seabeachfred

Well if that's the case he has to be told that he has to buzz off the mojo wagon. I'll let you and mvp handle that end; you both have a tendency to be a little more diplomatic that I sometimes am. Besides, he is taking one for the team by going away from the mojo caper. Right now we need all the good thoughts and vibes we can get, though to tell the truth I kind of get the willies believing that there may actually be something to this mojo stuff. Try this one out......October 16---we lost 7-3. Nine years earlier we got swamped by the Yankees, 19-8 and falling back 3-0 in the 2004 ACLS Playoffs. ----------------------October 17---Roberts' steal, Mueller's hit and Papi's bomb and we begin the greatest comeback in post-season history. Maybe we can use that for a little mojo tonight.

That only happens BTR if we play a helluva lot better than we play tonight and are able to get all those base runners home, at least half of those we left stranded on the plains.

Well Stat, we can get the job done if Jon Lester pitches the type of game Lackey hurled yesterday, that and if Papi stops trying to pull every damn pitch and tries to use the other side of the wide open field, if Pedroia will stop swinging at s*** pitches and zero dead red on strikes, if Victorino stops fishing for changeup on the outside corner and off the plate, if Ellsbury can continue his hitting and fine some teammates to drive him in. If we can get those things we can win the game.

I take it you want Xander in for Middlebrooks; what about Drew? He hasn't hit worth s*** in this series and by now everyone has to know that he can't hit lefthanders with a paddle. Give Xander a shot, I'm fine with that, but Middlebrooks has gotten some good wood in the series while Drew, though fielding very well, hasn't done anything with the bat and Farrell refused to pinch hit for him. Besides, after the playoffs are over Drew is gone while WMB will be with us and we don't have to risk tearing the hell out of his morale. There is a delicate balance there.

Believe me Brennan, you do not want me around posting during the game because I am one continuous psychotic reaction from the first pitch to the last. Be very careful what you ask for. BTW, if you live near Boston think about us hooking up sometime this coming weekend or early next week.

When the Red Sox embarked for Detroit after their dramatic win on Sunday evening I had it pegged that Detroit would win with Verlander, Peavy would win for the Sox and there would be a real set-to in the finale in the Motor City. Thank God I was wrong on the first game, so please let me be very right about tonight.

The trip has already been finalized mvp. Sports Travel is supposed to send me the tickets electronically tomorrow or Thursday and I have my hotel reservations set........three nights at the Holiday Inn Express and four nights at the Hampton Inn, both in Cambridge, and both are near a Green Line station. I certainly wish I could touch base with a few of my colleagues on this board. I will be getting together with Muggah from the Sawxheads Board. Things are really starting to look up.

With all due respect BTR, STFU!!!!!!! I almost had a coronary just reading your post.

This could be construed as heresy to the baseball gods but this year the best closer in baseball was our Koji, and I'll take on all arguments to the contrary.

Mannyhof, keep up the good work. You didn't hit the nail on the head but you hit it pretty damn close. Good show.

We all should know as baseball fans that good pitching will stop good hitting most every time. We need no further proof that what we've seen in most of these playoff games that have been going on now for the better part of two weeks. That seems especially true of our set-to with the Tigers. Look at the batting averages of the players in these three games. Its like they're reeking from hunger. I do insist that we have to start hitting a little better than we have. A 1-0 win over Verlander is a big one and a gratifying one, but sooner or later one of our pitchers is going to need a little more support. One gripe I do have is that Farrell, though he was brilliant in handling the bullpen chores today, was remiss as hell in the offensive strategy department. Why Ellsbury was glued to first base when he got on in the fifth (or was it the sixth). He should have been running since one run could make all the difference, which it turned that it did. Then with Drew on second in the eighth and no outs why not sacrifice him to third and set up for maybe a sacrifice fly, wild pitch, squeeze bunt or something that would be easier to score another run from than just keeping Steven on second base. BTW, that is not a rant, just an observation of what I thought John might have done differently in that situation.

Is there going to be a Game Six ALCS game Pal? There better be because I'm supposed to fly to Boston and see it.......How about a sixth game but not a seventh and we win in six? No, I'm not getting cocky; I just would love to keep it from going seven but that means we have to win two in Detroit and finish her off at Fenway in one game. Of course, that might have been easier had we won both games at home this go-round.

