third and headed for home, Skinner threw a stop sign up in front of the fastest man in Indians history and prevented him from scoring the tying run in the seventh inning. Next man up, Casey Blake, immediately banged into a double play. Ball game over. Series over. [God Hates Cleveland Sports]

• How's That Champagne Tasting, Donnie Garko? White hankies aside, you know what Cleveland's real problem is? Too many ridiculous beards, that's what. I hope the Rockies fans have enjoyed that streak, because it's gonna be a memory come Wednesday night. [The Soxaholix]

• Shit. This sucks. This really really sucks. After I attended game 4 at the Jake, I was flying about as high as I'd ever been. Now I am in despair. I feel for those guys in the clubhouse. They gave it everything they had. Seeing Victor cry in the dugout after the game just reinforced my feelings for this team. To want something so bad, for so long, then to come up just shy, is nothing short of crushing. Even in defeat, I still love these guys. Every one of them. [The Cleveland Sports Animal]

• Seuss Series. Rocks. Sox. The Rocks play the Sox. Rocks. Sox. Fox. The Rocks and Sox are seen on Fox. Wall. Ball. A ball will hit the wall. Hawpe. Papi. Everybody Hawpe on Papi! [Baseball Musings]

J.D. Drew Would LIke To Apologize For Ruining Your Sunday Dinner Plans. You can't tell me you didn't call it. Because you did call it. I called it. Your grandmother called it. The guy who played "Dr. Zaius" in the Planet of the Apes movies called it. Those original, still-in-the-box Mego Aquaman action figures you've been preserving in the attic for the last 35 years, hell, they probably called it, too. When J.D. Drew came up to the plate in the first inning with the bases loaded and two outs, everybody in Red Sox Nation — black, white, green, members in good standing of the Foghat Appreciation Society... basically every sentient being on the eastern seaboard with the possible exception of Mitt Romney — got down on their knees and said, "Here's your chance to make up for what could be perceived as a lackluster year at the plate," give or take a word. [Surviving Grady]

Melting ... Melting ... If I didn't know better, I'd say the Indians placed all their eggs in the basket of clinching the series at home in Game 5. When it became apparent that wasn't going to happen, they lost their collective composure. [Erik Cassano's Weblog]

JD Drewski's 4-run Bomb. When Theo Epstein rolled the dice and signed JD Drew in the off-season, legions of Red Sox fans — including this guy — groaned. "WHY!?!??" we asked. That refrain was heard again and again throughout the summer, as JD Drew performed like a terrible robot version of his supposed former self. [Red Sox Monster]

Ace in the Hole. Tonight is do or die. Tonight, is the meaning of October baseball. Tonight is what we dream the playoffs will be. Tonight its win for the Pennant or dream of next year. Cleveland doesn't want to dream anymore. They've been dreaming for a sports championship since 1964, let alone a baseball championship, since 1948. This town suffers more then them all. The Sox had their win in 2004, but ITS TRIBE TIME NOW. [Let's Go Tribe]

Ryan Garko Is a Class Act. Cleveland first baseman Ryan Garko was in the batter's box at Fenway with his team down 12-2 in the ninth. He was in a god awful spot. ... A foul ball dropped in Garko's direction. If there was ever a time to get away with being less than gracious, this was it. Sure, maybe you toss it into the crowd, but to seek out a kid to hand the ball to, even though he's a fan of the team that's crushing you? That's class. [Foul Balls]

I Summon the Ghost of Francisco Cabrera! After the Game 4 victory, we all saw the graphic: 65 teams have taken 3-1 leads in best-of-seven series; 55 of them have gone on to win. Of course, a lot of them (most, in fact) went on to win 4-1 or 4-2. I'm more interested in knowing what happens when a team, down 3-1, forces a Game 7 (thus implying a huge momentum swing). Some quick research reveals 14 such instances—not a lot to go on, I realize. Still, 10 out of 14 times, the team with the momentum went on to win the series. Only 4 teams out of 14 have managed to "plug the dam", so to speak, and win Game 7 after blowing a 3-1 series lead. [Mistake By The Lake Sporting Times]

Photo courtesy Cleveland Plain Dealer, whether they know it or not.

