Red Sox win awesomely!

Holy shit, people.

Rosenthal to Papi: "Are you locked in?" No, he didn't even know there was a game going on, what the fuck do you think??

I was sitting there orchestrating this one. This is why I needed to be in my comfort zone the night before instead of listening on the radio and leering at a TV through the window of a Mexican restaurant! Jesus! (Tonight, still without cable, I came down to CT to watch with my mom and Charlie.) Anyway, I had this thing nailed: Right from the first inning, I was saying that Ross and Buchholz were painting a secret masterpiece using the Patented Pedro method, knowing you don't have a fastball to work with, so you use your other pitches, keep the ball down, hit the corners, and you're fine. The one fastball he threw early, even though it was still down, was launched for a double. From then on he continued to stay away, and gave up NO earned runs, the only one coming partly because that outfield is shit. You could see the squares of new sod from the blimp shot. Still, Jacoby's gotta look it in.

So by the time HH comes out, which was only because they needed to pinch hit for him with runners on, we're tied at 1. Clay gave us what we needed. I fuckin' love that little garden gnome. I even think he might be up for some late action in Game 7, if there is one.

The next thing I nailed and take full credit for, is after Papi doubled, which led to our first run, in the 5th, I said, "now he needs to go back to the dugout and tell everybody else how to hit this guy." And wouldn't ya know, they actually show a shot of him in the dugout, with the whole offense gathered 'round, firing them up. Granted, it's not like they started knocking the ball around, but they worked a two-out rally, and then Jonny Wadd Gomes comes up and, after they bring in Madness despite the first guy having had no trouble with him, BOOM MOTHER MOFO FUCKERS, a three-run magical mystery dong to left, and it's pande-mayhem throughout R-Sox Naysh. 4-1 lead.

Then Farrell got a little weird, and despite the Cards scoring in the 7th and having the tying run up in the 8th and 9th, our pitchers take us all the way home for a 4-2 win. Fine job by Lackey and Koji in those last two frames. As we began sweating out a Beltran at bat with two outs in the 9th, up 1 with a man on first, Fox started showing those dramatic fan shots. While we, the audience for the World Series hoping to see...the actual World Series sits helplessly staring at some blonde in the crowd with the prerequisite hands near face or in praying position, suddenly Joe Buck's voice goes up. What the hell is happening, we wonder, as they finally cut to a shot of Napoli just finishing a tag on the runner, and that's it. It's over. I'm way too happy to be pissed that they MISSED THE LAST PLAY OF A WORLD SERIES GAME, with the tying run up.

Fox also missed a chance to note that the man on deck at the time of the game-ending pickoff was Holliday, who himself got picked off by Papelbon in a key spot in the 2007 World Series.

Now we've got the Game 1 rematch in Game 5. Lester is chomping at the bit rate right now. We're already on pace for the "win one at home, one on the road, then take your chances with the last two at home" thing. But a repeat of Game 1 would be huge, as we'd come home UP 3-2. DO IT! What a team!