A better late than never look at the headlines today from the Boston and Cleveland area media plus Kevin Youkilis on this  tough morning in Red Sox Nation.

Play for the day [Yooooouuuuukkkkk]

It’s the pitching, not the decisions [Boston Globe]

A contagious fever [The Plain Dealer]

For starters, 1 and done [Boston Herald]

Martinez not worried about Sabathia [Akron Beacon Journal]

Wakefield Call Leaves Them Hung Up [Hartford Courant]

It seems the Sox are saving their worst for last [Pro Jo]

Red Sox offense is hit or (mostly) miss [Boston Globe]

Peralta’s sizzling autumn continues [The Plain Dealer]

Sox’ three straight homers loses its clout [Boston Herald]

BYRD IS THE WORD [Akron Beacon Journal]

It’s Time For Another Comeback [Hartford Courant]

Lester a bright spot [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.

Is it time to panic in Boston now? After tonight’s 7-3 beatdown by the Indians, I am going to have to say yes. I know this loss is hard on the fans and probably harder on the team. It’s very hard to sit here and write about it when you just all the sudden have gone flat. Given the way things were going in this game, I thought OK it’s going to be a close tight game. I never imagined it would turn into the rout that it did.

With the starting pitching we had going into the series, I never thought that Curt Schilling, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield would all last 4â…” innings in consecutive starts. I know that Terry Francona and Josh Beckett answered the questions of why Beckett didn’t pitch on three days rest but is it something that could haunt the Sox. Right now it’s looking that way. We can only hope and pray that Beckett can duplicate his Game 1 ALDS and ALCS starts to get us back to Boston on Saturday night. I have complete confidence that he can.

Paul Byrd pitched masterfully for 5 innings before the Sox struck for 2 runs off him and Jhonny Peralta hit a knife-in-the-chest 3-run homer in the Indians 7-run 5^th inning to lead the Indians to a 7-3 win and a 3-1 lead in the ALCS. Casey Blake hit a solo home run to start the onslaught for the Indians against Tim Wakefield who had pitched well for the first four innings.

Byrd could have been affected by the long wait after his teammates gave him a 7-run lead to work with. He was pretty nasty with his stuff allowing just four singles before the back-to-back jacks by Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz to start the 6^th inning. He also struck out four Red Sox hitters.

The Red Sox went quietly in their half of the 1^st inning. The Indians did manage a walk to Sizemore, who also stole second, but that was all.

In the 2^nd, the Red Sox got a leadoff single from Manny off of Byrd and he would get to second on a Mike Lowell ground out. Byrd finished off the inning with strikeouts of J.D. Drew and Coco Crisp. The Sox got two singles in the 3^rd off Byrd, both coming with two outs. Byrd had gotten Julio Lugo and Doug Mirabelli, then Pedroia and Youk followed with singles. Big Papi ended the inning by grounding into a fielder’s choice.

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Here are the lineups for tonight’s pivotal game 4 matchup in Cleveland. Pregame show starts at 7 on NESN and coverage of the game starts at 8 on FOX. First pitch from Paul Byrd is scheduled for 8:21 PM. The weather is kind of dreary in Cleveland right now.

Click here for the weather.com radar. You can click on local stadiums and then click on the Jacobs Field button and it will show what it’s doing at the Jake.

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. Coco Crisp, cf
8. Doug Mirabelli, c
9. Julio Lugo, ss

Tim Wakefield, SP

Indians

1. Grady Sizemore, cf
2. Asdrubal Cabrera, 2b
3. Travis Hafner, dh
4. Victor Martinez, 1b
5. Jhonny Peralta, ss
6. Kenny Lofton, lf
7. Casey Blake, 3b
8. Franklin Gutierrez, rf
9. Kelly Shoppach, C

Paul Byrd, SP

Here is a look of how the two teams have fared against tonight’s starting pitchers.

Lineups courtesy of the ProJo SoxBlog

Mike Vrabel was fined $5,000 by the NFL for the late hit in the game against Cleveland. Browns OL Eric Steinbach accused Vrabel of diving at his knees.

Randy Moss on Tom Brady, who is on pace for 56 TD passes to break Peyton Manning’s single season TD pass record of 49.

“I’ve always been a big fan of his. I’ve always had the saying that Peyton Manning has his wide receivers, why can’t Tom have his?” said Moss.

“Now that Tom has his, we’ll see.”

Brady is completing 72.5 percent of his passes, which could shatter Ken Anderson’s completion record of 70.55 set in 1982.

Did you know that Brady conducts a players only meeting every week the day before the game? It involves all the receivers and quarterbacks and no coaches are allowed. He feels it puts everyone on the same page for the game.

When Terrell Owens was asked about Moss after the game, the “original 81” said “next question”. At least they think he did he was too busy eating popcorn.

This week the Patriots play the winless Dolphins in Miami and it seems the Fish maybe already giving up. Today they traded their best wide receiver Chris Chambers to the San Diego Chargers for a 2^nd round draft pick in the 2008 draft. Chambers made the Pro-Bowl in 2005 when he caught 11 TD passes and had 1,118 receiving yards.

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Sorry for the lack of posts today, I had a doctor’s appointment that leads to another one tomorrow. Oh the joys of life.

After the University of Kentucky’s upset win over LSU on Saturday night, 22 people were arrested on a slew of charges. there was couches on fires, cars on fire, you name it, it was done in Lexington after the big game.

In other news out of Lexington, Kentucky wide receiver Anthony Stewart was arrested for drug trafficking.

