Sports Redux: Bobblehead Varitek Believes...Do You?

You want to look on the bright side? OK, we'll play along. The Red Sox have a seven game ALCS winning streak when faced with elimination. There, we said it. Now all they have to do is get a sterling effort from Dice-K tonight, credible efforts from their other shellshocked pitchers, and some semblance of a competent offense, and the Sox can maybe run that streak up to ten.

Games Five have been particularly good for the Sox when they're in this boat. You may remember 2004, when the Sox and Yankees went 153 innings until David Ortiz singled in the winning run at about five in the morning. Or last year, when Josh Beckett took all the Indians and his ex-girlfriend could throw at him and pitched one of the games of his life. For what it's worth, the Sox remember all the right cliches.

Congratulations are due to the Phillies, who finished off LA and ensured that the World Series will have an East Coast bias. The Phils haven't been to the World Series since 1993, when their loveable collection of motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids and dweebies (a trial run for the '04 Sox, in a way) were crushed by that Joe Carter home run. The man of the hour in Philly is Matt Stairs, whose Game Four-winning homer led to a quote for the ages: "Not that I don't feel like I'm part of the team, by no means, but when you get that nice celebration coming into the dugout and you're getting your ass hammered by guys, it's no better feeling than to have that done." If nothing else, Stairs has guaranteed he'll get to shower alone for the rest of his career.

The Bruins and Canadiens picked up right where they left off last season. The Habs busted out to a quick 3-0 lead (see: last year's regular season), the Bruins clawed and scraped their way back (see: Games 1-6), but Montreal won in a shootout (see: Game 7). David Krejci and Marc Savard accounted for the three Bruin goals (Savard had two and is tied for most in the league), but Alex Tanguay beat Tim Thomas for the shootout winner. The B's have one more road game, in Ottawa on Saturday, before they finally come home.

Flickr photo (almost) tagged "bostonist" by volcanojw.