Alright.

Moving on.

8:35 start, so we'll be playing until 2am. Yay.

Do the opposite of game three.

Lester for more than five innings, actually play offense, zero Javy.

Win.

Kerwin Danley will not be behind the plate.

Jon Lester will not walk in a run.

The last motherfucking batter will not be Alex Cora. The last motherfucking batter will be Meatball Napoli flailing at a Paps fastball.

The end.

Tubby has been officially dethroned. Our real ace is pitching tonight.

Be nice if Pedroia could get a hit or two today.

I for one would like to see Sean Casey play first and Youks at third.

Not Cora at shorstop. Or Lowrie at third.

Seriously, did Sean Casey bang Tito's daughter?

How about we blow these guys out? 12-1 sounds nice. Then we don't have to worry about putting the game in the hands of Alex Fucking Cora.

Game 3 sucked. Game 4 will be easy on the nerves.

I'm not Ben Cohen, yet I approve this gamethread.

Papelbon's gone 4 innings in the last two games. Blew the Halo's out so he doesn't need to go three games in a row.

Great, I'm going to miss Prison Break.

Pedroia will go 3 for 4 tomorrow with a Homer and a double. You can put it on the board!

Normally it's a good thing when you're sleeping with the boss's daughter. Casey also seems like the kind of guy who you wouldn't mind banging your daughter. He's widely acknowledged to be the among the nicest guys in the game. Maybe Casey banged Mrs. Francona.

At the gym tonight after the game I was thinking that last year we were down 3-1 against a powerhouse Cleveland team and had to face Carmona and Sabathia again to get into the WS, while throwing an old Schilling and tired Daisuke. This team buckled down and did it. Yeah there were chances to win the game tonight and the team blew it, but fuck thats baseball. Tonight we have our best pitcher on the mound and he is going to kick ass. If one game derails this team then they never had enough to make it all the way anyways.

Tonight Pedroia goes off. 4-4 with 2 doubles and Lester goes 7 strong.

Fucking Win.

Lester is the fucking man. Their bullpen is shot to pieces. Oki and Masterson could each go one. Time to rack up an early pitch count on Lackey and make him our bitch. Put this game away early. Goddamnit.

Win today.

I'm breaking out the welders goggles, 'cause we are so getting a laser show tonight.......

So I just got back from Boston after about an hour and a half of sleep. Tonight's game better be a quick one.

Win.

That is all.

I'm tired.

tomorrow?

Yea there's really no doubt in my mind that Pedroia will go 3/5 or better tonight.

Haven't been around for a bit. Work kept me from knowing us and them for Game 1 and after the Sox won, I didn't want to change the momentum. I would have been perfectly happy to stay on the sidelines until next April. But Mike Napoli had other plans, so here we are.

I'm tired this morning SOSH, as I imagine are many of you. I'm pouring coffee down my throat, faking my way through work, and dreading another night of too little sleep tonight (hard to get to sleep quickly after you've poured champagne down your own pants). It's at times like these that I look to a higher power for inspiration. I remember the story of a young Jesse Spano. Jesse had a dream of someday appearing in my DVD player in the slow-forward mode. But first, for some inexplicable reason she had to get her message out to the world:

(real lyrics)
Get down to it
Go for it
Come on and break a sweat
Rock and Roll
You ain't seen nothing yet.

The challenge of getting down to it while simultaneously going for it and pursuing her ultimate goal of being Bayview High's valedictorian, forced Jesse to the most dangerous and scary thing any high schooler has ever done, she took caffeine pills. Of course we all remember her breakdown, "I'm so excited! I'm so excited! I'm so...scared!" Well I imagine that's a lot of us right now. Lack of sleep just frays the nerves. You lose sight of what matters.

But I ask us all to remember the triumphant success of Ms. Spano when she ultimately appeared as a hooker in Any Given Sunday and, when she is not portraying a prostitute or a stripper, running a self-esteem workshop for young girls (honest to God).

