The pressure's off. We thought Manny Ramirez was the one guy on the planet who pressure couldn't get to, but he obviously had the Quest for 500 on his mind the last few weeks, in between radio signals from Neptune. Now that that's done, Manny can just do his thing, which he did yesterday, homering again and going 3-5 with 3 RBI in the Sox' 9-4 win at Baltimore.

Manny broke a 1-1 tie with an RBI double in the third. Manny provided the first of back-to-back homers in the fourth (Lowell hit the second) to make it 7-1. Manny did everything but steal a base (though Ellsbury did, again, and if you ever thought you'd live to see the day when a Red Sox led the league in SB, you probably thought they'd win the World Series twice in four years). Bartolo Colon pitched well enough to make it three wins in three starts, and the Sox have a chance to sweep the Birds tonight (Wakefield/Guthrie) and finish .500 on this trip that looked so awful a few days ago.

The first shot in the NBA Finals has been fired. CelticsBlog has renounced Bill Simmons for his waving the white flag and conceding the trophy to L.A. before the Detroit series was even over. The fact that Simmons' column says "the fans didn't even fill the arena until midway through the second quarter" and "The Lakers have surprisingly good fans, better than I ever expected" within six lines of each other, negates anything else he said.

By the way, and we can't stress this enough: if you're lucky enough to be at the Garden Thursday or Sunday, there are going to be stars there. They're going to be shown on the Jumbotron. As we've been following this team through the dark years, we can confidently state that the following people are legitimate Celtics supporters, and should be cheered when they're on the Jumbotron: any Patriots players/coaches/owner. Any Red Sox player/coach/owner. Any celebrity with the last name Wahlberg. These guys have been there all along. Anyone else famous they show on the big screen has not been coming to the Garden in recent years, and is either a pernicious front-runner or a Laker fan. Do NOT cheer Jack Nicholson. Do NOT cheer Flea, or Beyonce, or Dyan Cannon, if they show up. If Ben Affleck shows up, you have our blessing to chuck your beer at him (we'll reimburse you, even, if it hits). Thank you for your attention.

In other pre-Finals news, Steve Buckley talks about Red's disdain for Phil Jackson. And be ready to work "You got Rondo'd" into the catch-phrase rotation. Three more days. And we're already breathing into paper bags.

Photo by Gail Burton/Associated Press.