• Shippin' Up To Boston. Oh, and nice play by the Injuns to bring a former Beckett ladypal to sing at the game. As attempts to get in a guy's head, rolling out the ex is a pretty shrewd move. But it seems to have back-fired big-time. In fact, the extra shot of testosterone may have been just what The Commander needed to finish off the Indians. Because, as everyone knows, Josh Beckett is fueled by testosterone, Coors Light, and the blood of his victims. [Surviving Grady]

• This Just In, Beckett's Got Balls. ...and they're dirty big balls. Where have I seen this before? Josh Beckett on the mound, pressure cooking...game, season, dreams on the line. Oh wait, it happens every single time the dude steps on the hill during the postseason. Trust me, Cleveland fan,s I sympathize with you. And for the record, you can relax...I still think the Indians are going to win this series and I hope they do just that. However, every once in a while you've got to sit back and appreciate just how lights out Josh Beckett is during the postseason. [Ghosts Of Wayne Fontes]

• Beckett, Despite Intense Cleveland Mind Games, Forces Game Six. Absolutely superb. Josh Beckett clearly feels his WS MVP trophy is a little lonely on the mantle. After a dicey 1st in which he escaped partly due to a non-RBI DP off the bat of Travis Hafner, Becks gave a clinic on pitching, being efficient while also striking out hitters, and almost got an opportunity to teach Kenny Lofton some humility in the process. [Over The Monster]

• Big-Game Beckett Beats Tribe Again. I cannot stand Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. McCarver has a great T.V. voice, but my lord, when these guys get going on something...it's like a rabbit during mating season. They just can't stop or help themselves. Josh Beckett is really good. Anyone that watches baseball can see that. Apparently that wasn't good enough for 'Son of Joe,' and 'I've been around a little too long McCarver.' These two spent the better part of four innings ready to anoint Beckett the King of the World. At least they stopped short of saying Beckett was the greatest pitcher of all time. [Tribe Report]

• Shots Equal Victory. Legend has it that Kevin Millar and members of the Red Sox did shots of Jack Daniels before Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS. They won that game — and so they did shots before each of the next seven games — and won the World Series. In that spirit, Laura and I did JD shots tonight before 8 PM. It worked! [Joy Of Sox]

• A Five-Game ALCS? This Is Cleveland! You didn't think our guys could just reel off four straight against the team they tied for the best record in the whole damn league, did you? Did you?!? Listen, nothing is ever that easy for the Indians in October. In 1995, the year the Tribe lapped the frigging field in the A.L., the Mariners (the Mariners!!) even stretched the Wahoos to six games. Our boys just don't wrap up best-of-seven series in 5 games or less. That's just not how it works for us. This is Cleveland. Nothing comes easy for us. [The Sports Elitists]

• The Morning After: Salvation, And A Peck. Another eight innings with just one more run. That with the brimstone battle between himself and 86 year-old Kenny Lofton, who just fired Joshie up even more, if anything. [Sox Nest]

• Getting A Lead Was Big. It was good to get the lead tonight and build a little more confidence on this team. I think that was a huge factor, just trying to get ahead and trying to get some runs on the board against C.C. I was glad I was able to help there, with that solo homer in the first. [Yooooouuuuukkkkk]

• Round 2. (Oct. 18) Tonight is the night, Tribe fans, when Big CC has revenge on Big Papi and co. Tonight is the rematch where CC proves he is finally over the postseason jitters. Tonight, is the night when CC leads the Tribe to its first World Series in a decade. Every single critic has already dismissed CC as a choke. The east coast bandwagon continues to ride the Beckett/ Sox wagon saying they will come back to beat the Tribe in 7 games. It's not going to happen. [Let's Go Tribe]

• How We Roll [Promoted Diary. Yeah. That's Right.]. Look guys, we're down three in an ALCS. So what?! This is how we roll. You know, to make it interesting and stuff. Let the Rockies have their sweep. BOOOOORRRRRRINNNGGG. No, it's like the Mighty Casey...you spit on a few pitches before you send one out of the park. Gives the fans something to chew on. Anyone can come back from a game down, but three? That takes brass balls. Brass Balls are a major export for our region so I'm not really worried. We here in Red Sox Nation have a flair for the dramatic. And not the hot-pink purse with black pumps type of flair no, no, no. We're talking trip, fall, and accidentally knock over the Empire State Building-type flair for the dramatic. So now comes the fun part. The winning. THIS is how we roll. [Over The Monster]

• Got You Where I Want You. I suppose we have them just where we want them now, these Cleveland Indians. Lulled into a false sense of security, riding high on the shoulders of Grady Sizemore and Victor Martinez, waving their towels and blasting their "Tribe Time" theme song and guzzling cheap wine like they're on their way to the World Series. Everything else that has transpired, to paraphrase the Emperor from Star Wars, has done so according to our design. One game away from elimination? F@#k that noise. We prefer to think of you guys as three games away from elimination. And hanging on by a slender thread. [Surviving Grady]

• Collectively Collected. On the day that World Series tickets arrived to the Tepee in the mail, and with Game 5 tickets under my bed, calm is settling in. Next up...the storm of a potential World Series berth. [The DiaTribe]

• Game One Hundred Seventy: Indians 7, Red Sox 3. But the biggest hit of the game came after Wakefield left. Manny Delcarmen's mid-90s heat was supposed to provide a major change of pace from Wakefield's lazy knucklers. Apparently they weren't aware of Jhonny Peralta's affinity for the outside fastball. Peralta rocketed a high Delcarmen fastball to the right field seats. [Let's Go Tribe]

