Ok people, Josh Beckett is human. He gave up a run. Other than that 3-2 changeup to Pronk that landed in the bullpen, he threw really well. When his curveball is on, there’s really no stopping him out there. I know we all fully expected a close game last night and while we didn’t get it, the good thing is we were on the positive end of the win. What can I say about Big Papi and Manny? I could say don’t pitch to them at all, just walk them. But even that’s hard to do when you have Mike Lowell hitting behind them, 3 RBIs for Lowell last night. Overall last night, a great team effort. The Red Sox did the little things to get the job done. If there was a negative out of last night, it was the pitching of one Eric Gagné. I would have to think after last night’s poor 9th inning, we won’t be seeing him pitch at all anymore this postseason. You can’t blame Tito if he didn’t throw him anymore. I fully expect a great game tonight and a low scoring one between Fausto Carmona and Curt Schilling. But before the teams get to the Fens for Game 2 of the ALCS, let’s take a look at the headlines and happenings from the Boston and Cleveland area media as well what Kevin Youkilis had to say.

Strong Start [Yooooouuuuukkkkk]

Ortiz and Ramírez lead Red Sox’ rout [Boston Globe]

Behind 8 ball [The Plain Dealer]

Beckett lone pitcher to show up for duel [Boston Herald]

Hyped-up Sabathia’s wild and crazy outing huge disappointment [Akron Beacon Journal]

Offense Jumps On Sabathia And Beckett Wins Again [Hartford Courant]

Sox benefit from a productive approach at the plate [Pro Jo]

Big-game Beckett strikes again [Boston Globe]

Carmona’s job just got harder [The Plain Dealer]

Sox have most dangerous weapon [Boston Herald]

TRIBE ACE TRUMPED [Akron Beacon Journal]

With Manny, Papi Rolling, Can Anyone Stop Red Sox? [Hartford Courant]

Manny and David: Always on base [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.

Super sexy Texy from Center Field got the Red Sox a much needed ALCS gift basket.

The very beautiful Yankees Chick gives her top ten reasons why the Yankees lost.

The succulent Sooze from Babes Love Baseball tells us about Hurricane George.

The hottest USC fan, the Gridiron Goddess, wants to do the QB shuffle with you.

The Starter Wife from Ladies… has yet another tasty recipe for y’all.

Aaron from BostonSportz.com wants you to know Ben Loves Manny, Manny Loves Jen.

You Been Blinded has Bill Parcells’ 11 QB Commandments.

Dan from Red Sox Monster talks about the Red Sox Black Pearl bullpen.

Richie Rich from Home Run Derby thinks Dick Vitale should stick to college basketball.

The Big Lead wants to know if Rick Reilly was at the LSU/Florida football game last Saturday.

We Are the Postmen has a funny Redskins video.

Rick from Deadspin tells us that USC seniors are not smarter than a fifth grader.

With Leather tells us Kenny Rogers is a English rugby supporter.

Awful Announcing has video of David Letterman talking about how the Yankees are spending their postseason.

Fitzy went bowling with Ryan Neufield of the Buffalo Bills last week.

Jon Lester hopes to pitch for the Red Sox in the ALCS but if he doesn’t, he’ll still be happy.

Indians OF Grady Sizemore isn’t overlooked anymore.

Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Webb hopes to get another start to redeem himself.

Aaron Cook isn’t on the Rockies NLCS roster but he remains ready to pitch at any given time.

From Rotoworld:

Willy Taveras made a great catch to strand the tying run in the seventh and drew a bases-loaded walk to give the Rockies the lead in the 11th as Colorado beat Arizona 3-2 in Game 2 of the NLCS.

The Rockies head home with a commanding 2-0 series lead. Taveras’ catch came on Tony Clark’s liner into the gap with two outs and Eric Byrnes on first. With Byrnes off on contact, there’s little doubt he would have scored had the ball dropped. The Diamondbacks went on to tie the game up in the ninth, with Manny Corpas blowing the save, but poor baserunning from Stephen Drew hurt their chances of ending the game then, and they couldn’t score off Corpas in the 10th or off Ryan Speier in the 11th. Arizona will send Livan Hernandez out to oppose Josh Fogg in Sunday’s Game 3.

