Another Opening, Another Show

As they say on Wall Street, past performance is no guarantee of future returns, but one thing is certain: last night's "contest" was a coolly efficient surgical vivisection of a very good Cleveland Indians team by your Boston Red Sox.

This was easy. Too easy, almost, but we'll take it. Billed as a pitcher's duel between Josh Beckett and C. C. Sabathia, this one turned into a breezy 10-3 one-sided rout. Beckett was impressive again, while Sabathia got his prodigious backside kicked from the Monster Seats to Pesky's Pole.

The Sox looked like a team that has been there before, which they have been, while the Indians very much looked the part of a team that was blinded by the bright spotlights. From Sabathia on down, they clearly looked intimidated by the big stage and had that haunted look of a deer in the headlights.

If you were to map out the perfect plan to beat the Indians, it would look an awful lot like what the Sox did last night.

1. Work the 19 game Ace to get his pitch count up and ultimately out of the game. Check. C. C. walked five hit one, and was out of the game in the fifth after 80 pitches.

2. Get into the bullpen to start wearing it out. Check. Eric Wedge had to use four relievers including the eminently hittable closer Joe Borowski.

3. Keep tablesetters Grady Sizemore and Azdrubal Cabrera off base. Check. Sizemore was 0 for 5 with 3 strikeouts and Cabrera was 1 for 3 with 1 strikeout.

4. Control big boppers Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez and Ryan Garko. Check, kinda. The trio was 2 for 9 but one of the hits was a first inning homer by Hafner that gave the huge home crowd a brief pause early on.

5. Get the middle of the order going. Check, Check. Manny and David had a perfect 1.000 OBP. Ten at bats. Ten times reaching base. A combined 4 for 4 with five walks, an HBP and three RBI's. It doesn't get much better than that.

6. Finish the game with a "Gagne". Kevin from New York has now christened the type of appearance the faltering Frenchman made last night a "Gagne" as opposed to a save, win or hold. A "Gagne" is defined as coming into a game with a lead so big even a complete bustout like the bespectacled one can't blow it. Coming in with a seven run lead and loading the bases before finally closing it out is a classic "Gagne."

So as in the ALDS, the Sox are off to a superb start in the run for the pennant. The Sox have a chance to really put the Indians in a hole on Saturday night when they send out the best post season pitcher of our lifetimes to face another 19 game winner in Fausto Carmona. If Friday night was any gauge, my guess is that Carmona follows suit and crumbles like the chubby C. C.

Remember, Fausto still has vivid memories of last season at Fenway coughing up a pair of leads to the Sox as a closer. Let's hope he buckles under the pressure of Cleveland's need to pick up at least one win before heading home.

If the Sox can win on Saturday, the Indians' confidence would be severely shaken with their Twin Aces coming up empty twice and heading home with only Jake Westbrook and Paul Byrd standing in the way of the long offseason.

Nice job in Game One. You knocked them down onto their back. It's now time to put your foot on their throat. Let's get it done.