Sports Redux: No More Angels Anymore

Well...that was a little scarier than it had to be, wasn't it? While Curt Schilling was completely dominating and mastering the Angels lineup, the Red Sox lineup took their sweet time getting around to dominating the game. So for a game that ended 9-1, there was an awful lot of fingernail chewing and knuckle whitening.

The Sox did take the lead, insurmountable as it turned out, in the fourth, when Papi and Manny went deep back-to-back for the first time all season. 2-0. But there were so many other opportunities in the early innings; if you missed the game, we'll just say "J.D. Drew" and let your imagination run wild.

But Curt Schilling. Oh, man. He was awesome. We know he's had to shelve the overpowering stuff and work with location and variety, and that's exactly what he did. He was constantly in the strike zone, constantly getting Angels to swing and miss or hit them weakly, and just looked exactly like a veteran workhorse is supposed to look. (The Schillingest moment of the game came in the 7th, with a man on third and one out, when Curt induced a popup from Juan Rivera and a K from deer-in-the-headlights Mike Napoli on his final pitch).

But with a 2-0 lead, there's no margin for error. So the Red Sox finally woke up in the eighth inning, pounding a bunch of Angel relievers for seven runs (rally started by Pedroia, thank you) and starting the Eric Gagne watch. By this time, the Angel fans had folded up their Rally Rattlers (come on, really, guys?) and left, so Fenway West was in full cheering mode. Ballgame.

The Indians spoiled the perfect day of baseball by blowing a lead and letting the Yankee series continue to Game Four. Roger Clemens was his typical clutch self, begging out early after giving up the lead, but the veteran Yankee bats rallied to take back the lead. Thus saving Joe Torre's job for another day, and giving Fox Sports assassins time to take out some Cleveland stars and set up the Boston/NY ALCS.

A very disappointing game by the Patriots, who let the entire third quarter go by without scoring. OK, it was 34-17, and it was pretty clear that the Pats never turned the intensity up to 11, or even needed to. Three more TD passes for Brady; none to Moss, as Cleveland wisely double-teamed him most of the game. So Brady found Benjamin Watson twice and Donte Stallworth instead. The Browns' Derek Anderson looked pretty good, actually marching up the field a couple of times. But then he looked pretty bad, throwing a couple of dumb interceptions that killed whatever momentum Cleveland might have gotten out of it.

Picture from RedSox.com. Two drunken debaucheries down, two to go.