The Boston Red Sox held a workout this afternoon in Anaheim and during that time Josh Beckett threw a side session in preparation for Sunday. And by all accounts, Beckett came through with flying colors.

“It was a pretty aggressive side, but I think we probably needed to do that,” said Francona. “You’re always checking on health [with all players], but with Josh it’s important. He needs to know going into his start that he has what is available and what he needs to win. Nothing was cut short. His fastball had some finish to it and he threw all his pitches.”

Obviously the big test will come tomorrow when Beckett wakes up and sees how he feels. Hopefully he’ll feel fine and be ready to go at the Fens on Sunday.

The Big East Conference released the full list of the conference’s nationally televised women’s basketball games and the UConn Huskies will have a total of 9 games on the ESPN Family of Networks, CBS and CBS College Sports Television.

The Huskies will play 4 games on ESPN2, along with 2 on ESPNU and 1 each on ESPN, CBS and CBS College Sports Television. The games on ESPNU and CBS College Sports Television really shouldn’t be counted as national television games though since they don’t reach all the homes in the country.

UConn’s first national tv game will come against women’s basketball power Oklahoma on November 30th. Their next game on national tv will come on ESPNU against Penn State in the Maggie Dixon Classic on December 14th. Fortunately for us in Connecticut, we will be able to see that game as CPTV will be picking up the feed of the game. The other ESPNU game comes against the Notre Dame Fightin’ Irish on February 22nd.

The lone CBS game on the schedule is a matchup with the LSU Tigers that will start at noon on January 3rd. This will be the 4th straight season the Huskies and Lady Tigers have matched up against one another.

The ESPN2 portion of the schedule kicks off with a game against the North Carolina Tar Heels on January 19th. They will also play the Louisville Cardinals on January 16th and the Pittsburgh Panthers on February 15th as well as the Big East finale against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

Finally, the lone CBS College Sports Television game comes on February 3rd when the Huskies host the Scarlet Knights.

CPTV is expected to announce their television schedule in the near future. I’d fully expect them to cover most if not all of the games the Huskies play that aren’t on national television as they have done in years past.

Yawn! It was a late night for baseball as we watched the Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim behind the pitching of Jon Lester and the bats of Jacoby Elllsbury and Jason Bay. For the Angels, it was their 10th straight loss to the Red Sox in the postseason. For the Red Sox, it was their 8th straight postseason win.

Josh Beckett was supposed to start Game 1 until the oblique injury sidelined him until a probable Game 3 start. So what does Red Sox skipper Terry Francona do? He inserts the ace of 2008 in Lester, who also happens to have been named pitcher of the month for September. And oh yeah, he bumps up 18-game winner Daisuke Matsuzaka from a Game 3 start to one in Game 2.

Lester may not have been the best pitcher early as Angels starter John Lackey was nearly perfect early on. But that baseball, she’s a funny game and can turn on a drop of a dime. And that’s what happened when Bay took advantage of a Lackey mistake and crushed a 2-run homer. The runs for the Red Sox seemed to make Lester even stronger as he made the Angels hitters look like Little League hitters in the 6th inning as he struck out the side.

Francona showed confidence in the young lefty in the 7th inning as Lester’s pitch count was at 106. All Lester did was shut down the side in order as he retired the last 7 batters he faced in the game.

“He was throwing the ball really well,” said the skipper. “There was no reason to take him out.”

I’m pretty sure we all know this, but Jacoby Ellsbury loves the postseason.

Mike Timlin was disappointed about not being on the Red Sox postseason roster.

The Angels problems in October continued last night.

The biggest test for Josh Beckett comes this afternoon when he will throw his bullpen session.

The Angels offensive upgrades didn’t help them out last night.

Mike Lowell battled through last night’s game with his hip injury and played all 9 innings.

Jeff Mathis will start at catcher for the Angels in Game 2.

Kevin Youkilis’ play in the 8th inning turned out to be huge for the Red Sox.

Jacoby Ellsbury talks about his diving catch in the 8th inning.

One of the keys of the Red Sox postseason success this year will be the right arm of Jonathan Papelbon.

Before last night, defending World Series Champions had not won a playoff game since 2001.

All of the Boston Globe scribes have their video roundups of the game.

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe will be chatting over at Boston.com at 12 Noon today.

For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Providence Journal websites.

And if you must see what the enemy papers are saying you can check out the LA Times, Orange County Register and LA Daily News websites.

Yes I know I said no UConn Huskies football news today but this one was too good to pass up.

As you may or may not know, UConn head coach Randy Edsall said that his QB1 Zach Frazer would be off limits to the media this week. A good portion of the Huskies beat writers were not happy about this but thanks to defensive lineman Rob Lunn, they now have some quotes from Frazer.

It would be an injustice for me to cut and paste any part of the post from Lunn, so instead I will send you over to Thoughts From a Fat White Guy to read Lunn’s interview with Frazer.

