With the Boston Red Sox beating the Tampa Bay Rays last night in Game 1 of the ALCS, the pressure now shifts to the Rays to take Game 2. The Rays had taken 8-of-9 at the Trop during the regular season but this is the playoffs and you wipe out whatever happened in the regular season.

With Daisuke Matsuzaka giving them 7+ innings last night, the Red Sox bullpen appears to be in good shape tonight. Everyone should be available and yes that includes Jonathan Papelbon.

Terry Francona turns to his October ace Josh Beckett to try and send the Red Sox back to Beantown with a 2-0 lead. Yes Beckett wasn’t his normal October self in his last start but I expect that to change this time around. Despite the rough outing against the Halos in the ALDS, Beckett carries a 6-2 mark in the postseason with a 2.09 ERA. During 2008, Beckett made 5 of his 27 starts against the Rays and was 2-1 with a 2.06 ERA. Two of those starts came at the Trop where he was 0-1 with a 1.20 ERA. In his career at the Trop, he is 1-2 with a 1.93 ERA in 4 starts.

In his last start against the Red Sox which took place on September 15th, Scott Kazmir got lit up like the Rockefeller Christmas Tree for 9 runs in just 3 innings of work. He made 4 starts total against the Red Sox in 2008 and was 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA. In 21 starts lifetime against the Sox, he is 6-7 with a 3.62 ERA.

Here are the transcripts and video of the press conferences of Terry Francona and Joe Maddon from this afternoon.

Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe has a preview of Game 2 as well as information about the injection that Josh Beckett took before his start in the ALDS.

Rays manager Joe Maddon agreed with Big Papi’s thoughts about the Rays after Game 1.

Someone sent Terry Francona a pretty funny picture with Dustin Pedroia’s face transposed on it.

Gary Marbry of WEEI.com has his nuggets from Game 1 of the ALCS.

Adam Kilgore of the Boston Globe has a nice little piece on Red Sox rookie Jed Lowrie.

Lineups and batter/pitcher matchups after the jump.

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4 down, 7 to go.

The Boston Red Sox came into last night’s game hoping to steal a victory in Game 1 behind the pitching of Daisuke Matsuzaka. After watching Dice-K’s 1st inning, there was no way to predict that he would actually last more than 5 innings given the fact that he walked the bases loaded. Then all of the sudden, Dice-K found his groove and was just cruising right along. He finally gave up hits in the 7 inning but worked around trouble. The bullpen made the lead hold up and the Red Sox took Game 1 2-0.

The win for the Red Sox is huge. Taking Game 1 on the road now puts all the pressure on the Tampa Bay Rays to win Game 2 tonight to earn a split at home. And if Josh Beckett can morph into October Josh Beckett, it won’t be an easy task for the Rays.

For the Rays, this is all new being in this type of pressure situation and one Red Sox player, David Ortiz, noticed a difference on the faces of the Rays.

“In the regular season it’s totally different than the playoffs,” Ortiz said after the Red Sox won Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, 2-0, last night over the Rays. “I’m the kind of guy that I watch everybody’s faces. I’ve got the opportunity because I don’t have to go out there and play defense. I’m telling you, I saw faces tonight different than what I see in the regular season. I don’t blame nobody. It’s a lot of pressure out there right now in this game because you have to win; otherwise, you go home.

“That relaxed type of thing that you have during the regular season, that wasn’t out there tonight.”

And here Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe explains it as well.

More links after the jump.

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The extra conditioning work in the offseason is paying off for Donald Brown and Darius Butler.

Former UConn Huskies men’s basketball player Nate Miles’ appeal was filed yesterday with the university.

UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma took a moment to talk about his team yesterday.

The UConn women’s soccer team beat Pittsburgh 2-1 on the road.

Despite a wild and crazy 1st inning, Daisuke Matsuzaka had 6 no-hit innings in his 7 innings of work as the Boston Red Sox went on to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 2-0 in front of 35,001 at Tropicana Field. The win gives the Red Sox a 1-0 advantage in the best-of-7 ALCS.

Despite 4 walks, Dice-K gave the Red Sox a strong outing.

