Beaneater

How do you triple to LF in Fenway?

Price still hasn't thrown many pitches. He's going to end up pitching 7 or 8 innings and giving up 7 or 8 runs at this rate.

Pedey's just going to sac Ellsbury in all day, apparently.

My head knows that Tacoby isn't going to be worth the contract he's going to want. But good gracious is he one magnificent bastard.

Every player's got a hit, every player's got a run, only two without a RBI are... Pedey and Papi?

Isn't it though? DOU-BLE DI-GITS (clap clap clapclapclap) DOU-BLE DI-GITS (clap clap clapclapclap)

The Sox really do not care about having 2 strikes. I love that.

I'd like to see Bogaerts get in this game and get his first taste of playoffs in a controlled environment.

Oh, he will, he will. There's a guy on second.

4.1 IP, 7 R. I'm soooooo scared of the Rays' gigantic insurmountable pitching advantage. Now let's go burn their 'pen.

Quick inning would be really beautiful here, Jonny.

And may you also be wrong on many of your other predictions!

Well, now that the extended regular season is over, it's time to get out our crystal balls and goat entrails and predict the future. I absolutely stink at predictions (though I did go 7-for-7 in the 2007 postseason, for what that's worth). But I'll go ahead and be the first to make a fool of myself. All the standard caveats apply: the playoffs are a crapshoot, blah blah blah. In the end, the Sox have the best record in the majors (tied with the Cards) in arguably the toughest division, and the best run diffie. We have a great postseason rotation and the ability to score runs by the boatload. There's no particular weakness in the team that dooms them to postseason failure. Which doesn't mean that they couldn't lose three straight to the Guardians, but that's not so probable. So the fact that I picked the Sox to win it all is probably equal parts "total homer" and "the Sox are really good". OK, 60% "total homer". AL Wild Card Rays over Guardians Comment: Cobb vs. a team that can't beat good teams. I'd love the Guardians to win but I'm not feeling it. ALDS #1 Sox over Rays Comment: Handled them in the regular season and we will handle them in the postseason. ALDS #2 A's over Tigers Comment: If Scherzer throws one stinker or Cabrera isn't 100% right, the Tigers could be in trouble. I just see more failure modes for the Tigers than the A's. ALCS Sox over A's Comment: The two best teams in the AL in an epic deathmatch. Should be fun! NL Wild Card Pirates over Reds Comment: Reds are fading, it seems, and the Pirates are pretty dang good at home. NLDS #1 Pirates over Cards Comment: Yeah, the Cards are obviously going to win this series, but I have to pick an upset somewhere, don't I? NLDS #2 Dodgers over Braves Comment: Sniff. I pull for the Braves, but they probably don't have the horses to compete here. Truth be told, though, both the NL East and the NL West are total jokes. Who knows whether either of these teams are really any good? The weird thing is that the Dodgers actually finished with a losing record in the pathetic NL West but crushed the potent NL Central... NLCS Dodgers over Pirates Comment: Which sets up... World Series Sox over Dodgers Comment: Nick Punto makes the final out and Uehara gives high-fives whose seismic potency rattles the space-time continuum and ushers in the Mayan apocalypse 10 months late.

I would have figured that Ellsbury would be playing every game now -- this is his rehab, after all. Anyone know why he's not in the lineup?

Oh, right. Well, other that I was right. Thanks, by the way, for not saying, "Check your $@%&ing facts, you giant pulsating ball of phlegm!" as sometimes happens here. I appreciate that.

There's no point in letting Lackey go because he's making $11.75 next year and leading the team (among qualifiers) in ERA. So he will be back.

Man, a win tonight would be huge. A loss tonight means we've got no cushion -- against the O's we have to equal whatever the A's do in Seattle. A win and we've got breathing room. If the O's keep us from getting the #1 seed I will officially hate them more than the Rays.

You know, for some odd reason I hadn't thought of the fact that we'll be playing the O's without Machado. Plus, like you said, we've got our playoff rotation lined up; no filler. And by then the O's won't have anything to play for except the joy of knocking us out of the #1 seed. We do know they enjoy that role, but you have to like our chances to rack up a bunch of wins here. Hopefully starting tonight vs. S. Tyler Chatwood III, Esq.

Oof. No kidding. Looks like the Sox get an automatic W for game 2... unless the infamous reverse lock decides to come into play.

We'd have the shortest right side of the infield in baseball history. It'd be worth it just for that.

Yeah, but he threw a ball. That's bordering on unacceptable.

Jbj!!!! EDIT: I like how the site edited both VA's and my J B J to Jbj.

Braves have always been my NL team (born in SC, spent many years in Richmond attending Braves AAA games, etc.). I'd be really happy to see them beat someone other than the Sox in the WS. Don't really care one way or another about the Cards, Reds, or Pirates (other than, in Pittsburgh's case, just generally liking to see the underdogs do well). Dislike the Dodgers for some reason but agree that a Sox/Dodgers WS would be some sort of spectacular karmic explosion.

Love the thread title. With all due respect to mvp, I'm not sure I want the Yankees out. They suuuuuuuck. Finding ourselves serendipitously facing the Yanks in the postseason would be like finding a gold nugget in your McFries. That is to say, odd and disconcerting but highly profitable. There is no more Yankees mystique and we would beat them to a pulp the way we did in the regular season. On the other hand, you're probably right. It'd be better all around if they just stay home and inject roids under their tongues (A-Rod), eat Bavarian creams (Sabathia and the whole bullpen), or whatever else they've got planned. The team I want out of the playoffs is the O's. They play us tough every time and win more often than not, at least recently. I do not want to see them in October.

That's right.