The Cardinals were in the same situation as we are now: Going home up 3-2 facing their league's Cy Young winner. They won 9-0 to advance to the World Series.

So much to talk about from Game 5 that I never got to, and which is now erased from the memory of the American living in the 24-hour news cycle. But whatever, here we go:

Was good to get a hit in the first off Sanchez, since he no-hit us the previous time.

Nice job by Cabrera running through a stop sign! I heard the first two innings in the car and Dave O'Brien never even told me he didn't slide. There was also a recent play, I think in Game 4, where a Tiger hit was Dave O'Brien called a deep drive to left. He said the fielder was going back, back, and...foul ball, not home run distance. That's Sterling shit right there. Also, on his ridiculous call of the Ortiz grand slam, how is it that he said "over his head" before knowing it was a home run? It wasn't over Hunter's head until it was landing on the other side of the fence. Moving on...

The Napoli dong was fun stuff. All those homers to center we've watched him hit against us, and here we are with him hitting one for us, as the game-winning dong in a crucial ALCS game. But we didn't know it was game-winning yet....

Tough seeing Xander not score from second on a double. And though McCarver explained it to the casuals a hundred times, all their replays didn't show what he was talking about. They all started too late in the play to see what Xander was doing when the ball was hit.

We got two LARGE double plays to end innings.

Farrell's been nailing it. I wouldn't have taken out LEster, or Lackey in the previous game. But our 'pen continues to do its job.

Bottom 7, they're down 2, and they've got 1st and 3rd, one out. It's total nervous time. But to think, we'd retire every Tiger batter to step to the plate from that point on. Of course, the first one was a run-scoring double play, meaning we were only up one that whole time.

I think Koji could get a 27-out save if he had to.

And about the Iglesias play: He had it all the way. You know I think the world of that guy's defense. But you can tell the moment a guy has a bead/beat on a ball. He's obviously pissed about being traded and wants to show off. He knows how good he is. He made a nifty catch complete with Rickey Henderson-style snatch which he didn't have to. And people act like it was some kind of great play. I will say this, though: I could be wrong. But if I am, it's only because the one thing that guy does wrong on defense is that he often puts his glove up VERY late on pop-ups. (Believe me, my dad taught me you run to the spot and THEN put your glove up, I know all about it, but I mean on pop-ups, it's almost like he thinks the ball is still higher than it is, and he almost doesn't get the glove up in time.) So this play he made could've been just another instance where he starts to raise the glove a little late, and actually caught it on the upswing of the arm, lucking in to a seemingly amazing play. That ball almost went flying out of his glove as he swung it. Kim always gets mad when I do this. She's all, "if it was our guy you'd being saying what an incredible play it was!" And I always tell her, some of these diving catches and stuff, they LOOK amazing but it's only because the fielder, knowing he had it all the way, MAKES it look amazing. I'll admit it when our guys do it too. Like Gomes in this same game. (I think his dive was to keep his body low to avoid losing the ball in the lights. And Ellsbury in the game before--it was more of a "safety dive.")

Okay, so we move on to a potential clinching game. Our 'pen is so much better than theirs, and I think that's the key. Whatever we can get against Scherzer, fine, just get us to that 'pen of theirs. Crowd will be crazy. Clay just needs to keep us in it. And hopefully we're talking World Series tomorrow at this time. But if there's a Game 7, I'll be there. (AND YES I'M HOPING I WON'T BE AT FENWAY PARK ON SUNDAY.)