In a match up between Cy Young contenders on a blustery fall Friday night at Fenway, each of the aces gave up a first inning run. But unfortunately for the Cleveland Indians and C.C. Sabathia it didn’t stop there as the Tribe was pounded by the Boston Red Sox 10-3 in Game One of the American League Championship Series.

Every Red Sox starter had at least one hit, Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell each had 3 RBI and Jason Varitek and Bobby Kielty drove in 2 runs each to back the 6 inning, 2 run, 4 hit, 7 strike out performance of Josh Beckett.

Boston starter Beckett who had not allowed a post season run in more than two games was touched for a wind aided solo home run by Cleveland designated hitter Travis Hafner into the Indians bullpen. It was Hafner’s second post season home run this year and gave the team from the banks of the Cuyahoga River an early 1-0 lead. But Beckett did manage to strike out the side in the inning getting Grady Sizemore and Victor Martinez looking and Asdrubal Cabrera flailing at a breaking ball.

The Red Sox came back in the bottom of the inning against Chief Wahoo’s top gun Sabathia. After preserving his own life when Dustin Pedroia lined a bullet back up the middle that was hit harder than Sabathia threw it, he gave up consecutive two strike singles to center field to Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz. Then Ramirez followed suit with a single to center of his own to plate Youkilis and tie the game 1-1. Sabathia was able to wiggle out of the 1^st and 2^nd with one out jam by inducing Lowell to hit into a tailor made 4-6-3 twin killing.

After Sabathia struck out the side in the second inning, the Sox jumped on him for 4 runs in the third. Julio Lugo led off with a ground rule double, Pedroia sacrificed him to third. Youkilis walked after being down 0-2, Ortiz was hit by a pitch and now the bases were loaded for Ramirez who has 20 career grand slams but none in the post season among his major league high 22 career post season jacks. Ramirez quickly went into a 0-2 hole but battled back to get Sabathia to walk him and give Boston a 2-1 lead. Lowell followed with a ground rule double of his own off of Franklin Gutierrez’s glove and two more runs were plated and Sox had Big C.C. reeling and down 4-1. Kielty, playing in place of JD Drew, got an intentional walk to re-load the bases for Varitek. The captain grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Ramirez and now it was 5-1. Coco Crisp grounded out to Casey Blake at third to end the threat and get Sabathia out of the inning.

Meanwhile, since the Hafner homer, Beckett had set down 10 straight Wig-Wamers before he hit Ryan Garko with a pitch leading off the fifth but he was quickly erased when Jhonny Peralta bounced into a 6-4-3 double play. The ageless one, Kenny Lofton, who was robbed earlier in the game by a leaping, running catch by Ramirez, doubled down the left field line for the first Cleveland hit since the first inning homer. He was left standing there though as Gutierrez took a called third strike on a nasty curve from Beckett to hold the Tee Pee dwellers off the board again. It was the second whiff of the night for the young outfielder.

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According to a report by Buster Olney of ESPN.com, the Mitchell investigation into the use of steroids and other performing enhancing drugs is going to be released sometime between the end of the World Series and the New Year.

So who will be on it? Only the people familiar with the investigation know the names of the players involved. In the article, Olney states that there will be a plethora of players named, including some big household names. One person familiar with the conference call that happened today went as far to call it “salacious”.

Said one source familiar with what was said on the conference call, “This is going to be enormous … it’s going to be a huge story when these names come out.”

From what I can gather, it’s going to get ugly in the offseason for MLB and it’s players. It’s kind of sad too because it won’t matter who wins the World Series this year because it will quickly become old news as this report comes to light.

So who do we think is going to be on it? I just hope no Red Sox player is involved.

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: C.C. Sabathia

Red Sox

1. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
2. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Manny Ramirez, LF
5. Mike Lowell, 3B
6. Bobby Kielty, RF
7. Jason Varitek, C
8. Coco Crisp, CF
9. Julio Lugo, SS

SP – Josh Beckett

Here is a look at how the hitters for both teams have fared against both starting pitchers.

Also be sure to check out the ALCS song posted over at BostonSportz.com.

Lineups courtesy of Amalie Benjamin from the Boston Globe

The 2007 American League Championship Series gets underway in 5 hours and what better time than now to for Steve and I to give our predictions as to our winners. As usual my picks will be blue and Steve’s in red. To see our NLCS predictions, click here.

