World Series Game 1

Josh Beckett was at it again last night, pitching the Red Sox to another victory in the 2007 postseason.

Okay, maybe the rust was present in the Colorado lineup, but Boston is just clicking on all cylinders right now. Shoot, even Eric Gagne pitched a perfect inning last night.

They are coming through with hits when runners are in scoring position, fielding the ball well, and their pitching is lights out. It is quite sickening to watch this team hit double after double, scoring run after run. Even Julio Lugo could not be kept off the bases as we went 3-for-4 and had a walk.

The game was over by the fourth inning and should have been called after the fifth. It got so out of hand we even had a Alex Cora sighting.

All the game really was after the fifth was background eye noise, as music was turned up and attention away from the game.

Know doubt Boston fan thought that game was a "wicked pissah!" and will proclaim the series is over already.

Game was the anticlimatic that any non-Red Sox or Rockies baseball fans hate to watch. You want a competitive game to watch if your team is not in it.

Beckett is completely killing it in the playoffs. He dropped his career postseason ERA to 1.73, third on the all-time list for those with 70 or more innings. This year he has gone 4-0 with a 1.20 ERA while striking out 35 to issuing two walks. I need to write that again. In his four games this postseason, 35 have struck out against him, while only two have drawn a walk.

Was anyone else freaked out by Ashanti's hand during the seventh inning stretch? Her hand looked like the prosthetic hand of Happy Gilmore's golf coach, Apollo Creed Chubbs Peterson.

Game 2 tonight, 8PM ET.

Dealing...

It is never a bad thing to have Josh Beckett pitching for your team in the postseason.

Beckett pitched eight innings of one-run ball last night, helping the Boston Red Sox win game 5 and move the series back to Boston in hopes of extending the series to game 7.

Beckett improved to 3-0 in the this postseason and dropped his ERA to 1.17. He now has a career playoff record of 5-2 with a 1.78 ERA.

Like I said after his ALDS start, you can put the AL, NL, and Japanese all-stars in the batter's box and they still would not manage more than one run off the guy. If, and I really mean if, the Red Sox somehow win this series, Beckett is the sure-fire MVP of the ALCS.

But, that of course will not happen because I picked the Cleveland Indians to win in seven games.

There was some drama in this game of course:

· Beckett did not take kindly to Kenny Lofton flipping his bat, after what Lofton thought was ball four. Beckett got Lofton to fly out on the next pitch and yelled something at him as he ran to first base. Lofton chirped back and jogged towards the mound after the ball was caught. No punches were thrown and Beckett continued to dominate the Indians. Respect your elders Beckett.

· Manny Ramirez was up to being Manny again. He turned a near home run into a 390-foot single because he was slow to get out of the box. Well at least you looked good getting that single Man Ram. To his credit it was a mere inches from being a home run, but that still does not excuse him from trotting around the bases, or base in this case.

· Another Manny being Manny? Why yes of course. In the first inning, Manny tried to score from second base in the first inning on a single to right field. Indians' right fielder Franklin Gutierrez gathered the ball and threw home, but the throw was high to catcher Victor Martinez. The good thing for the Indians was that Manny was running the bases, because instead of sliding home, he came in standing up and was tagged out by Martinez. Weird dude.

Game 6 will be tomorrow, Schilling v. Carmona.
No word yet on whether Schilling will bring his red Sharpie marker for his sock.

Lights Out

The Boston Red Sox took a 1-0 series lead over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last night behind a "lights out" performance from starting pitcher Josh Beckett. The Angels were shutout on four hits as Beckett threw a complete game.

Beckett was just straight dealing last night. The NL and AL allstar team could have been in the batter's box last night against Beckett and still would have managed only four hits. He was getting ahead of batters all night and only had one Angels player reach third base.

The sports world is giving the Angels no shot to win this series, and this start with Beckett did nothing to help win the Angels any supporters.

The other two games featured excellent pitching as well; no team scored more than four runs yesterday.

Lou Piniella may have wanted to leave Carlos Zambrano in the game longer as the Cubs' relievers gave up the winning runs to the Arizona Diamondbacks as soon as Zambrano left the game. Not that keeping Zambrano may have helped though, because Brandon Webb pitched just as well, holding the Cubs to one run over seven innings.

It was just one game, and I still like the Cubs in this series because of their starting pitching.

And the Colorado Rockies continued to ride their emotions as they beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 behind Jeff Francis. The Phillies were swinging at everything, striking out a total of ten times, four of which by Chase Utley.

Matt Holliday can just rack. He carried the Rockies throughout the season, "scored" the winning run in the one-game playoff, and is continuing his clutch hitting into the NLDS. He hit a homerun off of Tom Gordon in the eighth inning to add an insurance run for the Rockies relievers. NL MVP anybody?