2004 ALDS Game 3: 8-6
2007 ALDS Game 3: 9-1

Josh Beckett. Fenway Park. Playoff Baseball...it doesn't get any better than this.

It's time to put them out of their misery. End this now. You have done well, Mr. Cleanwell.

the one and only kelly barons!

win.

J.D. Drew may sit tonight

Headed to Boston in a couple hours....Pats then Sox it should be a glorious day.

HANTA YO

I think sitting Drew against Saunders would be a smart move - they have a 2-0 series lead with two games coming at the Fens, and it can't hurt to give Crisp some reps against a guy he has had success against in the past. The goal is a World Series title, and conserving Drew when you have the chance (like the regular season) is naturally a smart play.

I know it IS the playoffs, but this is a pretty low-risk move.

I don't mean to quibble, but it might be more than low risk. Depending on how his back feels, starting Drew tonight could be risky his continued availability throughout the playoffs, and with the lefty going, getting another righty bat into the line-up makes sense.

I'm on the way up to the Boston area on the train and it's very gray here in southern Connecticut. Any weather issues anticipated in Boston tonight? I saw the weather.com report which looked pretty tame -- save some light showers at around 10 PM.

Last, and unrelated, I'm still shaking my head at the plays Youks has made in the field in this series. I'm glad he's not coming into a contract year.

Win it for Kelly Barons.

Yeah, I know. That's what I said.

HANTA YOUK

ALDS GAME 3 10/5/08-- Jose Ain't Got His Taco

It’s time for Jose Melendez’s KEYS TO THE ALDS.

1. Jose was hungry.

Not hungry like the Yankees after an impossibly long eight years without a championship, but still pretty hungry. He wanted something salty, something savory.

“Tacos!” he thought to himself. “Tacos would be fantastic.” To his great good fortune he no longer lived in the Mexican food wasteland known as Boston, so there was an actual chance of getting some decent Mexican food.

An authentic dive taqueria emerged from the glare of the noontime sun to his left, and Jose lopped a lazy left into the parking lot. Excited, obsessed even, he scampered out of the car and stomped towards the impending deliciousness.

Something wasn’t right. Jose felt too light, empty almost. At first he thought it was only his ravenous hunger but then he realized that he was literally too light. His keys were missing.

Now at first this might not sound too bad. So what if Jose didn’t have his KEYS. Why would he need KEYS for a taco stand? That was not the problem. Even if Jose doesn’t have KEYS, he always has KEYS. Right up here. (Note: Jose is pointing at his head.) Jose had his KEYS, what he didn’t have was his keys. Those were dangling from the ignition of his still running car.

Realizing his mistake, Jose yanked at the door of his Carolina blue Corolla. No luck. The door was locked tighter than an Angels team down two games.

Desperate, Jose turned to the middle aged Latino fellow one spot over.

“Hi, sorry to bother you, but you don’t know how to pop a car door do you?”

The man flashed a sheepish, embarrassed grin. “ No, I don’t know how to. Sorry.”

What he meant, Jose is pretty sure, is “You think that because I’m Latino I know how to pop open a locked car door? That’s racist.”

This would be a reasonable assumption, but Jose isn’t racist, he just really needed to get into his car, and this guy was the closest possible person. Also, how could this guy have though Jose was racist against Latinos? He must somehow not have known that Jose pretends to be a Latino on the Internet.

As panic gave way to calm, Jose noticed that across the street there was a garage. He walked over and approached the two mechanics as they took a break from working on an elevated automobile.

They were two black guys. “Great,” thought Jose to himself. “They will think Jose is racist too. And maybe they will be right. It’s not like Jose pretends to be a black guy on the Internet.”

“Sorry to bother you guys,” Jose began. “But do either of you know how to pop a locked car door?”

“Sure,” chirped the taller one, his short dreadlocks framing a gleaming grin. “He used to steal cars!” He pointed at his colleague, a round-faced fellow with cherub cheeks.

“He’s joking,” the cherub cheeked mechanic added, after allowing enough to for it to be awkward.

These two fellows, Kenyans it turned out, were decidedly not car thieves. They spent ten minutes reading an instruction booklet on how to break into a car, and shoving wooden wedges into Jose’ door before finally managing to wriggle a tool in and depress the window switch. It was not quick work with a slim Jim, but it did the job.