But today is not all about early nineties videos featuring teen-age girls in spandex on trampolines. It's not all about spending the day fantasizing about a spring training day spent with Tito and Mills making Beckett do sit-ups every time he fails to cover first base. Today is about putting right what early this morning went wrong. Tonight my guy is on the mound. I've always been a big Lester fan. I like a player who keeps his mouth shut, doesn't worry about showing a bunch of emotion and just gets the job done for me (much like Ms. Spano in Showgirls after I have hit the mute button and the aforementioned slow-forward button). Just win the damn game. If you could do it before 1 am so that I could get some damn sleep that would be great too. I don't want to wind up exhausted and crying on Mario Lopez's muscled chest yet again.

But I'm looking through the tired, and looking through the scared. I'm excited in every possible way SOSHers. And I am truly grateful that the Sox are in the situation they are in. Because, lest we forget, these are better days. I remember being 3-1 down to these Angels (back when they represented the whole state and not just two cities) in 86. I remember being down 2-0 to the Tribe in 1999. I remember just last year being down 3-1 to the Tribe. And I remember being told by Kevin Millar not to let the Sox win one particular game. This situation is much better. So we got punched in the face last night. So what? We've been punched in the face a lot. But lately -- the reason I'm going to have my best Showgirls smile on tonight- lately the Sox have had a tendency to get punched in the mouth, lick the blood off, smile a little bit, and then beat the ever-loving crap out of those douchebags in the other dug-out. So I'm tired, but no longer scared. Just excited.

It's time to get down to it. It's time to go for it. Let's break a sweat.

Rock and Roll mfers You ain't seen nothing yet.


I'm ERR and now you know

Violets are blue
Angels wear red
Red Sox also wear red
Lester please don't shit the bed.

Then again, there was no doubt in my mind that Pedroia was going to end the game last night by singling Ellsbury in.

Yech, being this tired on a Monday morning makes me much more negative than usual.

On a more constructive note, here are my line-up/managerial requests for tonight:

- Drew in RF

- Kotsay or Casey at 1B (I'd prefer Casey, but Tito doesn't seem to like him)

- Lowrie at SS

- Youks at 3B

- Everyone else in their usual position

- If Lester needs to be relieved, one of Byrd and Wake see action, while the other is held back as Dice insurance

One advantage to living on the West Coast is I was still happily drinking beer well into the 11th inning and got my normal 6 hours of sleep. Point me.

The Red Sox didn't play well yesterday. The fact that it took extra innings for Los Halos to win such an abortion-like ballgame speaks volumes about their level of suck.

The Red Sox didn't deserve to win that game last night... but that does not absolve the home plate umpire of his crimes against humanity. Every member of Red Sox nation all over the world need to remember that guy and take every opportunity to ruin his life.
Baggage handlers need to lose his luggage, cab drivers need to take him on the scenic route, food servers need to piss in his Wheaties, and anyone that ever sees him as long as he walks upon the earth needs to tell him to fuck off and die. This hatred should also be projected on all of his descendants for all of eternity.

Thanks in advance.

I have 7 Fat Tires left in my fridge out of the 12 I started with in the 8th inning. I should be able to get home in time for first pitch tonight. I plan to run out of beer tonight celebrating the win.

10/6/08 ALDS Game 4--Must Win Game.

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

1. The Sox may be up 2 games to 1, but let’s not kid ourselves, tonight is a must win game.

There are plenty of reasons it’s a must win. Jose doesn’t want to go back to Anaheim, and he sure as hell doesn’t want to see Dice pitch another winner take all game. Dice in a decisive game is like having ulcer surgery. It will probably work out but there will be a lot of nausea and discomfort. But that’s not the real problem. The real problem is that if there is a game on Wednesday night, Jose is almost definitely going to fail his microeconomics exam at 8:30 Thursday morning.

Think of Jose as the Mark Kotsay of microeconomics. You look at Jose’s resume, his background and his skills and you think, “Hey, Jose should be a pretty nice fit here. He’s the sort of guy I might like to have doing microeconomics for me. I wouldn’t want him to be the first guy I go to when I need to do a utility maximization problem, but having him as a second or third option might be pretty good.”

So you trade some junk to another team to acquire Jose as a backup economics student, and you have him do a problem when one of your economists goes down with, social anxiety disorder probably. So far so good. But then you see him work. Awful. Abysmal. Just flailing at the problems really.

Jose’s approach to economics is a lot like Kotsay’s approach to a critical at bat. He gets in there, guesses a few times and then ends up looking foolish.

