Nothing makes the Cliche-O-Matic sputter and squeak like a Game Seven in the playoffs. Back to the wall. No tomorrow. Do or die. Now or never. All true, of course. So tonight, the Indians and the Red Sox will live the cliches.

The Red Sox, of course, lived to fight another day on a supremely gutsy performance by Curt Schilling. Seven innings pitched, six hits, two runs, a thunderous ovation as he left the field after the seventh. Say what you will about him, the man is money.

Of course, he had plenty of wiggle room, thanks to the awakening of some unlikely bats. Like J.D. Drew, who forced thousands of fans and wiseass Internet columnists to eat their discouraging words by crushing a Fausto Carmona pitch into the camera well in center field for a first-inning grand slam. Bostonist had to call for confirmation (we were in Connecticut; more on that in a moment) because we couldn't believe the update on our phone.

Fausto, one of the league's best pitchers in the regular season, proved to be not ready for prime time, as the Sox pounded him and sent him to the showers after two-plus innings. The third inning was blow-it-open time, as the Sox clobbered out six more runs on a parade of hits and Kevin Youkilis' hard head, as a relay throw bounced off Youk's coconut and allowed a run to score.

So tonight's Game Seven is a battle of bruised psyches. The Indians, though manager Eric Wedge says Game Seven is right where they want to be, have to feel like they picked the $500 suitcase instead of the million-dollar one. Meanwhile, Daiuske...Daisuke. No pressure or anything, Dice, but the Red Sox spent an AWFUL lot of money to bring you here, and it sure would be nice for you to shut Cleveland down tonight. Just sayin'.

Patriots-Dolphins today. We know about "trap games" and the "on any given Sunday" theory, but in the real world, the only way this game isn't a win is a Brady inju(we can't type it, sorry) or if the defense wears blindfolds and conducts trust exercises for sixty minutes.

Bostonist trekked down to Mohegan Sun last night to get our first glimpse of the 07-08 Celtics in person. To find Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in street clothes. Phooey. The game was partly a party for Ray Allen (a star at UConn), partly a chance to see how the lesser-known Celtics play (Two words: Leon Powe. Learn them, love them), and partly a chance to see how feeble the offense is when so much of it runs through Brian Scalabrine. The tough loss to the 76ers doesn't count, though, and is not indicative of future success.

The Bruins are rolling! Manny Fernandez shut down the 1999 All-Star team (currently known as the New York Rangers), and Phil Kessel was the only successful man in the shootout. That's a 1-0 victory for the Bruins. That's 5-2. That's astounding.