Jake's Night--Peter

Well, tonight the Sox came into Anaheim to start the post-season against the heavily favored Angels, the team with the best regular season record, 100 wins, and an 8-1 record against the Hose. Ellsbury immediately took charge of the game and showed what the Sox would do. Leading off, he drove a ball high off the fence and ended up with a double, the first of three hits and five times on base for the rookie outfielder tonight. Although the Sox failed to score, it set a tone.

Lester rolled along for the evening, setting down batter after batter, and getting stronger as the innings rolled by. He gave up a single unearned in the third, when Lowrie briefly came up with a case of dead hands on a routine grounder, the resulting baserunner later scoring on a Torii Hunter single that never would have happened without the error as Hunter never would have reached the plate to bat without the error. For Lowrie, it was a very rare miscue. This year, he set a record for rookie shortstops--155 chances without an error. From that point on, Lester stayed locked in a pitcher's duel, trailing one zip until the 6th.

At that point Yoouk reached base and a couple of batters later, Jason Bay, already having struck out twice on pitches out off the strike zone, showed why the Sox felt comfortable sending Manny to LA. A Lackey heater stayed out over the plate, and Bay turned on it. The instant it left the bat, it was a no-doubter. You knew immediately it wasn't coming down anywhere close to the field of play. No--it was cheap seats for this one--and a 2-1 Sox lead.

The pitching duel resumed after that, Lackey and his successor, Oliver, frustrating the Sox every time they appeared to be about to get something going. They got the Halos into the 8th, to be relieved by Shields, who closed out that inning. But that was all he closed out.

Up came the Sox in the 9th. Ellsbury gets his third hit of the evening and promptly steals second, his second swipe of the night. The Halos catcher had no answer for Jake. Twice, Napoli made creditable throws to second. Twice, Jake made it look like the throw was suspended in a vacuum. Neither was even close.

That opened it up for the Sox to start unlimbering the lumber. Ortiz finally got a hit, extending his post-season hitting streak to a dozen games, and driving in an insurance run. A few other Sox hitters extended the rally, and then Tito handed the ball to: LASERMAN. Although he did give up a one out single to an Angels pinch hitter, more of a contact and hope liner to right, the Angels were no match for Papelbon--not even close. Outside of that prayer by the Angels, it was a trey-trey for Laser. Three batters--three K's. Everey time the camera zoomed in on his face, it was the classic Papelbon Death Stare--no Bull, no Hope, no Chance, NO WAY!

One down and ten to go!

Coming back to Jake for a moment, in addition to reaching base five times and having three hits and the pair of thefts, he also made an unbelievable catch in the later innings to rob the Angels of a sure hit, that, had it fallen in, would have led to an Angels score that would have put the Halos in the lead at the time. A short fly to second, just beyond the reach of the Sox infielders, Jake came on at full throttle, swerved slightly to his right, extended his glove and dove, snaring it just before he hit the ground and rolled over. Could he be the second consecutive rookie of the year for the Fenmen? I ask the question because although he played late last season and in the run to the World Championship, he has little enough total time from last season that he is still officially a rookie.

The pitching was fabulous. Lester,after a little rough patch in the 1st, went seven, allowing just the unearned runs and just six hits and a single free pass, while accruing seven K's, including one inning where he struck out the side. Masterson came on for an inning and, although giving up a pair of hits, held the Halos scoreless. As for Papelbon, well, we've already discussed his coffin nailing routine.