On the other hand, no one has ever asked why Sean Casey isn’t doing Jose’s microeconomics problem sets.
2. One of the headlines in an Orange County Register blog this morning was “Hunter Escapes Ridicule.” The entry points out how unspeakably awful the Angles centerfielder was last night; he allowed a ball to drop for a three run single and was thrown out trying to stretch a single by what the Register calls the “length of a bowling ally” and Jose calls the length of a candlepin bowling alley. They are right, he was awful, but they go on to suggest that because the Angles won he will escape ridicule.

Wrong. Maybe he’s escaped ridicule so far but that ends now.

Torii, sure Jose could pick on you for the things that happened last night, or for hurting your knee jumping up and down in protest of a call. Jose could do that… and he will. You suck. Your judgment is poor at best! Snap.

But that’s not really what Jose wants to talk about. What he wants to talk about is your parentage. Torii Hunter? That’s really your name? You sound like singer/songwriter Torii Amos and Spider Man villain Kraven the Hunter had a baby.

Wait... did Jose hurt your feelings? Does the ridicule sting?

Jose is just saying he could see you sitting there at the piano singing weepy songs and breathing audibly, all while wearing a vest made from the head of a lion. And you know what? That would still be less humiliating than your performance in last night’s game.


These are your parents Torii Hunter. Feel the shame.

3. As Jose did his research for tonight’s game, he discovered that there was once a dot com called mylackey.com, which Jose can only assume, is affiliated with tonight’s Angels starter John Lackey. The idea behind mylackey was that busy professionals could use it to schedule services like dry cleaning and dog grooming. True to its namesake, mylackey guaranteed excellent service in non-essential situations. If you needed your dry cleaning done in two days but four days would be fine, no problem. However, in a really important situation, say if you needed a suit cleaned for a big meeting, mylackey would almost definitely come up short. Not only would it not get you your suit on time, it might set it on fire.

For example, let’s say you needed some flowers for your girlfriend’s birthday. With mylackey you could order them sent to her no problem, but there was a good chance that she would end up getting a bouquet of poison ivy with a wasps nest in it.

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

I am getting a my computer fixed so I can be extra reactionary during the gamethread. In case I don't here are some avanced comments.

How was that a stirke/ball?!!!!

I am glad we didn't trade Lester!!!!

I miss you Papi!

Samll man better come through at some point!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Tito wtf?!

Do what must be done. Do not hesitate. Show no mercy.

Please, please, please have Drew in RF tonight. Need his bat.

Tito - "Well gee we sure appreciate what Kottie has done for us this season and playing him tonight just seemed like the right thing to do"

Total hits, runs, and rbi's down to 2.5 for tonights game.

Bet the house on the over.

Fear does not exist in this dojo, does it?

NO, SENSEI!

Pain does not exist in this dojo, does it?

NO, SENSEI!

Defeat does not exist in this dojo, does it?

NO, SENSEI!

Mercy is for the weak.
_____________________________

What do we study here?

THE WAY OF THE FIST SIR.

And what is that way?

STRIKE FIRST. STRIKE HARD. NO MERCY SIR.

I can't hear you.

STRIKE FIRST. STRIKE HARD. NO MERCY SIR.

___________________________________

Sweep the leg.

Do you have a problem with that?

NO, SENSEI.

No mercy.

Not to put too much pressure on my boy, but something along the line of this:

Would be very nice.

Well, considering that it may be tomorrow by the 4th inning, it's possible.

Papi has to hit a HR at some point. It would be nice to see that happen in the first.

FINISH THEM

Anybody get the lineup yet?

Lester leads them on .... lets win it boys!!!!

We won't see it until 4-5pm or so.

Lackey in Fenway Park?

Win it.

Fear not, people.

That is an awesome picture in your av.

Definitely. We need him tonight.

We will win. That is all.

This guy will be throwing out the first pitch tonight:



WAY BACK!!!!!!!!!!

I think his last start at Fenway was that near perfect game which the little one destroyed and the Big Sweaty Jew spat on. Let's destroy Lackey's outing a little sooner this time, but hopefully with those two doing the brunt of the damage.

Up until this game, however, Lackey had given up 29 ER in 35 innings (in Fenway), to the tune of a 7+ ERA. Let's get this done TONIGHT.

Edit: (in Fenway)