Game Seven was a perfect little microcosm for the 2007 Red Sox, wasn't it? It left you laughing, and crying, and reaching for the Mylanta, and reaching for the whiskey, and jubilant, and terrified, and when it was all over, you looked back and wondered how you could have possibly ever doubted the final results.

The story coming into this was whether Daisuke Matsuzaka would be able to reach deep inside himself and find whatever core the Red Sox saw when they wrote their $103 million in checks last winter. Daisuke started off brilliantly, faltered in the middle innings, then was yanked by Terry Francona, who turned the game over to a solid bullpen.

Meanwhile, frustration was mounting in the lineup as Jake Westbrook kept digging himself into giant holes, then somehow extricating himself to survive for another inning. Unable to land the knockout punch on Westbrook, the Sox did manage three early runs on a Manny single, a Lugo double play (one of several) and a Lowell sac fly. Daisuke surrendered two, on a Ryan Garko double and a Grady Sizemore sacrifice.

Cleveland blew a big opportunity in the seventh when Kenny Lofton failed to score from second on a Franklin Gutierrez single. The ball bounced far enough away from Manny that there would have been no chance to get Lofton had he kept going. At least that play gave Buck and McCarver something to harp upon for the rest of the night.

Okajima survived the seventh; turnabout proved fair play as the Red Sox grounded Casey Blake into a double play (feel our pain, Indians!), but the 3-2 lead felt very precarious. Enter Dustin Pedroia, and exit baseball, as the Rookie of the Year crushed a Rafael Betancourt pitch way over the Wall for a 5-2 lead.

We still weren't convinced. When Okajima gave up singles to Sizemore and Cabrera to start the eighth, Francona summoned Papelbon, who hadn't gotten a two-inning save all year. Papelbon incinerated Travis Hafner, and got Martinez and Garko out to end the threat. No way will Papelbon give up three in the ninth, we thought.

But the Red Sox didn't think that was enough. They slapped Betancourt around in the eighth; Pedroia delivered the big blow with a three-run double past the lunging and unfulfilled Kenny Lofton. Exit Rafael Betancourt, who drove Sox fans crazy with his deliberate pace, but who now at least has five months to think about what his next pitch will be. Just for good measure, Kevin Youkilis greeted Jensen Lewis with an icing-on-the-cake 2-run homer to make the final score 11-2.

No way would Papelbon give up nine in the ninth. Even Eric Gagne perked up after the eighth-inning onslaught. But Papelbon came back out, getting a 1-2-3 inning backed by some fleet defensive plays from Jacoby Ellsbury and especially Coco Crisp, who slammed into the bullpen wall while hauling in the last out and instantly booking the Colorado Rockies' tickets to Fenway for Game One.

We'd be remiss if we didn't point out that the Patriots torched Miami. It kind of looked like one of those early-season college games when Nebraska plays Kansas Mining and Mechanical Teacher's Academy, wins 81-3, and gets to the sixth-string freshmen before the game looks slightly competitive. But this is a baseball town. Especially right now. Since the Red Sox are going to the World Series. And we will NEVER get tired of writing that.

Jason Varitek, Jonathan Papelbon, and Manny Ramirez feel the joy. AP Photo/Bill Sikes.