One Down, Two to go

One series, that is. Now we have to get through the Indians or Yankees…it was looking like the former until the Yankees pulled ahead 8-3 in tonight’s game.  I’m torn about how I want this to end.  While part of me really wants the Yankees to get swept, another part of me wants this to go to five before the Yankees go down, so Cleveland is worn out and we don’t have to see Sabathia on Friday night.

In any case, things couldn’t have gone much better for the Sox.  After watching Manny hit the ball halfway to the moon on Friday night (actually Saturday morning), we got to see Schilling be his usual postseason self, pitching seven shutout innings.  It looked like the Angels would go the entire series having scored in only one inning, but then Francona decided to bring in Gagne for the ninth.  “Nine runs” appears to be the answer to the question, “How big a lead do you need before you feel safe bringing in Eric Gagne?” Even two grand slams would still leave some wiggle room. And of course, after a quick double, wild pitch, and sacrifice fly, the shutout was gone and the score was 9-1.  Happily, Gagne was able to end it soon after that, meaning that the most unreliable setup man on the team got to be on the mound when the Sox completed the sweep.  There’s definitely something wrong with that picture, but I’m not going to complain too much.

The magic number is now eight, and I can’t wait until Friday night.