Some idiot fans rooting for the University of Mississippi were arrested for throwing garbage onto the field against their game with the Nick Saban led Alabama Crimson Tide. The Tide won the SEC game 27-24. It was so bad that a photographer had his head bloodied and Saban made his players put their helmets on.

“There is no class in that,” Saban said. “I just want our players to represent the university with class. If (Ole Miss fans) want to be classless, that’s their business.”

In sticking with the arrest theme, three Coastal Carolina freshman football players were kicked off the team after they were arrested on various drug and weapons charges. The police found 3 pounds of marijuana, two guns and $1,345 dollars in cash in the car. Not a bright move by the three.

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Is it panic time in Red Sox Nation? Kevin Youkilis says we don’t need to panic. I may have been a little harsh on Dice-K last night in the game recap but it’s frustrating to watch him pitch at times. I do agree with Steve’s assessment that he should not be entirely blamed for last night at all. The Red Sox just got outpitched last night. Jake Westbrook’s stuff was phenomenal and the credit should go to him. Am I a little bit nervous about tonight’s game. Yes, a little bit but since Youk said not to panic, I won’t. So while we are waiting weather updates from the Jake today, let’s take a look at the headlines from the Boston and Cleveland area media and see why Youk says not to panic.

No time to panic. [Yooooouuuuukkkkk]

Dicey situation [Boston Globe]

Lofton’s shot recalls falls past [The Plain Dealer]

Dice-K’s not hot [Boston Herald]

Ortiz, Ramirez go quiet in night [Akron Beacon Journal]

By Josh, Francona Should Alter Rotation [Hartford Courant]

They’ve made their bed, but will they die in it? [Pro Jo]

Veteran Wakefield is game for this start [Boston Globe]

A scene and a feeling [The Plain Dealer]

Papi on wounded knee [Boston Herald]

Fox Sports broadcasters an improvement over TBS [Akron Beacon Journal]

Wakefield Making Last Start? [Hartford Courant]

Francona, Varitek stay upbeat despite Dice-K’s latest struggle [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.

Red Sox skipper Terry Francona is sticking with a struggling J.D. Drew instead of using Jacoby Ellsbury.

Indians SS Jhonny Peralta has had a strong start to his postseason career.

Rockies pitcher Aaron Cook had quite a sizable crowd watching his workout on Monday.

Diamondbacks skipper Bob Melvin had a difficult time deciding about whether or not to start Brandon Webb in Monday night’s game. He didn’t start him and they lost.

The Colorado Rockies have done it. They have swept the Diamondbacks in the NLCS to advance to the World Series starting October 24th in either Boston or Cleveland.

An improbable run having won 21 of their last 22 games to put themselves in this position. This is the first time in their history that they will go to the World Series.

The Rockies will now have a wait of eight days like the Detroit Tigers did last year.

From Rotoworld:

Matt Holliday hit a three-run homer as the Rockies scored all of their runs in the fourth inning Monday to win 6-4 and complete a sweep of the NLCS.

My congratulations goes out to the Rockies organization, it’s players and it’s fans.

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Jake Westbrook scattered 7 hits over over 6â…” innings, giving up just two runs as the Indians bullpen came in and helped preserve a 4-2 victory for the Erie Warriors. The star of the game was Westbrook as his sinker was butt nasty tonight. Of the 20 outs he got, 14 of those came on the ground with 6 of them on double plays.

With all the hoopla surrounding, the top two starters for the Tribe, you wouldn’t have thought Westbrook would throw as well as he did given his history against the Sox. But as I have been saying all along, throw out the past history and play for today.

Westbrook sent the Red Sox down quietly in the 1^st inning. He struck out Dustin Pedroia and then walked Kevin Youkilis. He ended the inning as David Ortiz grounded into a 4-5-3 double play. With the Westbrook’s sinker working, you knew the night has the possibility of a lot of double play outs.

Daisuke Matsuzaka had his stuff working in the 1^st as well. After a Grady Sizemore ground out, Dice-K struck out Asdrubal Cabrera and Travis Hafner.

The visiting nine from Boston blew a chance to break open the game in the 2^nd inning. Westbrook walked the leadoff hitter Manny Ramirez. Mike Lowell then reached on a single. Westbrook got a ground ball on the next batter, J.D. Drew, but Ryan Garko obviously hasn’t taken ballet as the ball hit his glove and he fell over allowing all the base runners to be safe. This set up a bases loaded situation for the Captain, Jason Varitek. Unfortunately, he was unable to bring home Manny from third as he popped a short fly ball to left for the first out. Westbrook got out of the inning as Coco Crisp grounded into a 6-3 double play.

Matsuzaka started the Indians half of the 2^nd by getting the hot-hitting Victor Martinez to ground out. Garko followed that up with a single. Dice-K then got Jhonny Peralta to strikeout for the second out of the inning. Kenny Lofton would put the Indians on the board with a 2-run homer that just got over the outstretched glove of Drew in right field. Dice-K was able to get out of the inning though as he got the original Dirt Dog, Trot Nixon, to ground out.

After going quietly in the 3^rd inning, the Sox squandered another great opportunity to close the 2-0 Indians lead in the 4^th. Big Papi led off with a double to left center. The next batter, Manny, grounded a ball to short but Big Papi couldn’t jump high enough and the ball hit him for the first out of the inning and Manny was safe at first with a single. Westbrook then got Lowell to ground into a fielder’s choice and Drew grounded out.

In the Indians half of the 3^rd inning, Dice-K gave up a single and a walk but that was it. He ended the 3^rd with a strikeout of Martinez. He set the side down in order in the 4^th. The 5^th inning was a different story though.

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