Baseball can be a funny game. You could go your entire career without ever playing in a World Series, let alone playing in the playoffs. Just ask Todd Helton from the Colorado Rockies. This was his first playoff appearance this season. For guys like Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Hideki Okajima and Daisuke Matsuzaka among others this was their first appearance in the postseason and now they are going after the ultimate prize in Major League Baseball, the World Series trophy.

Some of the Red Sox players have been there before with this team or others. Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell won a World Series trophy with the Marlins in 2003. Curt Schilling won one in Arizona in 2001 along with Boston in 2004. Jason Varitek, Mike Timlin, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Tim Wakefield, and Doug Mirabelli all were members of the 2004 team as well. Kevin Youkilis only played in the ALDS that year.

There were so many heroes in this ALCS for the Sox that Josh Beckett said it best, “This [ALCS MVP] trophy could go to just about anyone on this team”. It was fitting that the first person Beckett hugged on the field was Lowell as they have been playing together for a while now dating back to their Marlins days.

I, for one, can’t wait to watch the World Series starting on Wednesday night. It’s going to be a great one especially with the Rockies coming in having won 21 of their last 22 games. The Rox did take 2 of 3 from Boston this year at the Fens but as I have said in the past, you throw away what happened in the regular season.

It was a fitting end to the ALCS last night when you have the two best teams in the American League playing for the right to go to the World Series in a winner takes all game. With their backs to the wall since Game 5, the Red Sox came back and showed why they were picked to win the World Series by many of the pundits before the season started.

So while you’re recovering from last night, let’s take a look at the headlines after the jump from last night’s game from the Boston and Cleveland area media as well as Youk and Schill on this great SOXTOBER morning.

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Dustin Pedroia broke open a close game in the 7th inning with a 2-run homer as the Sox would erupt for 6 more in the 8th as they beat the Indians 11-2. The win gave them an almost improbable American League Championship as they overcame a 3-1 deficit for the second time in four years.

Daisuke Matsuzka gave the Bosox five effective innings as the bullpen would do the work the rest of the way. Hideki Okajima was brilliant tonight and Jonathan Papelbon finished it off with his first career 6-out save.

Dice-K had a relatively easy 1st inning on the bump. He got Grady Sizemore and Asdrubal Cabrera to pop out to Pedroia at second. He then ended the top half of the 1st with a strikeout of big Travis Hafner. Dice-K’s command looked to be there in the 1st and the Sox would hope it would continue.

The Red Sox came out swinging in the their half of the 1st. Pedroia led off with a single and went to second on a Kevin Youkilis single. Jake Westbrook then got his first strikeout of the night as David Ortiz went down swinging. Manny Ramirez kept his hot bat going as he singled into left center to drive in Pedroia from second to put the local nine up 1-0. Mike Lowell followed that up with the fourth single of the inning to load up the bases for last night’s hero J.D. Drew. Unfortunately for the Sox, Westbrook threw a sinker to Drew who grounded into a 6-4-3 inning ending double play, allowing Westbrook to escape a huge jam.

The Indians went quietly as in the 2nd inning as Dice-K had his pitches working for him. Victor Martinez hit a soft liner to Lowell at third. Lowell would actually end up being in on all three outs of the inning as Ryan Garko and Jhonny Peralta grounded out to him as well.

Jason Varitek led off the 2nd for the Sox with a double as Westbrook’s struggles continued. Westbrook jammed Jacoby Ellsbury but Ellsbury got just enough muscle on it to get it past Peralta at short with the Captain holding up at third. Westbrook then got Julio Lugo to hit a sinker for another double play as the Indians got the two outs and gave up the run to give the Bosox a 2-0 lead. Westbrook finished the inning by getting Pedroia to fly out to Lofton for the third out.

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That’s right folks, in the end, there can be only one. So who is it going to be. Red Sox or Indians? Sound off in the comments.

Here are tonight’s starting lineups. The only change is that Franklin Gutierrez replaces Trot Nixon in the Tribe’s lineup.