Matsuzaka gave up 4 hits and 4 walks while striking out 9 on on 115 pitches. Hideki Okajima retired the only batter he faced and Justin Masterson got a double play out of the only batter he faced. Jonathan Papelbon worked a perfect 9th to earn his second save of the postseason.

Kevin Youkilis broke out of his 0-for-17 regular season funk against James Shields with 2 hits against him, finishing with 3 total on the night and an RBI. Dustin Pedroia, J.D. Drew, Jason Bay and Mark Kotsay had the other hits for the Red Sox and Jed Lowrie drove in the other run for the Red Sox.

Shields started the game with a strikeout of Jacoby Ellsbury and then issued a walk to Pedroia. After David Ortiz flew out, Youk hit a ground rule double down the line in right. Shields escaped the inning with no damage done as he struck out Drew.

Houdini Matsuzaka made an appearance in the bottom of the 1st.

He started out by walking Akinori Iwamura. B.J. Upton then flew out and Dice-K walked Carlos Peña. He then struck out Evan Longoria but issued his third walk of the inning to Carl Crawford. As he’s done all season, Houdini Matsuzaka showed up and got Cliff Floyd to ground out.

Both the Red Sox and Rays went down 1-2-3 in the 2nd inning and Shields sent the Sox down in order in the 3rd. Matsuzaka worked around a 2-out walk to Peña in the bottom half by striking out Longoria for the second time on the night.

Big Papi grounded out to first base to start the 4th and Youk followed with a single. He wouldn’t be on the basepaths long as Drew grounded into a 4-6-3 inning-ending twin killing.

Dice-K was in a groove in the 4th as he struck out two of the three batters he faced as he had now retired 7 in a row.

The Red Sox finally cracked through against Shields in the 5th.

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I don’t know about you but I am ready for this series to finally get underway tonight. In just a few short hours or so, the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays will take the field to start what should be a very entertaining American League Championship Series.

The series throughout the regular season was dominated by the home team as the Red Sox went 7-2 at Fenway and the Rays went 8-1 at the Trop. So it’s very important for the Rays to take the first two games at home. Of course, we’d like to see the Red Sox take both games but a split would work too.

Terry Francona chose Daisuke Matsuzaka as his Game 1 starter and it’s up to him to get the Red Sox on the right track. Dice-K has faced the Rays 3 times this season and 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA. The problem in those 3 starts though was the amount of innings Dice-K threw. He only lasted 5 innings in each of his three starts against them, including two at Tropicana Field. In his career, he is 2-3 with a 3.75 ERA in 8 starts and is just 1-2 with a 3.41 ERA in 5 games at the Trop.

For the Red Sox to not have to overuse their bullpen in Game 1, they need Dice-K to go out and give them at least 7 strong innings tonight. With their no day off between Games 1 & 2, I’m sure Francona doesn’t want to have to trot all of his bullpen out all night long especially with Josh Beckett and his uncertain health status going tomorrow night.

It won’t be easy though for the Red Sox tonight as Rays skipper Joe Maddon chose his horse, James Shields, to give them a chance to win in Game 1. Shields has faced the Red Sox 4 times this season and is 2-2 with a 5.85 ERA. Both wins came at the Trop and both losses at the Fens. Overall in his career, he is 2-4 with a 5.23 ERA in 8 starts.

Here is the transcript of the press conference from Rays manager Joe Maddon and Red Sox manager Terry Francona.

Terry Francona talked about the role Manny Delcarmen will play in the ALCS.

Adam Kilgore of the Boston Globe has some pregame ponderings.

Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe has her latest mailbag.

Alex Speier of WEEI.com takes a look at the oddity of Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Red Sox Hall of Famer and current NESN analyst Jim Rice has his Game 1 & 2 thoughts over at Ask 14.

Here’s 10 reasons the Rays are going down.

Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe has a video preview of Game 1.

I forgot this one in the morning but Jacoby Ellsbury checked in over at his postseason blog.

Dick Vitale agrees with Tim McCarver’s assessment of that guy who played left field for the Red Sox.

This poor Courtyard By Marriott worker has to wear a Rays jersey even though she is a Red Sox fan.

Lineups and batter/pitcher matchups after the jump.

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OctoNer? Really? OctoNer? WTF!

to Fenway West

Young Red Sox fall in line [Boston Herald]