• Suddenly, The Playoffs Aren't Nearly As Awesome As Dane Cook Promised They'd Be . All right, I'll go on record with it: I think Josh Beckett should have been given the ball tonight. It's not that I distrust Tim Wakefield — even with his 18-day layoff and his late-season struggles, we all know that he's entirely capable of rising to the occasion — but I like the idea of the Sox having their ace lined up to pitch Game 7 on regular rest. And while the history of pitchers going on three days' rest in the postseason is abysmal, Beckett is the exception. [Touching All The Bases]

• Play For The Day. I think the biggest thing you've got to do is, you have to go out there and scrap and play like there's no tomorrow. I think sometimes you can be more of a dangerous team when there is no tomorrow. For us, we've been in a lot worse spots. We're down 3-1 now, but we were down 3-0 in 2004. We just have to go out there and play for the day — just go out there and play as hard as we can and not worry about yesterday, and we'll just play for the present. [Yooooouuuuukkkkk]

• We're In A Great Situation. I'll take credit for Jhonny's homer. I told him to move up in the box, because some of Wakefield's knuckleballs were just downright nasty and down in the zone. I told him to move up, and he just laughed. When I'm not playing, I kind of live through Jhonny, because I know he's trying to go deep with every swing, just like me. And he did it tonight. I loved it. It seems like every game I don't play, he goes deep. I get to mess around with him and towel him off and give him a cup of water. [Ryan Garko's Playoff Blog]

• And The Hits Just Keep On Not Coming. But nobody wins when the umpires are bad beyond belief. To paraphrase one of my favorite SNL sketches, what the f@#k game was that home plate ump watching? Did he have an iPod Nano tucked into his mask? Did he forget to wear his corrective lenses? Did he have a hot date with a steak sandwich and an east side hooker that took up most of his focus ("Do I start with the sandwich, or the boobs? Sandwich... or boobs?")? Because he sure wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the game. One of the worst performances I've seen this year, and I'm including game two of the Walpole Penitentiary World Series, which was eventually called on account of rain and sodomy. [Surviving Grady]

• Game One Hundred Sixty Nine: Indians 4, Red Sox 2. This was my first time at a Jacobs Field playoff game, and it was different that any regular season contest. The fans didn't need much coaxing from the digital cheerleaders; they were on their feet early and often, whether it was with two strikes on a Boston player, or runners on in the bottom of an inning. When Borowski came on in the ninth, the mood was anticipatory but hesitant. Everyone was on their feet, hoping for an easy inning, but knowing that just one base runner brings the tying run to the plate. And in case you didn't notice, Borowski allows a lot of base runners. But, other than a long battle with Jason Varitek, he retired the Boston hitters rather easily. And with that, a happy stadium-full of Indians fans poured out of Jacobs Field, and blared their horns on their way out of downtown Cleveland. [Let's Go Tribe]

• No Time To Panic. You can't be in panic mode. A lot of times, it's panic mode in Boston, but we're not in panic mode. We were in a situation a lot worse than this in the 2004 ALCS, and we won that. This is easy compared to 2004, when we were down 3-0 against the Yankees. For us, we're not in panic mode. We're just excited to go out and win a ballgame tomorrow and get this series back to even. [Yooooouuuuukkkkk]

• Boston's FOX 25 Blows Off The National Anthem Before The ALCS. Friday night, Boston's FOX 25 was doing their pregame for Game One of the 2007 American League Championship Series between the Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians ... But there's something interrupting their broadcast. A drunken streaker? A F-14 flyover? Jonathan Papelbon? No, just that pesky National Anthem ... [Home Run Derby]

• Top 10 Things I'd Like To See At The Jake Tonight. Due to the fact that the Red Sox started off the season at a .700 clip, and then rather casually swept the Angels in the ALDS, there haven't been many must-win games for them this season. Really, none...until tonight, when they're staring down a 1-3 pit if they don't put up a W. The chances of taking the series get exponentially smaller otherwise, and don't be telling me it's all good because look what happened in '04, either. Part of what makes '04 legendary is that most of the time, huge comebacks don't happen. [Red Sox State Of Maine]

• ALCS Game 3: Jake Westbrook Comes Up 'ACES' Against Red Sox. Westbrook did what he does best. He forced ground balls, which in turn, got him through several innings. When it was all said and done, Jake gave up two runs on a Jason Varitek home run in the seventh inning. He did this giving up seven hits and three walks, and striking out two. In other words, it was typical Westbrook pitching when he's on. No, he doesn't blow it by you like the two Indians' aces do. He just gets it done, and helps the maintenance crew mow the infield. [Tribe Report]