Jose thanked them profusely, gave them $10, all the cash he had on him, and they returned to work, and Jose returned to…. Shit. Jose had given all of his cash to the friendly Kenyans who had earned it. This left him unable to purchase even a single taco.

This brings us to the point, which as you recall, is that this is a Red Sox blog. As Royce Clayton might put it, “Jose ain’t got his taco.” Therefore, the Red Sox absolutely must make the World Series. As Jose recalls, when you get to the World Series, if someone steal a base, you get a free taco, and Jose still really wants a taco.

2. St. Josh a Beckett will pitch tonight despite a strained oblique, which is pretty amazing given that we were all concerned that his season might be over a week ago. What Jose wonders is whether the Catholic Church has started the process of certifying that this is indeed a miracle. Obviously, St. Beckett doesn’t need it to be a miracle. He’s already got the two required for sainthood, the 2003 and 2007 postseasons, still, it seems important that these things be properly documented.

As Jose understands it, the first step of the process takes place within the diocese, so presumably Cardinal O’Malley has sent a team to Fenway tonight to interview the witnesses to this miracle.

Jose feels pretty good about the chances that this will be certified. It’s probably not a first-degree miracle such as resurrection from the dead, we haven’t seen that here since October 2004, but it seems like it could absolutely be a third degree miracle, recovery from an illness in a remarkably short period of time.

Either way, it puts Josh Beckett way above that other St. Beckett, who couldn’t even keep England Catholic four hundred years after his death.

3. In tonight’s do or die game, the Angels throw Joe Saunders against St. Josh a Beckett. Jose is not worried. He has seen the show French and Saunders a few times on Comedy Central, so he knows that Saunders is a slightly overweight British woman. Jose has seen weirder things in the playoffs (note: see Eric “I don’t need to touch home plate, home plate needs to touch me” Byrnes.) but he just doesn’t see the Red Sox being shut down by an aging comedienne.

I’m Jose Melendez, and those are my KEYS TO THE ALDS.

Here's to Josh Beckett giving up one less hit tonight than Jim Lonborg did in Game 2 of the 1967 WS, 41 years ago today!
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BO...196710050.shtml

Awesome KEYS today Jose!

Oh yeah - WIN!

Josh Beckett FTW

WIN!

Man, sports weekends like this come by very, very rarely. For me, it was drunken Sox friday (capped by helping the prettiest girl I know throw up outside a bar after the game), Mizzou blowout, Kimbo shocker, Pats, homemade chili, and Sox (then Entourage, which has nothing to do with sports at all). I'm looking at a potential 5-0 sweep of My Teams games. I would very, very much like this to happen. I am even willing to forgive Jose for obliquely insulting the best cheap eats place in the entire world in KEY #1.

Mr. Beckett...

Make it so!

Not to nitpick Jose, but have you been to Anna's Taqueria or Boca Grande? I don't see how you can say Boston is a Mexican food wasteland without going to these two establishments (I don't like Boca BTW, PSK loves it, I'm an Anna's man).

****

It may not seem like there's as much pressure on Beckett this year, but if the Sox win this game, it definitely sends a message to every other playoff team. A "Luca Brasi swims with the fishes" type message. A message that lets them know that we mean business. We're going to be a force to reckon with. Resistance is futile.

Break the

Out!

Win the game.

Hanta Yo.

Arsenal and Anna's? Is it too much to hope, perhaps, that you are about 5'5" with 32Cs and child-bearing hips?

Did I just make the thread uncomfortably awkward? Let's just move on.

WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got home in time to watch the last three innings of Game 2. In my chair, on the big screen. The Sox and Angels locked in for what looked like it could have been one of those epic 12 inning back and forth affairs. By the time I got home it was 5-3 and DiceK was out. I saw Masterson walk in a run then sack up and get out of the inning. When the Angels brought in K-Rod in the 8th, I had a brief glimmer of hope since he's been exclusively a 9th inning guy all year. My heart nearly stopped with Pedroia's steal then I jumped up and down with JD's homerun. I have the house to myself tonight and I'll be ready to go. The magic number is 9 now and we've got 7 1/2 hours to go time. The Red sox have won 11 straight post season games agains the Angles. Fuck the regular season, its October now and none of the last six months matter.