Red Sox

1. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
2. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Manny Ramirez, LF
5. Mike Lowell, 3B
6. J.D. Drew, RF
7. Jason Varitek, C
8. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
9. Julio Lugo, SS

SP – Daisuke Matsuzaka

Indians

1. Grady Sizemore, CF
2. Asdrubal Cabrera, 2B
3. Travis Hafner, DH
4. Victor Martinez, C
5. Ryan Garko, 1B
6. Jhonny Peralta, SS
7. Kenny Lofton, LF
8. Franklin Gutierrez, RF
9. Casey Blake, 3B

SP – Jake Westbrook

Here is a look at how the teams have done against tonight’s starting pitchers.

And our super sexy friend Texy wants to tell you who’s coming to dinner tonight?

Lineups courtesy of Amalie Benjamin from the Boston Globe.

Batter/Pitcher numbers courtesy of the Red Sox game notes.

The Result

The New England Patriots went into their personal aquarium of horrors on Sunday afternoon and totally dismantled a severely outmatched Miami Dolphins team, 49-28, to improve to 7-0 on the season.

The only thing that could have saved the Dolphins from this beating was Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. Tom Brady threw for 6 touchdown passes going long twice to a leaping Randy Moss, twice to Wes Welker and once each to Donte` Stallworth and Kyle Brady.

The Patriots even had a 77 yard kick off return for a touchdown by Willie Andrews that answered Miami’s first score.

The defense forced a pair of turnovers by Cleo Lemon a 1^st quarter fumble and a 3^rd quarter interception.

Scoring Plays

1^st Quarter

• NE – Brady 30 yard TD pass to Stallworth – kick good – 7-0 Patriots
• NE – Brady 3 yard TD to Brady – kick good – 14-0 Patriots

2^nd Quarter

• MIA – Lemon 5 yard run – kick good – 14-7 Patriots
• NE – Andrews 77 yard kick return – kick good – 21-7 Patriots
• NE – Brady 35 yard TD pass to Moss – kick good – 28-7 Patriots
• NE – Brady 50 yard TD pass to Moss – kick good – 35-7 Patriots
• NE – Brady 14 yard TD pass to Welker – kick good – 42-7 Patriots

3^rd Quarter

• None

4^th Quarter

• MIA – Cobbs 2 yard run – kick good – 42-14 Patriots
• MIA – Taylor 36 yard interception return – kick good – 42-21 Patriots
• NE – Brady 16 yard TD pass to Welker – kick good – 49-21 Patriots
• MIA – Chatman 7 yard run – kick good – 49-28 Patriots

Offensive Player of the Game

Tom Brady completed 21 of 25 passes for 354 yards with 6 TD’s and 0 INT’s.

Defensive Player of the Game

Tedy Bruschi had 12 tackles to lead the team.

Turning Point(s) of the Game

Patriots answer Miami’s first TD with a 77 yard TD on a kick off return.

Offensive Leaders/Notes

In addition to Brady, Wes Welker had 9 catches for 138 yards and 2 TD’s and Randy Moss had 4 catches for 122 yards and 2 TD’s.

Laurence Maroney looked good on the first drive after not seeing any game action in three weeks but only carried the ball 6 times in the game.

Donte` Stallworth bounced off three Dolphin defenders going 30 yards for the first TD of the game.

The Patriots used three different running backs in the first two drives Maroney, Kevin Faulk and Heath Evans.

After not having a TD catch in two seasons Kyle Brady now has TD catches in consecutive weeks.

Former Dolphin WR Wes Welker went 36 yards for a 1st down in the second quarter.

Randy Moss made a great leaping catch over two Dolphins defenders for a 35-yard TD catch in the second quarter.

Former Dolphin RB Evans grabbed 29 yards on a second quarter screen pass.

Moss made his second TD catch in double coverage just like the first when he out jumped two defenders.

Brady tried to pull a Dan Marino in the final seconds of the half but Moss was out of bounds despite the one handed catch.

