Dice Rolls The Rays--Peter

Well, here the Sox were--again opening a playoff series on enemy turf; enemy turf probably more literal than in most cases, given the stormy history these two teams have had over recent years. The Sox were at the Trop to play the Rays, who have shown that their early season success was no fluke. These guys apparently are the real thing. They had just finished shutting down the Chisox to get the right to host the Bosox, and everyone was predicting a solid battle.

Enter the Diceman. While the Rays pitching, led by Shields, did a very creditable job, it was no match for the many varied offerings of Dice-K. More than get the 'W', Dice pitched in the truest sense of the word when it really counted.

All season long, he has shown an almost uncanny ability to get out of jams, somehow avoiding surrendering the necessary hit that his opponents required when everything seemed on the verge of exploding in his face. Tonight was no different. Suddenly facing a bases loaded situation in the first inning, he bore down and denied the Rays the hit that they needed to possibly crack the game open early. Just as suddenly as the threat materialized, the inning was over and the score was still all zeroes.

The Diceman continued his brilliant performance through six, still in possession of a no-no entering the 7th. That finally ended when he surrendered a leadoff single in the 7th, but he still kept the shutout going to finish that inning.

Meanwhile, he had been given the lead in the 5th when Bay led off with a walk, moved to third on a ringing double by Kotsay, and scored on a sacfly by Lowrie. As it turned out, that would be enough for the victory, but the Sox tacked on an insurance run in the 8th when Pedroia got a single. Dusty then wasted no time, stealing second. After a walk to Big Papi, Yooouk brought him home with a solid double that the Rays outfielder made a great try for, but couldn't quite bring in.

When Dice-K gave up a pair of hits sandwiched around a wild pitch to open the Rays half of the 8th, Francona yanked him, replacing him with Okjima. Oki was OK! He quickly got the Rays' best slugger, former Sox player and the pride of Haverhill, Pena, to fly our to Drew. Job done; new pitcher. Masterson replaced Oki and took care of the rest of the 8th, getting Rays rookie star Longoria to ground into an inning-ending twin killing.

Sox 9th--and that can only mean one thing--Laserman! Papelbon came on and wasted precious little time slamming the door in the Rays' faces. Three up--three down, two of them K's. His fast ball was just exponential Papelbon, just exploding past the helpless Rays batsmen with predictable results.

Four down, seven to go.