Some Grade A pitching matchups in the first two games with Cy Young candidates Josh Beckett and C.C. Sabathia squaring off in Game 1 and Curt Schilling and Fausto Carmona going toe-to-toe in Game 2. On paper, these two pitching matchups are a wash as they all have their strengths. The advantage to me goes to the Red Sox due to the experience that Beckett and Schilling have in the postseason. The Indians have Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore, Victor Martinez and Ryan Garko who lead the way their bats. David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Mike Lowell, and Dustin Pedroia do the same for the Red Sox. So where is this series won. It’s won from the bullpens. The bullpens of the two teams are evenly matched until you get to the closer. The Red Sox have the premier closer in Jonathan Papelbon while the Indians have a hittable Joe Borowski, who almost gave Indians fans a heart attack in Game 4 of the ALDS. Ultimately with Papelbon as the stopper, I see the Red Sox in 6 games.

Everyone is talking about the two teams top two starters, but you have to look at the 3 and 4 guys and the bullpens and this is where the Red Sox pitching will be better than the Indians. Who would you rather have closing games? Joe Borowski or Jonathan Papelbon? The Sox also have a ton of guys with experience in getting this far, and while Sabathia/Carmona and Beckett/Schilling on paper maybe a wash all you need to do is check the fingers for the bling.

Line up wise, the Indians were very dangerous against the Yankees with two out RBI. It will be up to the Sox pitching and defense not to put themselves into these positions very often. The Sox have thump with Ortiz, Ramirez and Lowell. The Indians have Hafner, Martinez and Garko. The lineups are pretty even but I think in the end the pitching will win the series. Red Sox in 7.

You can also see other predictions over at Red Sox Monster where Dan held another Red Sox blogger roundtable.

And of course it wouldn’t be an ALCS without a Fitzy Wicked Pissah webcast. I think y’all know the drill that his videos (non-ESPN ones that is) are NSFW

http://youtube.com/watch?v=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH5XjEcEcI4[/youtube]

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This Week

The New England Patriots visit the Dallas Cowboys at Texas Staduim in Irving TX at 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. Many in the media are saying the “Duel in Dallas” is a Super Bowl preview. This is the first time since 2004 two undefeated teams who are at least 5-0 have met. The teams are two of three unbeaten teams left in the league. Indianapolis is also 5-0.

The Patriots are 2-0 on the road this season, with wins against the Jets and Bengals. This is their first game this season against a NFC team. The Cowboys are 2-0 at home and 1-0 against AFC teams after a road win in Buffalo.

Here are the rosters for the Patriots and Cowboys.

The Line/Prediction

As of Friday the line on the game from Yahoo Sports is Patriots -5.5. The over/under is 53.

My prediction is Patriots 31, Cowboys, 24. Give the points and take the over. I am 5-0 against the spread and have called the over/under four out of five times in 2007.

Tickets

The game is reported as a sell out.

Tickets to game, if available, may be purchased through Ticketmaster. You can check the availability here. Many times tickets are released in the last 48 hours prior to the game.

Getting To The Game

If you’re lucky enough to be going to the game in the “Big D” make sure you check out the links.

Here is the up to date weather forecast for the game from weather.com.

Click for stadium directions, parking information, parking map and a Dallas Stadium seating chart.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television

CBS is televising the game, it is cleared for most of the county. The play-by-play duties will be handled by Jim Nantz with Phil Simms doing game analysis. You can check here to see if you are getting the game from CBS and look for your local CBS Station.

Radio

The Patriots Rock Radio Network broadcasts the game from flagship station WBCN-FM 104.1 in Boston. Gil Santos handles the play-by-play and former Patriot Gino Capelleti does the color.

It all starts with Gary Tanguay, Scott Zolak and Andy Gresch and the pregame show at 1 p.m. along the network.

The post game starts after the final gun and continues for three hours.

Check this out for the low down on the Patriots Rock Radio Network and stations in your area.

If you are outside of the broadcast area of the stations on the Patriots Rock Radio Network you can purchase NFL Field Pass which allows you to listen to any NFL game live. You can also pick which teams broadcasters you want to listen to.

All NFL games are also available on Sirius Satellite Radio. The Patriots radio call is available on Channel 122, the Cowboys radio call is available on Channel 123.

The game can also be heard nationally on Westwood One. Harry Kalas and Jim Fassel handle the announcing duties.

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