Jon Lester gave the Boston Red Sox 7 strong innings and Jason Bay’s 2-run home run in the 6th inning got them on the scoreboard as they went on to a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in front of 44,996 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. The win tonight was the 10th straight postseason win for the Red Sox over the Angels, a streak that dates back to 1986.

Jon Lester had another great outing in the playoffs for the Red Sox with 7 strong innings.

Lester was outstanding for the Red Sox tonight. He started out a little slow but per his norm, he got stronger as the night went on. He went 7 innings, allowing 1 unearned run on 6 hits while walking just 1 and fanning 7 on 117 pitches. Justin Masterson worked an inning allowing 2 hits. Jonathan Papelbon allowed a hit in the 9th but struck out the side.

Jacoby Ellsbury was on base all 5 times he was at the plate as he went 3-for-5 with an RBI and 2 stolen bases. Bay was 2-for-4 with the 2-run homer and a double. Big Papi had a hit and a RBI and Jed Lowrie and Kevin Youkilis had the other hits for the visiting nine in the win.

Ellsbury led off the game with a double off of Halos starter John Lackey. He would get as far as third as Dustin Pedroia grounded out to Lackey, Big Papi grounded out to second and Kevin Youkilis grounded out to third.

Lester had a rough go of things in the bottom half of the inning but escaped unscathed.

After Chone Figgins grounded out, Garrett Anderson and Mark Teixeira had back-to-back singles. Lester got Vlad Guerrero to fly out to short right for the second out but walked Torii Hunter to load up the bases. He escaped any damage when Howie Kendrick grounded into a fielder’s choice for the final out.

Both pitchers went 1-2-3 in the 3rd inning to keep the score tied at 0.

Lackey started the 3rd inning by hitting Jed Lowrie on a 0-2 breaking ball. He then got back-to-back fielder’s choices by Jason Varitek and Ellsbury with the runner out at second each time. Pedroia worked a walk but Big Papi popped out to short to end the inning.

Lester struck out Figgins to start the bottom half of the inning and Anderson followed with his second hit of the game. After Teixeira struck out, Vlad reached on Lowrie’s error. The error would prove costly as Hunter drove in Anderson on a jam shot to left field to put the Angels up 1-0. Lester recovered though as he got Kendrick to ground out.

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The time has come that we’ve been waiting for since the Boston Red Sox took the field in Tokyo, Japan to open up the 2008 season. That’s right, it’s playoff time.

Tonight the Red Sox take on the Los Angeles Angels in the 1st game of their best-of-5 American League Division Series. The Red Sox have swept the Angels in 2 of the past 4 season in the ALDS and have won 9 straight games against the Angels in the postseason dating back to 1986.

Forget about the past, forget about the fact that the Angels won 100 games this year and won 8-of-9 against the Red Sox this season. This series comes down to who ends up with the better pitching. If Josh Beckett is healthy enough to start Game 3 and the Red Sox get solid pitching from Jon Lester tonight and Daisuke Matsuzaka on Friday night, I like the Red Sox chances.

Lester has made 3 postseason appearances for the Red Sox and is 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA. He was the winning pitcher in the closing game of the 2007 World Series in Colorado. Lester made 1 start against the Angels this season and received a no decision, giving up 4 runs in 5 innings of work. Lester has made 4 regular season starts against the Angels and is 1-0 with a 7.78 ERA.

John Lackey starts for Mike Scioscia’s Angels tonight and has made 14 regular season starts against the Red Sox in his career. He is 3-6 with a 5.54 ERA. In 2008, he was 2-0 with a 2.81 ERA in 2 starts against them this season. He has faced the Red Sox in the postseason once and took the loss in Game 1 of the 2007 ALDS when he gave up 4 runs in 6 innings.

Red Sox groundskeeper Dave Mellor watches baseball highlights for the mowing patterns on the field. I do have to admit I did the same thing when I was cutting the field at Yale Field during my New Haven Ravens days.

Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe talks about the starters tonight and the decisions the Red Sox made with their ALDS roster.

Angels skipper Mike Scioscia talks about how injuries affect both teams.

Terry Francona talked about the health of Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew before the game.

Francona also talked about his reasoning for the way the Red Sox set up their playoff roster.

One of the keys for the Red Sox could be the bat and legs of Jacoby Ellsbury.

Jonathan Papelbon is ready for the playoffs.

The Curly Haired Boyfriend talks about the importance of Game 1, especially for the Angels.

The Maniacal One has some obscure facts about the 2008 Red Sox season.

Gary Marbry of WEEI.com has some more postseason nuggets for us.

Alex Speier of WEEI.com takes a look at teams in the playoffs that have won 100 regular season games.

Lineups and batter/pitcher matchups after the jump

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I know some of y’all out there are numbers people like myself so here is a look at how members of the Boston Red Sox have finished in the Top 10 of some of the statistical categories in the American League this season.

Numbers after the jump

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