We're 9% There

Judging from the reaction to last night's impressive victory by the inane "fans" on the street and the gushing prattle of the bobble heads on the local news anchor desk, you would have expected to pick up the morning paper and read the following headline: "SOX WIN WORLD SERIES IN ONE GAME!"


Calm down people. It was the perfect way to start the postseason, but it was what it was: just one game.

But what a game it was. Josh Beckett calmly took the mantle of Sox Ace from Pedro Martinez, who took it from Roger Clemens, draped in over his broad, gunslinger shoulders and went out and humiliated the Los Angeles Angels. It was no contest. The feeble Halos were cooked and they knew it. It was 4-0, but it felt like 40-0. Come on, at ANY point following Youk's homer did you feel like this game was in jeopardy? Me neither.

In reality, though, it was a must win for the Sox and to their credit they won it. If they had ever come out last night in front of a roaring home crowd (although you couldn't here it on TBS since they were apparently using soup cans for microphones) with their ace going against a pitcher in John Lackey that they absolutely own in Fenway and lost, it would have been a monumental disaster. They did what they had to do.

Beckett's brilliance hid some disturbing signs, however. The Sox offense punched out after the third inning letting Lackey off the hook after having him on the ropes. It would have been nice to knock him out of the game and gotten into the bullpen by the fifth inning but they took their foot off the accelerator. The bottom of the order reverted to FeebleTown as Crisp, Drew and Tek all grounded into double plays killing potential big innings.

Crisp, although he made a run saving catch early, was particularly inept at the plate going 0-3 and seeing a total of SIX pitches. The popgun offense is sufficient when your Ace is twirling a four hit, complete game shutout, but that is not going to happen very often.

Which brings us to Friday night. The Sox have started off on the right foot, but as someone once said, momentum in baseball is only as good as the next day's starter. And Josh Beckett will not be walking through that door again.

No, in Game Two, the ball will be in the hands of the enigmatic Dice K Matsusaka, the human box of crackerjacks. When we open him up Friday night, will we get popcorn, peanuts and a prize or a bad case of indigestion?

Remember, the Angels only need one game here and the frightening thought is that we are one 30 pitch, three walk, 4 run classic Dice K meltdown inning away from going to LA 1-1, giving up the homefield advantage and putting this series in real jeopardy.

But we know that the Dice man loves the big stage. Had you heard that he won the big high school tournament in Japan? So that being the case, I suggest that anyone going to the game Friday night wear their letter jackets and bring their pom poms to get Dice K into the mood.

Of course this is not the Yankees he will be facing. Thankfully, the Angels, with the exception of Reggie Willits, have all graduated from The Manny Sanguillen School of Hitting. For you youngins out there, Sanguillen was a Pirate catcher in the 70's who makes Vlad Guerrero look like Kevin Youkilis in terms of plate discipline. These Halos come out swinging from the on deck circle, so hopefully that will keep Dice K from his normal wild streak. We can only hope.

One down, ten to go..