I know this sounds insane but..

Tonight is a must win for the Red Sox.

Already people here at work think I am nuts for saying this, but the pressure of tonight's game is squarely on Boston and Schilling.

Hear me out.

The Red Sox gave the Rockies an ass whuppin' of historic preportions.
Granted. We all saw it.

But think about game 2. Let's say the Rockies win game 2.
Let's say Schilling is subpar like he was game 2 against Cleveland.

Or let's say Ubaldo Jiménez becomes the latest "unlikely World Series hero" with a solid game.

All of the above is possible.

Then what?
Then the Rockies would have to go into Denver on a high.
What team wouldn't want to go into Boston and split?
Especially on the heels of such a whuppin'.

They could say "Hey, we did what we needed to do!"
And then face Dice-K and Lester... in the thin air of Denver.

And spare me the "humidor has made it all even" theory. Yes, home runs don't fly out the way they used to during the Dante Bichette/Larry Walker/Andres Gallaraga years. But check out the splits of the Colorado hitters and you see their OPS and average are all much better... like 200 points better... in Denver.

And the Red Sox will be playing with either Lowell, Youk or Big Papi on the bench.
If they bench Lowell then you have Youk at third and Papi at first... globes would have sharper corners than that.

I'm saying... the pixie dust has settled on this Rockies team. The last thing you want them to do is feel confident right now.
Pressure is on Schilling.

Let's win this thing!

Man... that was almost TOO easy

Look, I'm not complaining... but that was such a sound ass whuppin', such a one sided crushing, that by the 6th inning I almost turned the game off to let my sons watch Thomas the Tank Engine.

Of course we all bought into the hype of game 1. The two top Cy Young Award candidates were squaring off. The Cy Young pretenders Wang, Lackey and Escobar all flopped and now the big two were poised for a classic duel between Sabathia and Beckett.

And Hafner homered in the first and every Red Sox fan gulped in unison.
And the only way the night could have gone worse for Cleveland was if the river caught on fire and the Browns moved again.

I talked to a few of my Red Sox fan friends after the game and asked "Was there anything negative about the game?"

They all had the same response... Eric Gagne.
They were unhappy with Eric Gagne.

And yes, Gagne didn't look good letting up two hits and a walk in the 9th inning.
But folks... he was the mop up man. His job was to be a warm body on the mound in a 10-3 game.

And guess what? Along with those 2 hits and that walk, he struck out 3 and didn't let up a run.

So if the only bad thing you have to say about a game was the mop up man's scoreless 9th inning in a 10-3 win wasn't as smooth as you wanted, guess what?

It was a pretty good game.

Don't get too giddy, Sully

Repeat to yourself...

It's only one game.
It's only one game.

snicker.

I'm sure Clemens and Mussina will pitch great in games 3 and 4...
Once they get that time machine and go back 10 years.

STOP IT!

It's only one game.
It's only one game.

tee hee.

This is why baseball is the greatest game of all...

Last night, the Red Sox got whacked...

It was a crushing loss. One that could get into the psyche of a team.
But guess what?

This isn't football.
No time to mull about... in less than 24 hours you have to play again.

Now that potential bone crushing defeat has given way to a good old fashioned butt whuppin' with a chance to take the series tomorrow and split the season series.

Schilling vs. Clemens tomorrow... all I know is there will be a lot of hot air from the two starters!

I admit... I got too much pleasure out of last night's Yankee loss

I admit I am a classic Yankee hater. I'm not someone who hates Yankee fans just because for their team, but I do enjoy watching the Yankees lose.

Sometimes too much.

And I enjoy thinking about Yankee fans squirming.

Maybe it came from living in New York for 15 years and getting it from the Yankee fans... hearing the 19-18 chant, the "Who's Your Daddy?" and all of that B.S.

Yankee fans now claim they were classier all of these years. Funny, I guess I kept bumping into the few arrogant classless fans by a fluke all those 15 years.

Last night's loss was the kind that I can't turn my head away from... like watching the latest news about Lindsay Lohan or a show counting down the best TV shows of the 80s... I don't like to admit it, but I'm hooked.

And I'm equally hooked at reading the articles this morning of doom and gloom. It's fun to see the Yankees squirm. And squirm they did!

Mike Mussina was pitching for his career and needed to be a horse. Now the Yankees are trying to work out a deal with a glue factory.

It was a fascinating blowout... one where Mussina let up 6 runs in 3 innings and you get the sense he was lucky it was that few. Melky Cabrera's first inning running catch saved what could have been an inside the park grand slam.

I heard the first part of the game on my XM where Rudy Guiliani visited the Tigers booth (and the Tigers announcer kept calling him Governor Guiliani)... and Rudy couldn't even mask his disgust of the team.

Torre put out the human white flag, Sean Henn, to close out the game... and then 8 hits, 5 walks and 9 runs later, had to take HIM out. I guess out of pity.

It was a game where the Yankee hater in me got pleasure in seeing their offense sputter and their pitching staff letting up pumpkins.

In a way, this was the best way for the Yankees to lose going into the Red Sox series... they didn't need to use Rivera or Chamberlain and they were humiliated to the point where you know they will come up big tonight.

I still don't care. It was great to watch.

I watched the second half of the game at my gym. I had it on a TV and someone asked me if I was watching the game. I said "Yes!" with the same intensity of someone watching their favorite show.

I guess "Yankee massacre" is my favorite show.

Sonny Corleone put up a bigger fight in the toll booth than the White Sox this weekend!

Don't get me wrong, I loved it. I already expressed my love for a good spanking, but this was nuts.

A combined 46 to 7 score over 4 games?
Julian Tavarez throwing like that alien took over his body again?
The always awful J. D. Drew hitting a homer?

Hopefully they'll continue pitching and hitting like this when they come to the Bronx next week.

I love a good spankin'!

My Red Sox went into Chicago with the bats looking alarmingly dead the last game against Tampa Bay.

Then in 2 days, the Red Sox blew out the White Sox 3 times in their own building by a combined score of 35-6. Granted, that offensive outburst was not Texas Rangers-esque... but it's nice to see Papi homering, the pitchers shutting everyone down and no nail biting in the 9th.

Hell, Papelbon hasn't pitched in the series. And with Tavarez, no longer an alien in his skin, pitching tomorrow, it's nice to have the whole bullpen ready for a potential 4 game sweep before heading into the Bronx.

Let's hope the spanking can continue!