Matt Cassel was intercepted on his first drive by Jason Taylor who returned it for a TD.

Upon Brady’s return to the game he led the Patriots on yet another scoring drive.

Brady was pulled in the fourth quarter in favor of his backup, Matt Cassel. Brady returned to the game after the interception return for the TD.

Matt Gutierrez the Patriots third string quarterback finished up the game. Brady was seen hitting on cheerleaders, while Cassel was seen learning how to look off receivers.

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Come on down Paul Byrd, your next on who has purchased illegal performance-enhancing drugs. That’s right, Byrd has been linked to the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center investigation into the distribution of steroids, HGH and other illegal PED’s.

According to a report in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, Byrd allegedly bought $24,850 of HGH and syringes. The amount of HGH he purchased was over a 1,000 vials.

It all started back in 2002 when he was a member of the Kansas City Royals. He bought 12 boxes of HGH. Each box held 15 vials. Byrd missed the 2003 season due to an elbow injury.

In 2004, he was a member of the Atlanta Braves and received two shipments of HGH. He even had the balls to have one of them shipped to the Braves spring training complex at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex. In July of that year, he had one shipped to the hotel the Braves were staying at in New York City.

His last purchase of HGH came one week before MLB banned it. According to the source in the investigation, two of the prescriptions were written by a dentist who was later convicted of fraud and incompetence. Well, it’s a no wonder he was incompetent if he was giving HGH to patients when he should have been doing root canals or pulling teeth.

In the past, Byrd had been quoted as saying he had never used steroids:

“Kids need to know that when they tested us, only 7 percent (of major-leaguers) tested positive for steroids,” he was quoted as saying. “Everyone isn’t using steroids, and you don’t have to use them to succeed.”

“I strongly disagree with the use of steroids and cheating in the game,” he said. “I have a huge problem with that. I work as hard as I can to compete within the rules.”

Ummmm, Paul, you obviously don’t have a huge problem with it as you had the drugs shipped to the Braves spring training complex and even a hotel on the road while with the Braves.

For me the timing of this story is a strange one. Why did the editors at the San Francisco Chronicle choose to publish this story on the morning of the Game 7 of the ALCS? It’s bad enough that it happened (him purchasing HGH that is) at all but to release it when Byrd and his Indians teammates don’t need the biggest distraction of them all. Couldn’t they have waited until tomorrow or did they want to sell more Sunday papers?

As a Red Sox fan, I want the Indians to have all the distractions that they can tonight. But as a baseball fan, I don’t want to see something like this take away from a big game, especially one in which a berth in the World Series will be decided.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how the crowd at Fenway Park reacts tonight.

Given the numbers that J.D. Drew has put up this season for the Red Sox, you could only hope that he would make a difference this postseason. I said last night to one of my friends, hopefully the double that Drew had in the 9th inning of Game 5 would get him going for the next game. I guess you could say I saw the future because Drew hit a grand slam in his first at-bat and a RBI single in second AB. He ended up going 3 for 5 with 5 RBIs on the night. Even the fan’s choice to start, Jacoby Ellsbury delivered a RBI single in the fatal 6-run 3rd inning for Fausto Carmona and the Indians.

Schilling kept his postseason lore throwing 7 innings, giving up 6 hits, 2 runs and 5 strikeouts. He didn’t walk anyone. He’s now 4-0 in 5 postseason elimination games he’s started in his career (2 with the Phillies and 2 with the Red Sox).

Red Sox Nation now turns it collective eyes to Daisuke Matsuzaka as he will try to get the Red Sox back into the World Series. Will he do it? You’ll have to tune in tonight at 8:00 PM ET on FOX to find out. So while we’re waiting for 8:00 PM ET to roll around, let’s take a look at the headlines from today’s papers in the Boston and Cleveland area.

