the gooch

7 things about the first two games:

1. 1. Jenks is a man-mountain. Give the big kid a cookie and roll him out. He became more effective in his two innings in Game 2 once he decided to go with the 98 MPH heat, crucial when Graffanino reached scoring position down one in the 9th. Cotts and Hermanson were loose in case of any problems. Ozzie does not use Jenks as a platoon specialist, AKA a righty to face righties only. I was just hoping, please, please let's finish this thing before Ortiz comes up.
2. I mean, I couldn't have been the only person thinking about Bill Buckner right when the ball slipped past Tony Graffanino, right? And then A-Rod makes a costly error in the NYY/LAA nightcap, leading to the Angels' big inning. Lucky is always better than good. Thank goodness, too, because I think the Red Sox fans were really getting worried because they had so little to complain about.
3. Playoff baseball means all of your baseball friends texting you every other inning asking for the score. It also means that as you leave after a win, everyone spontaneously cheers, and everyone understands, and perfect strangers high-five, and it feels like 40,000 people just had a birthday.
4. On the pitch before the go-ahead 3-day parkhopper, Iguchi took a questionable breaking ball that looked low and inside. Wells tried to double him up with another curve, except this one hung over the zone, and the Gooch golfed it into left, with the most intense look I've seen on him all year. He was pissed about that strike call.
5. Game 1: homer hanky type towels (a la the '91 Twins). Game 2: Thunder stix (via the '02 Angels). Can we not come up with our own thing? We've only had 6 years since our last playoff appearance to think about this. I thought it'd be cool if they actually gave one knee length sock instead of a towel. Some sort of plastic noisemaking toy (kinda like a whistle, but not as high pitched) would be great.
6. Buehrle pitched like the .500 guy he's been since the All-Star break in the first couple of innings, but bore down after the 3rd, giving up only 2 baserunners from innings 4-7. He had early command problems; his strikes were getting too much of the plate and Boston hitters were smoking line drives everywhere. He seemed to focus as the game wore on and got them to roll over changeups for easy groundballs. Speaking of which, the Sox defense has been airtight. Good defense is not making highlight reel plays but making all the ones you're supposed to, not giving away outs, and killing the momentum. Jose Valentin, we never knew ya.
7. Game 3: Freddy vs. Wakefield in a day game at Fenway. Garcia's pattern has been to pitch better on the road and in day games, and both of those things are in place. He did not pitch against Boston this year. I'm hearing nonsense about Boston fans wanting the Bloody Sock of Turin to pitch Game 3 instead of Wakefield. That's idiocy; Wakefield's been Boston's best pitcher. I think Podsednik has a great chance to let slip the dogs of war on Wakefield's 62 MPH knuckler.

ALCS tickets go on sale tomorrow at noon! I'm gonna try and get two for at least game 1 and game 6/7.