Maybe I have a persecution complex but for some reason I still think McCarver and Buck are not exactly romantic with the Red Sox. It could be and maybe is that my dislike of McCarver plays a role in this but I don't dislike Buck and he seems biased against us. Having said that I would rather hear them than those clods I hear on TBS during the ALDS. They all sounded liked they worked for the Tampa Bay Ministry of Propaganda.

Well it would help if the hitters would get in the swing of things a little earlier than they did last night and never did in game one. However, the key point is what you said, certainly for Tuesday's game.....We are not going to blast Verlander all over the ballpark so Lackey has to keep us in the game while the offense somehow scratches out three or four runs. It can be done so long as the hitters remember they're playing baseball instead of going fishing. We have swung on some pretty miserable pitches the first two games.

Jung was asking what were the players doing in the dugout while their compadres were looking so inept on Saturday night? Well they were not enamored with the umpiring behind the plate but Farrell put it well when he said that West did not lose the game for them. Anyway, they found a way to get back in gear last night and it was a helluva win. Now they had better be all on the same page because they are now in hostile territory and the fans are not going to be with them. My take is that they are aware of what they have to do and what happened last night can be nothing but a big morale booster. We'll see what transpires the next three games in Detroit.

All I can say is that I feel so f***ing happy I could s***!!!!!!!!!

To me this game tonight could be a do-or-die game. Let's face it, going to Detroit with a 0-2 deficit would be a hard thing to overcome. It's always possible we could go there and take two out of three but the odds would shrink if we were 0-2 when he got there. Even then we'd have to win two in a row back in Boston when the series moved there again. Somehow we have to get a win tonight in my opinion.

I think I'm going to throw up......and ever notice how Republican woman have it all over Democratic ones? To me the contrast is stark.

Facing a righty again Bogaerts isn't going to get a start tonight. Fact is, he didn't look too swift at all when batting last night and it is a tough position for a rookie with little Major League experience to be in. Of course, in that he was in good company. None of our guys last night distinguished himself at the plate and, moreover, they spent an inordinate amount of time bitching and complaining to Joe West and wasn't the guy we had to hit off.

USER, you and I have had some exchanges over the season and it never dissolved into a hate fest....so please listen up to what I'm saying. You owe none of us an excuse or an explanation for anything. It was you first and foremost who insisted that Koji be put at closer and while I was second or third to support that, it was a distant second or third. That mojo moment made the season because there was no damn way we win the AL East if he isn't put there by Farrell. So in effect you did the gigantic deed for the season right there. As far as any mojo maybe the Koji thing used up most of it. I talk to 700 Hitter on the phone and know he's a great guy and a good friend. He was just frustrated as we all were. Nothing to get alarmed about. If necessary, let someone else like YOUK take the lead tonight. And, again, we are all in this together.

I don't give a damn who does it Youk----just so some good mojo to get us all out of what I hope is just this temporary funk. I'll bet dollars to donuts that if we pull tonight's game out of the fire the clamor between 700 Hitter and USER will die down. So go to it; give us some of that good Dago mojo. It sounds good to me.

I tried to get Ted on the phone today but left a message instead. We all have to cut this type of s*** out because we're all in this together. We will elated and ready to get shitfaced if we win this series and also be knee deep in the blues if we don't. This is the time we all have to pull on the same rope.

Mark---Peralta does not suck at the plate at Fenway Park. He was the guy whose three run homer in the second game of the 2007 ALCS off of Lester began our slide that sent us reeling to a 3-1 deficit before we turned the tables and came back and took the next three games. He seems to his well in our ballpark and he certainly didn't suck last night. Here's hoping he sucks a big one tonight.

Jad---we did hit like this against Tampa Bay-----the last two games we played them, but we didn't look as inept as we did last night. We should all hope to just chuck this off as a bad night and move on, but the fact remains this is a four loss series. There isn't that much margin for error because you don't get an ample opportunity to recover unless you do it quickly. I would imagine the whole mental state of the team would change for the better if we could come back tonight and get one for our side. It might turn the series around for us. But I would be less than honest if I didn't say that tonight is a must win for us.