Matsuzaka is prepared to take it to limit [Boston Globe]

Cleveland Indians manager Eric Wedge says he has reason to stay calm [The Plain Dealer]

Curt turns back clock [Boston Herald]

No time for Hafner to be ‘in between’ [Akron Beacon Journal]

First-Inning Slam Backs Schilling As Sox Force Game 7 [Hartford Courant]

Who knew Drew would rise to the occasion? [Pro Jo]

Front and center for Ellsbury [Boston Globe]

Fausto, Perez: Sixth wince [The Plain Dealer]

Seeing Drew value in J.D. [Boston Herald]

Wedge to call on Westbrook for much-needed rescue [Akron Beacon Journal]

Tribe’s Aces Fall Short [Hartford Courant]

With apologies to Crisp, Francona had to play Ellsbury [Pro Jo]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant, Providence Journal, The Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon Journal websites.

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For most of the season, Red Sox fans were not too happy with the play of J.D. Drew and were booing him a lot. In tonight’s Game 6 of the ALCS, Drew probably erased the memories from the regular season with a postseason game to remember. His grand slam in the 1^st inning and RBI single in the 3^rd inning gave the Red Sox a 5-0 lead on their way to a 12-2 win over the Indians. Drew ended up the night 3 for 5 with 5 RBIs.

The win by the Sox sets up a decisive Game 7 tomorrow night at the Fens. First pitch is at 8:23 PM ET and will be on FOX. Daisuke Matsuzaka will toe the rubber for the Sox while Jake Westbrook will do the same for the Tribe.

Curt Schilling was able to do what only Josh Beckett had done in this ALCS for the Red Sox, pitch longer than 4â…” innings. While Schilling didn’t have his best stuff to start, he got better as the game went on and gave the Red Sox seven strong innings. Of course when your team gets you four runs in the 1^st and six in the 3^rd, it makes pitching a whole heck of lot easier.

Schilling had no problems with the Tribe batters in the 1^st. He got ground outs of Grady Sizemore and Asdrubal Cabrera. He had almost surrendered a home run to Sizemore around Pesky’s Pole but the umpires said it was to the right of the pole. He ended it with a strikeout of the struggling Travis Hafner.

Fausto Carmona was hoping to avoid a repeat of what happened in Game 2 but that was not to be tonight. Dustin Pedroia led off with an infield single and Kevin Youkilis followed that with an infield single of his own. Carmona then issued a free pass to David Ortiz to load up the base for the new Red Sox spokesman, Manny Ramirez. Manny, who had walked in his three previous bases loaded at-bats during the LCS, ended up striking out. Mike Lowell took the first pitch he saw from Carmona and hit a short fly ball to Trot Nixon in right field. Due to the short fly ball, Pedroia could not tag and remained at third base. Carmona then fell behind Drew 3-1 and left the next pitch, a fastball, over the plate for Drew to drive into the photographer’s well in center field for a grand slam. Carmona then issued a walk to Jason Varitek. He did get out of the inning though as he got Jacoby Ellsbury, starting for Coco Crisp, to ground back to him to end the carnage in the 1^st.

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Here are we are just under four hours from the first pitch of tonight’s must-win game for the Red Sox and the lineups are already posted.

The only change to the Red Sox lineup is that Jacoby Ellsbury is replacing Coco Crisp in center field. For the Indians, Trot Nixon replaces Franklin Gutierrez.

Red Sox

1. Dustin Pedroia 2B
2. Kevin Youkilis 1B
3. David Ortiz DH
4. Manny Ramirez LF
5. Mike Lowell 3B
6. J.D. Drew RF
7. Jason Varitek C
8. Jacoby Ellsbury CF
9. Julio Lugo SS

Curt Schilling P

INDIANS

1. Grady Sizemore CF
2. Asdrubal Cabrera 2B
3. Travis Hafner DH
4. Victor Martinez C
5. Ryan Garko 1B
6. Jhonny Peralta SS
7. Kenny Lofton LF
8. Trot Nixon RF
9. Casey Blake 3B

Fausto Carmona P

Here is a look at how the teams have done against the starting pitchers in their careers.

Lineups courtesy of the ProJo SoxBlog

Batter/Pitcher numbers courtesy of the Red Sox game notes.