The Third Place Yankees don't matter
The Division vs the Wild Card debate doesn't matter
The MVP debate doesn't matter
The Batting title doesn't matter
The Saves record doesn't matter
The Rally Monkey doesn't matter
Manny doesn't matter
The predictions don't matter

Its October and the Red Sox beat the Angels in October.

Beckett vs Saunders Tonight

It
Is
On

I am taking one for the team tonight. I was offered 50 yard line tickets for tonight's Steelers/Jaguars game. "No, my team needs me present in spirit with my Ted Williams jersey, unwashed red baseball socks, and lucky right pocket nickel." I have done my part. Now it is time for this team to do theirs...

St. Josh will remind us all what postseason dominance looks like.
The offense will make LAAAAAA wish they had started Jon Garland.
Rally Monkey's across the vast expanse of Orange County will be euthanized.
The Boston Red Sox will do what they do best in October...
Win.

Anna's sucks. All bros and hipsters.

Go Boca. Go Sox. Go Pool. Victory.

Kill the Angels

PSK is 5'5" with 32Cs and child bearing hips. You guys can have angry sex.

I would like to see this image:

Get recreated.

Time to trot this out again...

This is the face of a man who is ready to do some serious damage....

The Angels are overrated. They played in a weak division.

You know who else was overrated?

Kimbo Slice



End it quick.

Win it.

From the expression, it looks like the monkey is being screwed in a very uncomfortable place.

Wipe them out, all of them.

I'll be bumping around SoCal in my Red Sox Nation West tee-shirtuntill gametime saying the same thing to Angels' fans: "Good luck with Beckett tonight."

Dbl post. Doh!

Hoolian Havier is a Herk

Git er done tonite Josh- heading over to a bud's house - and i promise to go into work tomorrow in a drunken stupor if we win!

ON. WIN.

End this tonight.

They're down and demoralized. Give them no hope. Show them no mercy.

I should know the answer to this but I suck at the internet. Tampa-Chicago is going to run late -- is Ted Turner going to let me see Beckett's first pitch on one of his other networks, or make me wait until the Rays game is ovah?

TIA, hanta yo, etc.

Last night the Cubs/Dodgers game started on TNT until the Phils/Brewers game was over. I would expect that to be the game plan.

VS.



?

Sweep.

Hanta yo, motherfuckers.

Win. Let's go Red Sox.

Let's win it boys!!!

(Career batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage against ________ in parentheses.)

RED SOX
1. Jacoby Ellsbury, RF (.143, .250, .143)
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B (.389, .389, .444)
3. David Ortiz, DH (.200, .250, .200)
4. Kevin Youkilis, 1B (.250, .368, .563)
5. Jason Bay, LF (.333, .333, 1.333)
6. Mike Lowell, 3B (.214, .267, .214)
7. Jed Lowrie, SS (.250, .250, .250)
8. Jason Varitek, C (.000, .333, .000)
9. Coco Crisp, CF (.294, .294, .706)
-- SP: Josh Beckett

1. Chone Figgins, 3B (.313, .389, .375)
2. Garret Anderson, LF (.471, .526, .765)
3. Mark Teixeira, 1B (.111, .111, .111)
4. Vladimir Guerrero, DH (.233, .361, .467)
5. Torii Hunter, CF (.455, .462, .545)
6. Juan Rivera, RF (.167, .286, .167)
7. Mike Napoli, C (.000, .000, .000)
8. Howie Kendrick, 2B (.308, .357, .308)
9. Erick Aybar, SS (Triple in only plate appearance)
--SP: Joe Saunders (17-7, 3.41)

so its 30 minutes before the game and the Rays are still on TBS and friggin Titanic is on TNT...does this mean no pregame show at all, or is there another channel I need to look at??



Edit: Win!!!

KICK ASS Josh - you know you want to. Back him up boys - you know you can. Bring it tonight and win.

GO SOX - WIN TODAY!

yeah, what's the scoop scheduling wise? The Rays game is only in the 7th...

so 7:27 on TNT. Found it.

As referenced earlier in this thread, the Sox game would be on TNT if the Rays game isn't over in time.

Yes, we won't have to suffer through an hour of the Titanic sinking, but instead hopefully the Halos' hopes and dreams of a World Series championship.

sorry, forgot about the actual start time, was just going by the guide time on my TV.